George Lakoff, an important linguist and cognitive scientist, wrote an interesting take on this in his book Moral Politics. Basically, the “strict father” model of language and communicating actions – and eventually doing them – really speaks to the ideals of their generation: “moral strength” and “moral obedience” being the biggest ones where weakness of any sort is immoral. Rewards and punishments are what keep this morality going, so failure to uphold this sense of morality – here doing your homework and getting good grades – needs punishment.

Carried into the political realm, this moral system – which puts strength at the top of the list of values – leads to the belief that “your poverty or your drug habit or your illegitimate children can be explained only as moral weakness, and any discussion of social causes cannot be relevant,” Lakoff explained.

He’s not a marxist, so I’d take some of the political conclusions with a grain of salt, but he knows how people interpret and use metaphor to navigate language and existence (His co-written book Metaphors to Live By is widely used in linguistics and cognitive studies).