We find that even the subtlest instantiation of a metaphor (via a single word) can have a powerful influence over how people attempt to solve social problems like crime and how they gather information to make “well-informed” decisions. Interestingly, we find that the influence of the metaphorical framing effect is covert: people do not recognize metaphors as influential in their decisions; instead they point to more “substantive” (often numerical) information as the motivation for their problem-solving decision. Metaphors in language appear to instantiate frame-consistent knowledge structures and invite structurally consistent inferences. Far from being mere rhetorical flourishes, metaphors have profound influences on how we conceptualize and act with respect to important societal issues. We find that exposure to even a single metaphor can induce substantial differences in opinion about how to solve social problems: differences that are larger, for example, than pre-existing differences in opinion between Democrats and Republicans.
Thibodeau PH, Boroditsky L, 2011. Metaphors We Think With: The Role of Metaphor in Reasoning. PLoS ONE 6(2): e16782.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016782. More: Adam Gorlick, “Stanford study shows how metaphors shape the debate about crime fighting,” Stanford University, February 23, 2011. Rhetorical Figures in Sound: Metaphor Daniel Chandler, “Rhetorical Tropes,” in Semiotics for Beginners, complete text available online.
Paul Krugman, “Shock Doctrine, U.S.A.” The New York Times, February 24, 2011.
And then there’s this: “Notwithstanding ss. 13.48 (14) (am) and 16.705 (1), the department may sell any state-owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under s. 196.49 (3) (b).”
What’s that about? The state of Wisconsin owns a number of plants supplying heating, cooling, and electricity to state-run facilities (like the University of Wisconsin). The language in the budget bill would, in effect, let the governor privatize any or all of these facilities at whim. Not only that, he could sell them, without taking bids, to anyone he chooses. And note that any such sale would, by definition, be “considered to be in the public interest.”
If this sounds to you like a perfect setup for cronyism and profiteering — remember those missing billions in Iraq? — you’re not alone. Indeed, there are enough suspicious minds out there that Koch Industries, owned by the billionaire brothers who are playing such a large role in Mr. Walker’s anti-union push, felt compelled to issue a denial that it’s interested in purchasing any of those power plants. Are you reassured?
Layla Anwar, “The Eye of Greed,” An Arab Woman Blues, February 24, 2011.
That means anyone who does business in Iraq, is a fucking profiteer. A profiteer of the Occupation, a profiteer of our mass graves, of our exile and our displacement.
I don’t give a fuck how you look at it…
Any, ANY company, that does business in Iraq today is giving legitimacy to the invasion and occupation. Because it means that you are dealing with the present status quo, and the present status quo is built on DEATH. It is built on thousands of bodies, on the biggest war known since the 2nd World War, on silence, on indifference, on apathy, on lies…LIES and more BLOODY LIES.
I am talking about Ethics. 99% of you don’t even know what the fucking word means. Go look it up. Ethics and Business don’t mix…they never did.
Hundreds of companies and individuals landed in Iraq post 2003. They landed to pillage us. It’s that simple. Yes it’s that simple
David Dayen, “The Incredible Ecosystem of the Wisconsin Capitol,” FireDogLake, February 24, 2011.
As you walk into the Capitol, the walls are basically covered, and not just with protest slogans and witticisms, though they are there as well … . the walls are also festooned with a surprising amount of graphs and charts, depicting inequality in America, or the percentage cuts to BadgerCare in the budget repair bill, or how much of the federal budget is spent on war and the military. There are even historical treatises about how Abraham Lincoln once jumped out of a window to avoid a quorum call in the Illinois Senate. This is a wonk rebellion too, furthered by the Internet and the easy accessibility of data.
Steve Kilbey, part of beat poem, from his blog.
i thought of some words
anyone could fucking do it
we put a band together
just find some cool cats who can play
and we went round n round this earth
hawking our existential art rock mope neo psychedelic blah blah blues
Defining Document Dumps
Wikileaks gave up on citizen journalism when it failed to attract qualified writers and researchers to analyze the massive text troves they had vetted. An honest mistake which led the organization to partner with media organizations to analyze and release their recent, critically valuable document dumps.
In doing so, however, Wikileaks committed two sins of omission.
- Thousands of previously uploaded documents, contained in the 2006-2008 Archives, remain unanalyzed for accuracy, context and relative value in comparison with other releases. Without analysis of this archive, the historical value of the project, no matter its future fate, can not be determined.
- Quantitative analysis of the unstructured data contained on Wikileaks servers, which would provide the closest approximation to “unbiased” commentary on leaked documents available to the general public, has not been performed. Quantitative text analysis, or statistical breakdowns of the types of unstructured data in documents, can provide a “way in” to understanding the significance of massive data dumps without the added work of detailed reading of every word of such text.
I submit that adding technical communicators (traditionally known as technical writers) with training in quantitative text analysis and related software tools, would provide Wikileaks with a way to communicate the significance of document dumps more quickly, directly to the public, without the need for negotiating with media outlets.
Yoav Di-Capua, “Egypt’s fight for historical memory,” AlJazeera (English), February 20, 2011.
A citizen who cannot reason historically about the business of the state is not a participating and change-demanding citizen, but a docile subject. This is the way a succession of Egyptian regimes wanted things to be. And this is how they were.
In the last few weeks, we have heard in great detail how the Mubarak regime robbed ordinary Egyptians of their political, human, economic and social rights. That is, how an ever-growing number of Egyptians were robbed of their human dignity.
Yet parallel to this realisation, and indeed tightly bound up with it, Egyptians have also begun to understand they were also robbed of their past, their sense of history, and their right to a critical historical consciousness.