Ravi made an excellent suggestion -- getting our own stories out.
I more and more think of economics as story telling rather than
analysis.
Here's a story I like. Arlie Hochschild told it almost two years
ago. If the URL given no longer works I can later paste the whole
thing.
Gene Coyle
Published on Friday, June 24, 2005 by TomDispatch.com
The Chauffeur's Dilemma
by Arlie Hochschild
Let's consider our political moment through a story. Suppose a
chauffeur drives a sleek limousine through the streets of New York, a
millionaire in the backseat. Through the window, the millionaire
spots a homeless woman and her two children huddling in the cold,
sharing a loaf of bread. He orders the chauffeur to stop the car. The
chauffeur opens the passenger door for the millionaire, who walks
over to the mother and snatches the loaf. He slips back into the car
and they drive on, leaving behind an even poorer family and a baffled
crowd of sidewalk witnesses. For his part, the chauffeur feels real
qualms about what his master has done, because unlike his employer,
he has recently known hard times himself. But he drives on
nonetheless. Let's call this the Chauffeur's Dilemma.
On Mar 26, 2007, at 10:31 AM, ravi wrote:
Dan Scanlan wrote:
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how
our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the
most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for
being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they
might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat
friendlier.
David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Right-wingers like this fool often offer this response to any
political
argument I offer: if you don't like it here in America, why don't
you go
back. So, it is only fair that I turn this style of response back on
them, and suggest that if Kamerschen really thinks the atmosphere
overseas is really that friendlier, why doesn't he pack up and
leave? In
fact, I will even offer to help relocate him in a "third world"
country,
if he wishes.
We spoke recently about left organising and our ideas gaining traction
among a larger audience. It's these sort of stories that both resonate
with the layperson way of thinking/understanding, and also spread
around
the Internets(tm) at a rapid pace.
One of the other respondents (Bill?) corrected the story by mentioning
the "cover charge" to get into the bar.
I think it is important that we get out with our own versions of these
stories, not just in response to such right-wing ones, but pro-
actively
(I apologise for using that word!) in order to capture the imagination
of the public (I do not see the current liberal intellectualising
around
Lakoff's "framing" the equivalent of such story-telling).
--ravi
