Thought for the Day, 2 August 2006

METAPHORS ARE NOT REALITY

When I first heard as a child that Europe was divided by an iron curtain I imagined a huge wall of steel behind which everything was in shadow - and also freezing cold, which was why people said there was a cold war. And when I heard the terms left- and right-wing, I imagined all the politicians standing in a long line according to their views, and shuffling about when someone switched policies.

These metaphors simplified the truth into an image, and when Tony Blair argued this week that the terms 'left' and 'right' are outmoded, he was suggesting that the image no longer matches reality. Rather, he said, we need pragmatic solutions that may cut across 'tribal' party lines, and be guided not by ideology but by underlying values.

There's nothing wrong with metaphors, but it helps to notice how they mold our thinking. When we speak of 'progress', we imagine humanity moving in space. When we speak of moral 'sickness', we think of the mind as if it were a body. But we easily forget that these are images, not realities, and the ideas that develop around them can be a trap. Some historians argue that American policy in Vietnam was governed by the image of falling dominoes. If one falls they all will, they thought, forgetting that dominoes and countries work in different ways.

Religion, especially, often understands life through images. There are ideas as well, but these are usually embedded in stories and myths. The question for the Buddha was how we respond to them. They may point us towards the truth, but if we're driven by a need for certainty we'll fix them into dogmas and religious institutions that become ends in themselves. He described his own teaching as a raft. It's useful - in fact essential - for crossing a stream on the journey to wisdom; but once you reach the other shore and know the truth for yourself, the raft can be left behind. Words, ideas and images are not reality.

Tribal politics is another kind of dogmatism that tells you where to line up on the left-right spectrum. But you can't get away from metaphors. Tony Blair proposed a new distinction between those open to global economic change and those closed to it. That's another image that implies other assumptions and value judgments. To get at the truth for ourselves we need to see past political and religious rhetoric, and then do something much harder: look honestly at the biases underpinning our own beliefs.