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Using metaphors is not only a powerful way to have new and radical thoughts. It is one of our primary ways of understanding. This is true in the sciences and in general. How do we explain something new except by reference to things we already understand? Movies were first "moving pictures," and the metaphor of a solar system is used to understand an atom.
Even our own lives are understood by way of metaphors. We are conscious animals, spiritual beings, fleshy robots and more. Your life is a journey, a dream, a story, a roller coaster ride, an adventure or a walk through a valley of tears. Consider how different your perception of life would be depending on which one of these different metaphors you adopted as your primary explanation of life.
Treasure as a metaphor metaphors - I like that. But why treasure? Because for richer thinking we can dig up and use different metaphors. Let's look at an example.
Consciousness exaggerates its own role, and doesn't see the vast role that unconsciousness plays in our lives. Now, it takes a little work to explain what this means. However, one way to do so with fewer words is with a simple metaphor of a flashlight (our conscious mind) in a dark room:
"Consciousness is a much smaller part of our mental life than we are conscious of, because we cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of. How simple that is to say; how difficult to appreciate. It is like asking a flashlight in a dark room to search around for something that does not have light shining on it. The flashlight, since there is light in whatever direction it turns, would have to conclude that there is light everywhere. And so consciousness can seem to pervade all mentality when actually it does not." - From "The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind," by Julian Jaynes
Difficult subjects can be made immediately clearer in this way. For example, I try to explain to people that raising taxes won't always raise revenue for the government. It is difficult to explain, so I often fall back on the simple metaphor of a vampire (the government) who wants to get as much blood (tax revenue) as possible from his victim (the taxpayer). If the vampire sucks out too much blood, the victim gets sick or even dies, so there is less blood to take. Take just enough, though, and the victim can be sucked every day for life.
Obviously the most efficient rate of extraction is crucial if you want the most blood. Take more and you get less in the long run. This clearly translates into the idea of a rate of taxation that collects the most money - and shows how important it is to figure out what this rate is. Without the vampire metaphor, it takes me about ten paragraphs to explain this, instead of one or two.
The myth of Adam and Eve is a classic extended metaphor that shows how morality arises. Tasting the fruit of the tree of knowledge leads to shame. Why? Because without the knowledge of good and bad, we cannot sin, any more than an unthinking animal can. Knowledge in general, and awareness of right and wrong specifically makes us into moral beings. This really is a metaphor for our transition from being animals to conscious human beings.
Okay, you can see that metaphors are used to understand things. You can also see that you can use them to explain things. Now, what if you want to use them to generate new and radical ideas? Here's a look at how to do that.
Note: I use a very broad definition of metaphor. Here's the closest appropriate dictionary definition: "Something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else." If we use the analogy of a heart as a pump, for example, this is effectively a metaphor. Similes too are simply metaphors, expressed using "like" or "as" rather than saying it directly. For example, "He was like a parasite," has essentially the same meaning as "He was a parasite."
To get new or radical or at least fun ideas, you need to play with those metaphors. You have to try out ones you have never heard before. Then you have to see where they take you.
For example, if I start with the metaphor of ideas as viruses, it immediately suggests that they "infect" people. More than that, ideas self-replicate, using humans as hosts, just like a virus uses cells to replicate itself. This could be the start of a science fiction story:
The people thought that they lived for their own sake, and that their ideas belonged to them. Only when it was too late did some of them learn the truth - that it was ideas which walked the planet, using humans as hosts. Humans had come and gone, lived and died, but ideas were the true masters, and the true immortals. The battles among the humans were but petty skirmishes fought in a war of ideas. And once ideas had created computers to sustain them, humans became expendable.
What other ideas might come from this metaphor? Well, let's think for a moment about those who are "infected" with racist or other hateful ideas. Following the virus metaphor, we might try "inoculation" with a "vaccine." Perhaps by exposing people to bad ideas in small amounts - and with refutations - we can build their ideological immune response, so they can fight off infections later.
You get the idea.
To create many new ideas you can start with a list of words with metaphorical potential. Of course, since it is tough to determine such potential before you try them out, you can use any words. Here's a short list to get you started:
Abortion... actor... adventure... antidote... author... beggar... bet... bird of prey... boat... butterfly... charade... church... composer... crime... dance... door... dreamer... drug... electricity... escape... eye... family... flower... game... garden... god... heresy... hunt... island... journey... key... language... lover... master... mother... night... ocean... path... predator... refuge... river... school... season... sewer... shelter... sky... sleep... storm... target... theater... treasure... umbilical cord... vampire... voice... war... wilderness... window... womb... zoo.
This can be used in a couple ways. You can start with something that you want to look at in new ways, and then work through the list for metaphors. Each one will suggest new ideas. For example, if we start with life, an "adventure" suggests one approach, while a "garden" suggest other things. "Life is a river" suggests going with the flow (unless you are a motorboat on that river). "Life is a school" might have you thinking about what you are meant to learn, while "Life is a theater" could make you wonder about which roles you want to play.
Another way to use the list is to simply look for words that seem to have potential to explain things. For example, using this approach, my mind stopped on the word "bet." The insurance on my friends used car is due, and bet seems like a good metaphor for insurance. The collision coverage for his car is essentially a bet or gamble that he will have an accident (the liability coverage is legally mandated, but the collision coverage is optional).
Incidentally, he is betting $400 per year for this, and if he "wins" his bet (has an accident), the insurance company will pay him $1,800. Now, in rural areas, a driver has a serious accident about once every 25 years, so he will likely bet $10,000 total before winning $1,800. That's worse than the worst casino! It's better to put the $400 in a bank account each year, pay for accidents from that, and have thousands left over later in life. Playing with metaphors can pay!
To see what your own thinking will generate, play with the following metaphors, and see what ideas come to mind. Or substitute words from the list above (money is...).
Money is a way to keep score.
Money is a lubricant.
Money is the manifestation of valuable ideas.
Your job is slavery.
Your job is a rung on the ladder of success.
Your job is a business in which you sell your labor.
Your job is an adventure.
Politics is a religion.
Politics is con game.
He was an abortionist, killing ideas before birth.
The body is the computer, the mind the software.
I'll have more to say about metaphors in future lessons. Did you know, for example, that some serious thinkers consider consciousness itself to be a metaphorical invention? That will take a bit of explanation. And my own new idea, "metaphorology," is all about how to use metaphors for better living. The experience of life of a "victim" will certainly differ from that of a "warrior" or "adventurer." More on that later.
Until next time,
Steve
www.RadicalNewThoughts.com
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The work of Guy Finley is full of powerful metaphors as a way to understand some of the most important matters of life. I own this CD set, so I know it has some powerful and personally transformative ideas. I return again and again to these inspirational and useful lessons. - Steve |