Categories - Intertwingled: Information Changes Everything - page 44

Figure 2-22. The experiential basis of metaphors.
There's nothing wrong with using metaphors, provided we're aware of their source, and realize
they contain baggage that shifts from intent to interpretation. Using “department head” may in-
duce cognitive dissonance in an organization that's flipped the org chart by practicing servant
leadership. Isn't the head on top, like the upper class? Our corporeal experience is embodied in
language and subtly changes how we think. This occurs all the time in our use of binary opposi-
tions.
In-Out, Up-Down, Front-Back, Self-Other, Us-Them, More-Less, Male-Female, True-False, Fact-Fiction,
Public-Private, Open-Closed, Yes-No, Hot-Cold, Reason-Emotion, Mind-Body, Man-Nature, Love-Hate,
Win-Lose, Good-Evil
While there are no opposites in nature, we use dualism to create order and make sense of experi-
ence. These opposites generate meaning. We understand hot in relation to cold, light in relation
to dark. This dualism runs deep. Studies show “the binary opposition is a child's first logical op-
eration.” xxxix We start with self-other, edible-inedible, and work our way up to good-evil, digital-
physical, map-territory. The pairings are usually hierarchical, and the first tends to be primary.
It's better to be in than out, up than down, true not false, us not them. xl
Now we sense the dangers of embodied cognition. While some oppositions appear to be self-
evident, others are clearly value-laden and ethnocentric. Dualism works because it's simple, but
that's also why it fails. Politicians win by painting in black and white. They say folks are either
with us or against us. But this path leads to tribalism and genocide. Most horrors of human his-
tory begin with the categories of us and them.
Even when it's office politics, dualism is serious business. It divides people and obscures the
truth. Is digital the opposite of physical? Is that a sensible way to split the staff? Like the Wikipe-