Simile Blindness
and
Metaphor Mindlessness
and
Metaphor Mindlessness
. .
Reason Three
Why Today's Balanced Budget Discussions Are Ridiculous
..
By Bob Komives
Joseph Campbell liked to point out how fundamentalists of many stripes mistakenly take metaphors as literal, thereby losing the meaning and value of the metaphor. We know enough about the universe to know that neither god nor man could literally ascend to heaven; there is no literal place out there, up there, to which to ascend. Yet, that literal image remains popular. Campbell said to Bill Moyers:
"If you think that the metaphor is itself the reference, it would be like going to a restaurant, asking for the menu, seeing beefsteak written there, and starting to eat the menu."
Today's balanced-budget fundamentalists have that problem. They seem to like the folksiness of metaphor and simile:
The problem? The statements are void of meaning and value both literally and metaphorically.
No matter how good and bad have been past governors of our states united and presidents of our United States, they have been remarkably consistent in keeping their governments out of bankruptcy. We do have crises; we've been there before; these gentlemen and ladies will avoid bankruptcy again. Businesses, however, go bankrupt by the bushel-basketful. Let us hope that the government-is-like-a-business simile continues to be false. I believe Abraham Lincoln would agree. After going bankrupt in a tiny private enterprise he managed to get an important public job and finance, reluctantly, an enormous war.
As to the comparison between state and federal budgets, even if you don't agree with my two dozen explanations elsewhere on this blog of the underlying futility of federal budget balancing, I hope you can agree that the state-federal comparison is lame. If that is not obvious to you, please, humor me and try to answer these oddball questions:
If everybody were to budget in the US America with cal-bucks, everybody would include our president and congress. Our national government would feel the roll, pitch and yaw of the old California Pinchmanship? The state of California, however, would find itself alone sailing a radically different financial ship, the Money Maker? (Pardon the ship metaphor; please don't take it literally.)
As to the coupons, either Apple inc or Poof Products inc. would find itself alone at the helm of Money Maker.
Do you see that he-she-it who creates and cartakes our currency does not and cannot budget as the rest of us budget? Making money would mean one thing to the millions of us who do our business in Slinky coupons, but something entirely different to Poof which has exclusive right and capacity produce Slinky and its coupons.
I admit that the potentials for stupidity and corruption exist among those who caretake a currency no less than among those who simply use currency. Both national and sub-national governments have proven they can take their citizens downward rather than upward. If that dismal outcome were the goal, then spreading folksy-but-false metaphor and simile is a good step one.
Step two, take them literally.
"Managing a state budget is like running a business. I managed a business, elect me, trust me."
"Balancing the federal budget is like balancing a state budget; I balanced a state budget, elect me, trust me."
"Running an unbalanced federal budget is bankruptcy incarnate. I haven't gone bankrupt; elect me; trust me."I invented these quotes, but I believe neither you nor I would be surprised to hear them. They fit with today's politi-conomy speech.
The problem? The statements are void of meaning and value both literally and metaphorically.
No matter how good and bad have been past governors of our states united and presidents of our United States, they have been remarkably consistent in keeping their governments out of bankruptcy. We do have crises; we've been there before; these gentlemen and ladies will avoid bankruptcy again. Businesses, however, go bankrupt by the bushel-basketful. Let us hope that the government-is-like-a-business simile continues to be false. I believe Abraham Lincoln would agree. After going bankrupt in a tiny private enterprise he managed to get an important public job and finance, reluctantly, an enormous war.
As to the comparison between state and federal budgets, even if you don't agree with my two dozen explanations elsewhere on this blog of the underlying futility of federal budget balancing, I hope you can agree that the state-federal comparison is lame. If that is not obvious to you, please, humor me and try to answer these oddball questions:
What if we turned the US Treasury over to California, and made the Federal Reserve Bank become the California Central Bank?
or,
What would happen if we and our governments chose coupons for iTunes to be our currency and our valuator of debt? How about financing with IOUs for Slinky the toy?These are not perfect questions, but they can be instructive thought exercises--exercises that make it obvious that we must not equate federal budgeting with that of state and local governments.
If everybody were to budget in the US America with cal-bucks, everybody would include our president and congress. Our national government would feel the roll, pitch and yaw of the old California Pinchmanship? The state of California, however, would find itself alone sailing a radically different financial ship, the Money Maker? (Pardon the ship metaphor; please don't take it literally.)
As to the coupons, either Apple inc or Poof Products inc. would find itself alone at the helm of Money Maker.
Do you see that he-she-it who creates and cartakes our currency does not and cannot budget as the rest of us budget? Making money would mean one thing to the millions of us who do our business in Slinky coupons, but something entirely different to Poof which has exclusive right and capacity produce Slinky and its coupons.
I admit that the potentials for stupidity and corruption exist among those who caretake a currency no less than among those who simply use currency. Both national and sub-national governments have proven they can take their citizens downward rather than upward. If that dismal outcome were the goal, then spreading folksy-but-false metaphor and simile is a good step one.
Step two, take them literally.
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