Metaphors
Radical Thinking
Course - Subscriber Access Only
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 Hunting in Metaphorland
Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least
space. - Orson Scott Card
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."
Radical Ideas From Metaphors
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!
An Exercise in Metaphorical Thinking
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
Part of the
Radical Thinking Course. Not subscribed? Click here to
learn more. |
