I am a thought-partner with the Head of an Independent school. We met this morning for one of our ‘thought-sessions.’ As we were thinking together the word ‘metaphor’ emerged into my consciousness. It occurred to me that our culture has incorporated a new metaphor; one that is driving our culture in powerful ways. You might remember that Issac Newton provided us the ‘mechanical’ metaphor that for many years was the driving metaphor for our – and other western, industrial cultures. We still employ the mechanical metaphor in our culture; two weeks ago I heard a department head describe the department as a ‘well-oiled machine.’ As we made the transition to a post-industrial society our primary metaphors also changed. Beginning in the 1920’s and running well into the 70’s or early 80’s we merged two powerful metaphors and they became the driving metaphors for our culture. These were/are the sports/war metaphors. These are still deeply imbedded in our culture. However, they are no longer the driving metaphors. Since the late 70’s or early 80’s our driving cultural metaphor has become the ‘banking’ metaphor. Listen. Listen closely and you will hear banking language in all areas of our life. People are ‘assets,’ or ‘commodities,’ or ‘resources’ for example. We are always looking for a ‘return on our investment’ and we seek ‘value-added’ experiences.
These three powerful metaphors – mechanical, sports/war, and banking – continue to enable us to dehumanize one another; they continue to allow us to guilt-free use people up; they continue to enable us to act uncivilly toward others.
What are your personal primary metaphors? Which of the three cultural metaphors do you use most often? What would happen if you attempted to go two days without using any of the three cultural metaphors? Could you find other metaphors to use in their place? If you try this experiment keep note of others’ responses to you.
Here is a poem I wrote about metaphors:
METAPHORS
The Metaphors we use
Plus
The Words we infuse
Plus
The Questions we muse
Determine
The Path we choose.
–Richard W Smith, 1985
Searcher-Seeker 