This Country Needs a New Set of Metaphors
17th June 2006
Donald Miller in Blue Like Jazz talks about the unhelpfulness of using war metaphors in many aspects of life. I have already previously opined that it is a mistake to uncritically take an ancient Chinese military treatise as a business manual. No matter how competitive business environments can be, business just is not war! Neither are so many other areas of life that we so often associate with it through the use of militaristic metaphors.
I find it curious that Americans have such fondness to use battlefield imagery in our daily talk. For instance, we call those who risk lives to come over the borders seeking jobs and new opportunities “invaders“. The funny thing is that when the same thing happened just a couple of hundred years ago, that really was an invasion, for they came with cannon, guns, swords, and real soldiers. I think the word was “conquistadors” then. That is a far cry from those who now cross the borders seeking jobs and a better life for their families. Note so far I have not said anything about whether it is right or wrong for them to do so. I am only saying that the war metaphors are not helping the current debate. Read the rest of this entry »
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