Because words matter.
I will acknowledge your values if you acknowledge mine.
Okay. You go first.
No, you go first.
No way!
Lather. Rinse. Repeat…
What do we value most? Acknowledgement and validation of our own views? Or breaking out of a vicious cycle of deadlock?
translation:
I don’t understand a word you’ve said. I don’t think I speak that language. I don’t think I can understand your values. I don’t know how to express mine.
Sprechen zie deutsche?
Interpretation:
If you write a book, I might read it.
Heck, I might even buy it.
“Oh, they’re just two sides of the same coin.”
Yes, but have we looked closely at that coin?
The sides are different.
“Climate change could devastate the global economy…if left unchecked. Unless we act now … these consequences, disastrous as they are, will be irreversible.” And so the frame is established: Climate change is a phenomenon that is happening to humans and that needs to be fixed or stopped. We are passive victims in its wake, but we also have the ability (though our military and industrial might) to fight it. We can have a war on climate change that will beat back the evils of this strange but merely temporary situation, and preserve our way of life (which of course had nothing significant to do with creating climate change in the first place).
Disastrous, indeed.
Queries: what does the phrase “climate change” actually represent? Does it include not only the actual meteorological shifts in the weather patterns, but also the impacts of human activities on the rest of the community of life? Why is it important for our culture to frame environmental destruction in strict economic/scientific terms? How does this frame apply the responsibility for dealing with (let alone causing) climate change to different centers of power in our culture?
It’s amazing to me to see the number of things that Come Under Fire these days. Policies, remarks, institutions, countries, people and so on. When someone or something is coming under fire and we read about it in the headlines, it’s strange that in many cases, the “target” is portrayed as having done something hurtful to the status quo, stepped outside of their bounds, or just plain made a mistake. The entity doing the firing is there to call them out, point out their shortcomings, get them back in line, punish them appropriately.
In this way, to fire a bullet at someone after they have done something you don’t like is a metaphor for appropriately making things right again. To be shot for doing something you shouldn’t have is a metaphor for getting what you probably deserve. Yikes.
Continue reading: Coming Under Fire
The actions and decisions of living creatures, generally humans, make up what we tend to call history. Therefore, history does not repeat itself - people repeat history. If there is some cosmic imperative to recreate patterns from the past, it comes from within, and we are responsible for it.
I’ve been thinking more about the previous item. I find value in its closing hint that it might be helpful to treat people like people rather than labels.
Unfortunately I don’t know many people who use the word “coddling” to mean “cooking”. I suspect it may be difficult to coax people to think of coddling as a good idea. Our culture seems to frown upon coddling anyone or anything. It doesn’t help when the dictionary throws in an extra scoop of “excessive” to define the word.
I think we can get behind the idea of treating people like people. Bypassing the disparaging labels that distract us from that task seems helpful. Is trying to redefine “coddling” as a good thing more work than it’s worth, though?
Some words can be salvaged easily, redefined and reframed. Some words are so heavily loaded, however, that the effort to reclaim them may divert us from other worthy efforts.
Suppose we reframe our situation something like this: How do we make violent conflict unnecessary?
Continue reading: Treating people appropriately (a different frame)
Democrats and Republicans both have recently been reinforcing the frame of “coddling terrorists” as the thing you do when you don’t support the Bush administration’s policies on warrantless wiretapping, rights of prisoners, and foreign relations in general. Dictionary definitions for “coddle” include: “to treat tenderly; nurse or tend indulgently; pamper,” and “to treat with extreme or excessive care or kindness.” The word has its origins in food preparation, where to coddle something is to cook it in water just below the boiling point, warming it slowly.
Continue reading: Coddling terrorists
