More Metaphors Gone Wild

What the heck are "metaphors gone wild?" They are simply metaphors that we play with - without any real rules - to gain insight, to get new ideas, and to have fun. Here are a few examples.

Random Metaphors

Conscience Is An Accountant

The accountant for his soul told him that he had to stop. If he didn't he would soon be morally bankrupt. But accountants are often ignored.

Freedom Is An Abused Child

Freedom was still an abused child at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It was pushed this way and that by billions of its parents, most of whom never wanted it in the first place. It was neglected by the its philosopher-mothers who should have fed it, and had "duties" piled on it by the political fathers who should have let it play. And then there were the million step-parents who simply tried to beat it to death. But it was a tough child.

Family And Friends Are Dream-Abortionists

You are pregnant with dreams soon to be brought into your world. But then there are your family and friends, who encourage your doubts, and come for your dreams with knives in their words. They are abortionists who are always willing to help you kill your dreams before they are born.

Metaphors Gone Wild - Metaphors For Ideas

Mind Is A Country - Religion Is A Dictator - Ideas Are Concentration Camp Inmates

In the country that was his mind, religion was the dictator. All thoughts were commanded to conform to its colorless dogma. But there were forbidden ideas that ran quietly through the wilderness, laughing and playing. They were the enemy.

But to him, they also represented freedom, beauty - something outside the bleak atmosphere of dogma. Sometimes they did not seem evil at all. At times he even wished he could visit with these ideas. That infuriated the dictator.

Any ideas that did not bow before this religion were hunted down. Religion is a jealous dictator. They were rounded up and sent to a dark corner of the mind, to the concentration camp. Here they were slowly starved to death, not given the care they needed to sustain them.

They huddled together, too tired to laugh and play. Eventually they died, and there emaciated bodies were cast aside as worthless. This murder was called love, and the name of the concentration camp was faith.

Ideas Are Diseases

Ideas are diseases specific to humans, who seem to have no natural immunity to them. Once infected, a person becomes a carrier, and spreads the disease upon opening his mouth, picking up a pen or turning on a computer. The only defense is to counteract them with other ideas, and like drugs with nasty side effects, we find that sometimes the cure is worse than the original sickness.

Drowning In A Sea Of Ideas

He was of the land, but he swam in the sea of ideas, thinking that if he kept his head above water he would not be affected. Of course he was wrong. Like the others, he had forgotten his amphibious nature, and the permeability of his skin.