did you know that something as simple and common as metaphors may have contributed to the the economic downturn that we are experiencing right now? it’s true. you see our brains are so in grained with metaphors, that it’s nearly impossible to function without thinking in them. in fact, in our daily lives we tend to speak 6 metaphors on average every minute. now how did a simple tool of language contribute to the bad economy? simple, read any financial piece about the stock market and you will read things like, “apple’s stock climbed higher…” and “the dow fell like a brick”. both of these statements are actually metaphors used to describe the action of stocks. the second one about the dow is what is called an “object” metaphor. it describes something, here that something being stock movement, as a non-living thing. when you read that a stock is climbing higher, it is called an “agent” metaphor. here, the stock movements are being described as a living thing with a goal in mind. and this finally brings my argument full circle. people will tend to view the agent metaphors more positively, because they are being presented as living creatures with goals. so, a few years ago right before the housing bubble burst, when home prices and values were said to be constantly climbing higher and higher, we were being told agent metaphors about them. thanks to our brain and metaphors, we might be misled to think that action will continue forever. and this will then lead people to take out mortgages that they really can’t afford, being stuck with outlandish interest payments, and thus creating the start of the economic downturn we are now currently in.
i wish i could take all the credit for this, but i did get some information from a video of author James Geary from TED.com.
so before you blame just the financial sector for all your problems, try learning about some other issues that may have contributed to our present situation.
