# The political use and abuse of metaphor



## somnambulist (Feb 25, 2011)

Author James Geary talks to spiked about the explosion of metaphors around the economic crisis and the Arab uprisings and what they reveal about the attitudes of commentators and politicians.
by Patrick Hayes 

‘Will Egypt’s revolution spark a Domino Effect?’; ‘Could a political-unrest contagion potentially spread elsewhere?’; ‘Will a flash flood of change sweep across the Arab world?’; ‘Are we being swept up in the winds of change blowing all over the Middle East?’... Will the stream of metaphors never run dry?

Like the ‘perfect storm’ whipped up by the financial crisis of 2008, the current uprisings in the Arab world have certainly prompted politicians and the media alike to flex their metaphors. Almost anywhere one looks for analysis of events, a metaphor stares back. 

None of this metaphorical excess has escaped the attention of James Geary. And nor would you expect it to. Geary is the author of I is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World. He is completely attuned to our use of metaphor. And after a minute or two listening to him talk about how we often fail to appreciate the beauty of the imagery in some metaphors (‘wriggling like a herring on a hatpin’ is one of his favourites), you find yourself becoming acutely aware of metaphors, too. Indeed, when he spoke at a recent event in London, fellow panelists and audience members became self-conscious every time they used a metaphor and felt the need to draw attention to it - ‘of course that’s another metaphor’ – to the point where it became rather irritating. 

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