So what? Well although
George is real he’s also a conceptual metaphor, something that
another George (Lakoff and Mark Johnson) wrote about in a book titled
Metaphors We Live By. In that book it is explained that metaphors
are more about thoughts than words and that they work to help us navigate
the complexity of ideas; for example George’s bullet-dodging
brings together the hard fact of terminal cancer with the abstraction
of a bullet missing it’s target. While that may seem plain and
simple, what underlies the simplicity is a suite of complex actions
and relationships concerning the fact of cancer that are brought to
mind by the abstraction of bullets: matters such as fighting, defences,
environments, exposures, targets, protection. Through conceptual metaphors
we are able to negotiate often difficult conversations in ways that
open us to more flexible and subtle discourse. In another book, Moral
Politics, Lakoff writes about how American politics embraces a metaphor
of 'the family' that leads to perceiving political leaders in 'strict
father' and 'nurturant mother' roles. It is not hard to see how this
claim has substance in the light of recent events. However the key
takeaway I would like to point to is how crucial it is to a recognise
and appreciate conceptual metaphors and how to work with them.
My story ‘George’ represents a factual regular US citizen
whose tale took me on a metaphorical floatation [sic] through a realm
of abstractions that help me to acknowledge the awful potential that
he and his fellow country folk currently have to contend with. But,
also that ‘George’ is doing so with strong sense of personal
morality and respect for others. This leaves me with some hope that
the ‘Georges’ will help those who support a self-centred
and erratic leader to overcome their childlike immaturity and leave
their ‘strict father’ figure to face his own demons. |
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