With recent events happening both local and national, I’ve placed more and more importance on the power of language and discussion.  It is frustrating to me to see so many simply accept language at face value, rather than critically analyze, understand, and evaluate the implications, erasures, and consequences of language utilization and deployment.  This seeming initial acceptance crosses all sorts of boundaries ignoring age, race, class, sex, and gender.  In a word, it would seem to be ideology that is driving such evaluations, or lack thereof.  One of the most enlightening lectures on this, has been Dr. Andrew Hoffman’s, “Climate Science as Culture War” in which  he points out the issues surrounding climate change are communicative.  As Hoffman explains, while it can be easy to fall into the trap of “just explain the facts”, much of how things are understood and discussed in society are based on “social facts” which are driven by community, social, and religious leaders.  Hoffman also brings up that the more educated one is, the more one sticks to/associates with the political/social positions of a group (in this instance political party).  Hoffman goes on to discuss the time frames we are potentially looking at for changing rhetoric, minds, and policy surrounding climate change, but his point on education/tribalism has incredible implications for how we discuss issues going forward, especially the economy.

Long term and sustained action is precisely that, however, while such discussions may be driven at upper levels/from the top down, such discussions from the bottom up also must be considered.  I bring this up, because a while ago I was listening to Ezra Klein’s interview with Robert Reich who mentioned that John Kenneth Galbraith was very much interested in the social implications of economics, which is something that I feel the profession has moved away from.  Obviously numbers and math have their place, and I love them, but it’s important to remember what drives, connects, and humanizes the profession of economics.

Hoffman is the education director at the Graham Sustainable Institute at the University of Michigan, and holds multiple degrees from MIT and the University of Massachussets

https://youtu.be/0kf1l3zyTmM?t=1m31s