COVID-19: A Better Metaphor for Our Shared Experience
Our society is not at war, but we are evolving and adapting.
As the COVID-19 virus continues to claim lives, you could be forgiven if you began to think the virus was a conscious diabolical enemy marshaling its’ forces against all mankind. The language of war has become the go-to metaphor for many leaders and narrators of the crisis. However, this limits our ability to effectively respond now and in future situations.
Stated simply, a metaphor is a figure of speech we use to illustrate the similarities between two ideas or situations. For a metaphor to work well as a rhetorical device, the comparison needs to be similar without being literally true. Used effectively, it can have an emotional effect by clarifying hidden similarities or subverted meanings. Metaphors can help you grasp complex subjects, but also shape your understanding and emotions around the issue.
In strategic foresight, metaphors are the collective stories, underlying myths, and unconscious reactions by which an individual or community understands an issue. Based on the Causal Layer Analysis model developed by Sohail Inayatullah, futurists view these metaphors as the emotional underpinning of a community's worldview and can affect how that group sees not only the issue but also potential solutions and possible futures.
For a war metaphor to work, but in this case, the enemy is a virus, but a virus is not a conscious enemy of mankind. It cannot even reproduce on its’ own but needs a host with cells that the virus can appropriate. To ascribe human motives to a non-human entity may allow us to emotionally connect with the struggle against something we cannot see. Still, it also brings other baggage that may leave lasting effects after the virus has been ‘conquered.’
One reason the war metaphor is dangerous is the hagiography we assign to previous victories in real wars, without truly understanding the extraordinary measures and sacrifices that were needed. In a real war, there is an enemy that, through their conscious actions, intent, or purpose, poses a threat to us. The enemy can only be stopped through action that destroys their will or ability to wage war. However, with a conscious and rational enemy, sometimes a demonstration that their continued efforts will inevitably result in those destructive consequences is enough to alter their current course.
The war metaphor, in this instance, is also dangerous due to our tendency to assign human traits to non-human entities. It can be cute when we are talking about our pets, but risky when using this metaphor. We have seen in real war how we dehumanize the enemy to rally opposition to the ‘others’ and make it easier for our soldiers to eliminate them. Unfortunately, we have already seen some politicians use this opportunity to extend the label of the virus to an ethnic group or foreign power; the war metaphor makes it entirely acceptable to do so. Whatever the small political advantage gained from this tactic, the damage to our capability to address current and future issues is hampered by needlessly injecting tribalism into what requires a collective effort.
A better metaphor to use would be evolution. Adaptive evolution, as conceived by Darwin, is that living things overcome their changing environmental circumstances to thrive. In biology, this is accomplished by a mutation in traits, genetic recombination, or other ways in which new genetic material is introduced that allow for significant variations that make adaptation possible. Although natural selection takes place over many successive generations, this model of adaptation is perfect for a metaphor in our present circumstances.
The first difference between the two metaphors is understanding that a virus is not an invisible enemy that we need to conquer, but a circumstance of our environment. We have been here many times before, and each time we adapted our social practices and looked to science to provide adaptations such as disinfectants and vaccines. What is different this time is we understand better how highly contagious this virus is, and the potential effects it could have if we do not adapt.
The evolution metaphor also calls us to examine our institutions and societal mechanisms for adaptation and resiliency when these situations arise. It means we personally and emotionally, understand that this virus is not something done nefariously against us, but just another part of our environment that needs to be understood and adapted against. This metaphor replaces anger against an enemy with the knowledge that solutions can be crafted. Lastly, it exchanges the fear of an attack by an adversary with the hope that change is natural and possible. Evolution is a natural part of the human and social experience, and by harnessing that metaphor, we are cognitively and emotionally, better able to embrace the changes it brings.
