**Metaphors for Morality

My article in Benicai Herald 7/7/10

We as humanoids have been very creative in our ability to construct metaphors to conveniently carve out what is moral, who is superior, and other definitions that setup a pecking order in our society. Religions over the centuries have been one of the primary facilities for separating what is malicious and what is beneficial. Oppressive government organizations have also used “Spin”, misinformation, demonizing, and labels such as Patriotism as a way of manifesting control over their peoples. Ruling groups and societies use metaphors to “Divide and Conquer”.
Misused metaphors strike at the emotional core of human beings, and cause us to lose focus and objectivity. I believe it would be more just and appropriate to describe the behavior of the person, instead of attacking the person. Some people, who use this attacking strategy, seem to always leave out a logical or objective reason for demonizing their victims.
The words Black/Dark or White/Light are very powerful, as they connote absolute degrees of positive or negative positions. People will say, “Do you see the light”, or “I am going to the dark side”, meaning that the absence of light, or darkness is a negative condition. Sociologically ethnic groups are devalued based on the relative degree of darkness of their skin. Why do so many more women dye their hair blond from dark, as opposed to dark from blonde? Professional uniforms are usually white to connote purity and integrity.
The patriarchal society model extends to authority figures who use judgmental phrases such, as obey the law, don’t defy the law, he is guilty of insubordination, he’s misbehaving, or she is resisting authority. Patriarchal attributes are independence, individuality, authority, emotional distancing, and individual survival. On their face these virtues of obedience seem righteous, but what about laws that have allowed discrimination, slavery, and miscegenation? What about a military commander that gives a soldier an order that is morally irresponsible? Should an employee who is asked to continue drilling an oil well under dangerous conditions act insubordinate and refuse, or be a faithful loyal follower? Most laws and directives in society are somewhat subjective, and are many times meant to benefit the power elite at the expense of the masses, or a dominant ethnic class.
The word “Democracy” in this country is sometimes used as a smokescreen to really mean “Free Market Unregulated Business Activity” without a sense of moderation, environmental stewardship, consumer protection, and overall integrity. I believe that the original intent of the Founding Fathers for Democracy had to do with the free exercise and fair representation of individual freedoms. In the 1860’s the courts defined corporations to have many of the same rights as individuals. In the last year the court just reaffirmed the rights of corporations to be on par with persons on the political stage.
Why are the words Freedom and Democracy used when we need to invade, or start an incident in another country? History has shown us that wars are about economics, very rarely about human rights. Iraq and Afghanistan are about our control of oil, a safe route for a Unocal gas pipeline, trading of oil in dollars not Euro’s, drug harvesting and routing, and mineral rights. If we were really sincere about our concern for bringing Democracy to the Iraqi people we would have not destroyed their major infrastructure and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians? The answer is, that as decent American’s, we abhor the idea that we could act warlike to take land and mineral rights, and protect the assets of our resident major corporations, and then say we want to bring “Freedom and Democracy” to these poor people. Wall Street and major corporations have major influence on our government policies today; it’s all about economic benefit, not trying to do the right thing.
It is ironic that humans have evoked more damage, destruction, and murder on our planet than any other living organism, but we have the hubris to label someone an “Animal” when we often times wish to demote them to a lower status. As settlers continued to populate America by virtue of Manifest Destiny, Native Americans were demonized as savages and animals so that Europeans could rationalize the theft, dislocation, and genocide of these indigenous peoples for the settlers own self benefit. Hitler demonized non-Aryan people such as Jews, Homosexuals, Blacks, and Gypsies as “Vermin” so that the Nazi regime could rationalize massive warring and destruction on other peoples and countries. Economics is usually behind the immoral motivation of regimes, and as a result the slave labor, personal property, and land stolen by the Nazi regime, was used to finance and further extend the Nazi war effort. It saddens me to hear some right wing Israeli’s demonize Palestinian’s as “Animals”, so that they can dislocate them from their occupied lands, without just compensation, in order to build housing settlements for arriving émigrés.
A great deal of death and destruction has been committed by mankind in the name of “God”. Man’s elected divine right to use all other forms of life for his own convenience and amusement is not God given, it is due to our intellectual and technological advantage over all other life forms. Invoking the use of the word God is very arbitrary and usefully convenient for us humans, but not necessarily used in a way that says we have free choice.
The terms “Straight” and “Gay” often times give people an instant emotional reaction; so therefore Good or Bad. Why are differences so difficult for us to embrace? Why do men seem to be so much more threatened by homosexuality than women? As members of a traditionally patriarchal society do men feel more fearful of their gender identity? Is intolerance really an inner indictment of our own inadequate feelings of self worth projected in a negative away against another person or group?
I believe that we could learn to temper our judgments and look within, and therefore self improve, rather than to choose to reduce the status of other individuals or groups. Let us try harder in our efforts not to be detoured by subjective “Moral Metaphors”.
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