Labels such as ‘‘the culture wars, ’’ ‘‘the science wars, ’’ or ‘‘the Freud wars’’ are now widely used to refer to some of the disagreements thatplague contemporary intellectual life .. But I would like to register a gentle protest. Metaphors influence the mind in many unnoticed ways. The willingness to describe fierce disagreement in terms of the metaphors of war makes the very existence of real wars seem more natural, more inevitable, more a part of the human condition. It also betrays us into an insensibility toward the very idea of war, so that we are less prone to be aware of how totally disgusting real wars really are. Ian Hacking
About This Quote

For a long time the distinction between politics and culture has been a useful one, enabling us to focus on policy issues that people care about. But now, as we move into the age of the Internet, some of these distinctions are breaking down. Metaphors can be an extremely powerful tool for understanding just about anything, but they can also be dangerously deceptive. The metaphors of war continue to play an important role in how many people interpret their culture wars. By using war metaphors, we are able to ignore what is really happening—namely the ways in which the Internet is converging with actual war to create one of the most disturbing developments in human history.

Source: The Social Construction Of What?

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