Posted on 01/16/2011 7:22:42 AM PST by ancientart
After the recent shooting in Tucson, Keith Olbermann laid the blame squarely where it belongs: on metaphors.
We must “put the gun metaphors away permanently,” he said. Olbermann calls for vigilance “to eliminate all our own suggestions of violence, however inadvertent.”
But eliminating gun metaphors is only a start. Deadly metaphors are everywhere.
Recently, the San Jose Mercury News reported on a Vallejo, Calif., arsonist sentenced to 12 years for torching the Vallejo courthouse. The man's accused accomplice was found dead in her jail cell. She'd hung herself.
Arson and its aftermath: deadly.
We don't know why someone commits arson, but we know that potential arsonists are frequently exposed to fire metaphors. Public officials and journalists resort to insensitive turns of phrase: “igniting controversy,” “sparking” discussion or change, “blazing trails.”
The newspaper reporting on the arsonist used metaphoric fire terms numerous times in the last three months. Could “overheated” rhetoric emblazon itself into the consciousness of unstable individuals with tragic results? It's very possible.
CBS journalist Bob Schieffer, commenting on the Tucson shooting, complained of “dangerous, inflammatory words” and people who profit from “fanning the flames.” These were risky metaphors to use.
The New York Daily News reported this week that a male model confessed to killing a gay journalist in New York. He allegedly used a corkscrew to mutilate sensitive areas of the journalist, then left him to die.
The same publication used the metaphor “skewered” at least eight times in December alone: Jon Stewart “skewers” Republicans, a councilman “dashes off a skewering response,” a comedian “skewers” Angelina Jolie. Sure, it's just a metaphor, but who knows what effect a careless metaphor might have on a person at the breaking point?
Last week, two murder victims in a Washington, D.C., suburb were bound with duct tape and killed. Duct tape: a frequent, key instrument in murders, kidnappings and rapes.
Duct tape is a silent, deadly menace. And yet politicians and journalists still resort to adhesive metaphors. He “adheres to the belief that ...,” “The candidate sticks solidly to his core beliefs,” “She adheres firmly to the idea that ...” Worst of all is the metaphor that combines subtle duct tape imagery with ballistic language: Stick to your guns. Stick to your guns?
“Stick to your guns” is a tragic event waiting to happen. No one should ever be allowed to use this phrase.
Even a nonviolent metaphor could become the very catalyst that propels a disturbed person to commit violence. Did I just write “catalyst”? Scratch that. Scratch? Excuse me. I'll try again: Even nonviolent metaphors could result in violence.
Since so much of what we say is metaphorical, and so many metaphors could spark - uh - lead to inadvertent violence, we will have to be extremely vigilant.
The challenge, then, is to end all metaphors. Free speech is a lovely idea. But if free speech allows people to ignite heated rhetoric in the crowded theater of disturbed minds, we are going to have to slap a price tag on metaphors. The first step is to fine people who use metaphorical language.
Fifty dollar fines should do the trick. Anyone using a metaphor should be subject to a $50 fine per metaphor. That should cut down on the use of - cut? Uh, sorry. That should lessen the deadly use of metaphors.
Since all language is metaphor, though, we won't be able to stop at the most blatant examples. We'll eventually have to slap - oops - place fines on words. All words. And after words, we'll go after thoughts. It's the sensitive thing to do.
When we can’t speak, we must act.
First it was BIAS free language, then it became GENDER free Language, then it became RACISM free Language, then VIOLENCE free Language...
Now, it’s ... CONTENT FREE language
I'll continue using the metaphors I like. The government has no right to limit that and neither does Keith Olbermann.
When people let a crazy man start dictating what they can and can't say, they are lost for good.
I'm not joining that silly sheep crowd.
Apparantly, it was a training manual.
Keef's got a lot of room to talk, what with his "Worst Person In The World" segment.
It's like being lectured about wife-abuse by OJ Simpson.
Wasn’t this grammar-based thought control nonsense part of Jared Loughner’s craziness?
I can believe it; I just hadn't heard about it. I try not to ever watch MSNBC...
Yes, Olbermann really did say those things.
Life's getting to the point where you can't even use satire to poke fun at it anymore.
The next thing Olberman gets right will be the first thing.
Every time I think Keith Olbermann has said the most idiotic thing possible, he goes and raises the bar again.
But in liberal-land, they are a pundit.
Telling.
Just FYI...
“blazing trails.” is not a fire metaphor.
–noun
1. a spot or mark made on a tree, as by painting or notching or by chipping away a piece of the bark, to indicate a trail or boundary.
I don’t just curb my language, I pick up my words in a plastic bag.
For freedoms sake don't!
Words don't kill, people do.
Metaphor:
He was a tiger on the field.
Simile
He was like a tiger on the field.
Idiom:
Stick to your guns.
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