mixed up metaphors
a few nights ago i heard it again. on npr, no less.
"the 800 pound gorilla in the room, that nobody talks about, is..." began the guest.
a week or so ago somebody said "900 pound elephant." at least they got the right animal, tho a bit of a lightweight.
folks! we have got to start getting our metaphors straight. the 800 pound gorilla—hereinafter abbreviated 8#g—comes from a semirhetorical riddle:
Q: where does an 8#g shit?you may have heard the cleaned-up version, with the "h" removed from the verb so it could get repeated in polite company—tho it loses something, in my opinion.
A: anywhere it wants.
in world affairs since ww2, the US has often been the 8#g, tho sometimes russia or china could be so described. in commerce, one might speak that way of microsoft or exxon-mobil or any company that dominates its field.
i said "semirhetorical riddle" because the question part of it could be used as an answer. for example:
Q: but why did we invade a little country like panama and kill hundreds of innocent people to arrest one man?or
A: where does an 8#g shit?
Q: but we've known about the greenhouse effect for at least 35 years. why didn't general motors and other american auto makers start promoting small cars in the 1970s?answers like that assume the listener knows the proper response is "anywhere it wants."
A: where does an 8#g shit?
i don't actually know where "the elephant in the room" came from, but i know what it means. "teitr" [get it?] refers to anything so obvious nobody talks about it (tho it needs to get mentioned so those to whom it's not so obvious understand what's not getting talked about by those to whom it is obvious).
nuclear weapons have often been "teitr." oil could be "teitr." or computers, or the internet. capiche?
perhaps another example might serve to illustrate.
the "roadmap to peace in the middle east" is a metaphor. it's also an analogy. a road map is an abstract representation of actual, known roads in an area, and it can be used to find a route between any two points represented.
but there is no known road to peace in the middle east. that's another metaphor, but one without any known basis in reality. there may be a way to make peace, but nobody knows for certain what it is, so finding it will require much discussion, much persuasion, and likely at least some trial and error. it won't be known till it's found, so it can't yet get spelled out in a plan or "roadmap."
so the "roadmap to peace in the middle east" is a false analogy, which is a type of logical fallacy, which makes it invalid and likely to fail.
and that's the elephant in the room.
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