"before you insult someone, think of the collateral damage."
Actually, I think the original was probably "When you are insulting someone, consider the collateral damage."
I said it in response to an exchange between some audience members and panelists which was (in part) about using phrasing about people and using phrasing about things people were doing. I had said earlier that one way to simultaneously avoid using slurs and be more precise was to talk specifically about the action with which one disagreed, rather than just calling the person names. A number of other people expanded on this or had made similar points earlier. One person said then that she actually intended to insult somebody, rather than talk about their actions. There was a big laugh, and then I said, "Well, when you are insulting someone, [pay attention to/consider the/avoid] collateral damage."
It's the whole metaphor thing: using something from one context to comment upon another. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. It's one of the foundations of empathy, and it's also a really easy way to go wrong, and it's something a lot of us do, and it's powerful, and sometimes it's a really lazy way to do things which leads to big trouble and sometimes it's a brilliant short route to understanding.
Tools are like that. Metaphors are tools.
(I was a bit exasperated when we kept drifting into "but are these words OK to say at all?" territory, because that wasn't what we were there to talk about, and I was also profoundly startled that we apparently had to define "metaphor." After the convention I was wondering whether we needed wall posters with parts of speech on them. Then again, wall posters with all sorts of info might be useful, but that way madness chaos-in-interior-decorating [and possible hotel grumpiness, unless folks are careful with implementation details regarding tape] lies.)
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Date: 2009-05-30 08:00 pm (UTC)Actually, I think the original was probably "When you are insulting someone, consider the collateral damage."
I said it in response to an exchange between some audience members and panelists which was (in part) about using phrasing about people and using phrasing about things people were doing. I had said earlier that one way to simultaneously avoid using slurs and be more precise was to talk specifically about the action with which one disagreed, rather than just calling the person names. A number of other people expanded on this or had made similar points earlier. One person said then that she actually intended to insult somebody, rather than talk about their actions. There was a big laugh, and then I said, "Well, when you are insulting someone, [pay attention to/consider the/avoid] collateral damage."
It's the whole metaphor thing: using something from one context to comment upon another. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. It's one of the foundations of empathy, and it's also a really easy way to go wrong, and it's something a lot of us do, and it's powerful, and sometimes it's a really lazy way to do things which leads to big trouble and sometimes it's a brilliant short route to understanding.
Tools are like that. Metaphors are tools.
(I was a bit exasperated when we kept drifting into "but are these words OK to say at all?" territory, because that wasn't what we were there to talk about, and I was also profoundly startled that we apparently had to define "metaphor." After the convention I was wondering whether we needed wall posters with parts of speech on them. Then again, wall posters with all sorts of info might be useful, but that way
madnesschaos-in-interior-decorating [and possible hotel grumpiness, unless folks are careful with implementation details regarding tape] lies.)