The Metaphors We Live and Die By

Rush Limbaugh called the pictures at Abu Ghraib no different than the rough play evident at a college initiation.

Alberto Gonzales says we don't torture people, we just use effective interrogation techniques.

The Supreme Court is unwilling to recognize large, organized campaign contributions that are designed to influence legislation as bribes; they call the behavior freedom of speech.

The media says Bush and Cheney don't lie, they just repeat inaccurate intelligence.

Bush doesn't call our presence in Iraq an occupation, he calls it liberation and the road to democracy.

These are just a few of the unfortunate contortions of our times as right wing Republicans try to control the metaphors we live by. Given the current climate in Washington, it is easy to get nostalgic for the unimportant lies of Bill Clinton (though we deserved better).

The Mahablog has more on how we define things:

A point made by speakers yesterday, and repeated this morning, is that the metaphorical war we are fighting is the wrong metaphorical war. Instead of the War on Terrorism, speakers say, we should be fighting the War on Extremism.

(snip)

Note: The enemy is not “terrorism.” The enemy are ideological extremists who use terrorism as one of their tactics. But it is extremism, and the spread of extremism, that we should be fighting. Talking about a war on terrorism makes as much sense as calling World War II the War on Great Big Stuff That Blows Up.

The name is critical, I think, because by misdirecting our attention from the enemy to violence perpetrated by the enemy, it might seem that the struggle is primarily a violent one. But if the conflict is primarily ideological, we need to put more emphasis on countering ideology than perpetrating more violence. Although some military action probably is required, military action must be subservient to and supportive of political and diplomatic efforts. Instead, we put our military strategy first, and misdirect politics to support the military strategy.

(snip)

The Archbishop Desmond Tutu radiates more sweet, selfless joy than his little body could possibly contain. No religion in the world promotes death and murder, he said. Instead, all of the world’s religions promote compassion, justice, love, caring. It is unfortunate that people misuse religion for bad purposes, like a knife intended to cut bread might be used to hurt someone.

It’s a mistake to associate the terrorism of the Middle East with Islam, the Archbishop said. If a Muslim commits an act of terrorism, it’s called Muslims terrorism; but when a Christian man blew up a building in Oklahoma, no one called it Christian terrorism. Likewise, terrorism in Northern Ireland, or the Holocaust, was not called Christian terrorism.

A very important and human aspect of humility is knowing that there is no such thing as perfection in ourselves or in our way of life. It is a mistake when a person or a nation believe they have all the answers. But we have been fortunate to have leaders in our country who had a sense of where we needed to go, leaders that the rest of the world came to admire, people like Jefferson, Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, even John Kennedy. Today we have Bush. Bush's handlers also have their metaphors for Bush: he is Lincoln, he is Churchill, he is Roosevent. But all we have is Bush taking us down a trail of fear. That trail of fear is not our way; it is not who we are.

I want a president who knows what he's talking about when he speaks about democracy and the obligations of being the leader of the free world. I don't want the clever misdirection, the smugness or the words games that so many people in Washington put so much effort into these days, particularly those on the side of the current president. We all know better than to demand perfection in politics but we should demand a reasonable level of sincerity and statesmanship and accountability though it may take years to bring them back.