by Susan Strong
Through dialogue, workshops, and research, The
Metaphor
Project collects, helps generate, and analyzes examples of
contemporary catch phrases, slogans, or images altered to
convey positive messages about sustainability to
mainstream audiences. The best of these creations are then
passed on in articles, on-line posts, or other modes of
spreading the word through key contacts. We encourage
you to try this process yourself and to use any of the ones
listed below. Let us know about new ones you find or
create. In addition to this report, the latest versions of the
The Metaphor Project,
The Metaphor Project Description, and Easy
Ways To
Create New Social Metaphors are available by e-mail;
paper copies by regular mail are $l.00 each.
1. a new world, the American dream, clean, fresh
2. a nation with a mission
3. Puritan simple living and virtues
4. the cowboy/Marlboro man
5. a pioneering, can do society
6. the cradle of liberty, melting pot nation, beacon of hope
7. rags to riches, individual effort and reward, being
good=being rich, the game, winning
8. mobility is a good:boldly going somewhere new...
9. Americans like the new, the untried, we are inventors,
innovators
10. a nation of immigrants which moves to something
better and keeps on going
12. freedom from tyranny,
capitalism=freedom=democracy, choice, lifestyle choice
13. future focus, bright future
14. small town communities, farm family/community,
"barn-raisings cooperation model," keep the home fires
burning, town hall meetings
15. live within your means (as a nation) as in budget
deficit reform
16. affluence, a chicken in every pot, a rising tide lifts all
boats
Some creations generated
from standard American
themes or stereotypes:
1. balancing our ecological (or environmental) budget,
getting rid of the ecological deficit or
debt, relying on ecological deficit financing, calling for an
ecological audit
2. moving from the "me generation" to the "we
generation"
3. "pioneering a new green economy," "bioneering the
new green economy"
4. making, gearing up for, or moving into the Green Shift
(change to a green society, economy)
5. the Green Bull
6. bullish on the environment
7. free the Green Bull
8. better green than gone
9. making the Earth, Planet, or future friendly choice
10. organic in every pot
Some families of other new combinations
being tried out now by writers, organizations and politicians
l. "healthy" group: healthy wealth, healthy community,
healthy city ("clean" is a subset, as is "livable"as in livable
communities or livable world)
2. "smart" group: smart growth, Earth smart car
3. "revolution" group: the next industrial revolution
("next" is category of its own), the clean revolution (Bill
Ford, Chair of Ford Motors), the biophilia revolution
(David Orr), eco-revolution
4. "eco" group: eco-society, eco-economy, eco-revolution,
eco-renaissance, eco-economics,
ecotecture (Skip Wentz), eco-moguls (Time, Oct.18,'99),
eco-pioneers, eco-tourism, ecocide, eco-smart living, eco-
city, eco-village, global eco-village, eco-shift, eco-lifestyle,
eco-audit, eco-enlightenment, Ecozoic era (Thomas
Berry),ecopolis, ecodemocracy
6. "bio" group: bioeconomics, biomimicry, bioneers,
biorealism, biorenaissance, biophilia. bionomics,
bioregionalism
7. "green" group: "how green are you?" (from a Costco
newsletter, summer '99), the Green GDP (Commerce
Dept), ("Viridian Manifesto" is a new hip version of green
announced in the summer '99 issue of Whole Earth, "the
Green era" (Matthew Fox), a green economy (YES!),
a Global Green Deal (Mark Hertsgaard)
8. "evolutionary" group: the evolutionary corporation
(YES!, Fall '99), the evolutionary car (Toyota hybrid)
9. "natural" group: The Natural Step (Karl Henrik
Robert), natural capitalism (Paul Hawken)
Some New Best of Slogan Tweaks
ecocentric, not egocentric
Nature rules.
the rule of nature's law (play on rule of law)
Trees are us.
Got air? or got oxygen? or got water?
Look out for #1 (with picture of Earth)
It's our crib. (teen and black slang for home also with picture of
Earth)
The Earth is the bottom line.
Earth-it's the real thing.
earthwise
lean and green
lean and clean
Bill of eco-democracy rights
the clean air generation
stop before you shop
the ultimate green experience
manifest harmony
minimize your impact
barefoot solar luxury
the cooperative cure
dot.commongood
green grandeur
use it and reuse it
reuse it or lose it
deja use
war on waste
hate makes waste
green dream
Jesus recycles
don't just do it, think about it
just recycle
Editor's Pick of Workshop Tweaks
Win one for the planet.
solar security
We're a solar family.
Double glaze your house, not the planet. (or: not the
sky?)
Only you can prevent climate change.
Do people change the climate? People do.
oil ill
ecological security
super eco
accumulitis
Earth-the lean green living machine
See the U.S.A. the hybrid way.
The electric Winnebago
Plug in, turn on, take a drive.
Sports futility vehicle
I can't believe I polluted the whole thing. (a sticker for SUVs.)
Friends don't let friends drive an SUV.
the REAL SUV--- a sustainable urban vehicle
Save the children's children.
It's x (you fill in the blank)o'clock.
Do you know where your childrens' future is?
Got safe food?
Got clean air?
Got clean water?
Got any top soil left?
Got a future on this planet?
Save a planet, go to heaven.
The planet you save could be your own.
Friends don't let friends trash our planet.
Friends don't let friends eat genetically modified food.
a free range chicken in every pot
Bigger is a bummer.
Invest in your planet.
TWEAKS FROM OTHER SOURCES:
Keeping Earth safe for life
Making Earth safe for life
Earth awareness-the new new frontier
Fiddling while our planet starts to burn
" " " slowly burns
The mother of all crashes-not just stocks, not just computers,
Earth systems.
forest.gone ( a play on .com)-sent by Carolyn Zyha, Northwest
Earth Institute-Victoria
Earth, the real world-wide web of life-" "
The dead planet blues
The climate threat
Climate shock
Climate crash
Climate decay
The weather threat
planet poison
planet poisoners
poisoning the planet
the sick planet plan
a sick planet kills
a sick planet kills people
shall we pass on a better world or just pass on?
Earth-systems crash or soft landing?
NEW LANGUAGE
This section contains:
New Word Families entries:
eco-food (opposite of frankenfood)
eco-safe economy
"biophany" -- word coined by Bernie Krause
for our threatened natural soundscapes
Notable Quotes and Language from other authors
"The warm war" Arlie Hochschild, ATLANTIC, 2/01,
referring to
climate change political problems
"People exploit what they have merely concluded to be of
value,
but they defend what they love." Wendell Berry, in WHOLE
EARTH, Fall 2000
"We don't have an environmental problem, we have family
relationship problems (with nature)." George Work
"transpartisan" a word and concept created by Don Beck,
co-author
of SPIRAL DYNAMICS (www.spiraldynamics.com)
"the Evernet" a name for the perpetually on and connected
society
in David Denby's, "The Speed of Light," THE NEW
YORKER, 11/27/00
"PAX GAIA" Thomas Berry (YES, p. 46, Winter 2001
"Power is communion," Carolyn Raffensberger, YES, Winter
2001, p. 39 (see also Lakoff, MORAL POLITICS, re this idea)
"corporate democracy" J. K. Galbraith's commentary on
how the
2000 election was decided, via Tom Atlee's listserve
"tend and befriend (as opposed to fight or flight)"
recently reported
(2000) sociological findings on stress behavior of women being
different from men
"the tipping point" phrase recently given new prominence
by book
of that name by Malcom Gladwell now beginning to be used as
a catch phrase for lots of things
"the hate channel" Carolyn Casey on not letting individual
haters
get to you
"speciescide" Don MacQueen, quoted in Richard Heinberg's
MUSE LETTER #107, December 2000, p.3
"Bill of Responsibilities" William McDonough at Bioneers,
2000
"Declaration of Interdependence" also comes from Bioneers,
2000
"The Circle of Life" Julia Butterfly Hill
Tweaks from other sources:
True abundance (versus affluenza or accumulitis)
Keeping Earth safe for life
Making Earth safe for life
Earth awareness "the new new frontier"
Fiddling while our planet starts to burn
" " " slowly burns
The mother of all crashes "not just stocks, not just computers
-- Earth systems."
forest.gone ( a play on .com)" sent by Carolyn Zyha, Northwest
Earth Institute-Victoria
Earth, the real world-wide-web of life-" "
The dead planet blues
The climate threat
Climate shock
Climate crash
Climate decay
The weather threat
planet poison
planet poisoners
poisoning the planet
the sick planet plan
a sick planet makes people sick
a sick planet kills
shall we pass on a better world or just pass on?
Earth-systems crash or soft landing?
Other categories
currently being collected, analyzed,
and reported by The Metaphor Project include:
language, images, and ideas about economics
seen as the dominant paradigmsets of rules for creating sustainability, concise
statements or nicknames for our emerging
problems, progressive terms for sustainability
work, future scenariosleadership quotes on the subject of metaphor,
myth, and memethoughts about the nature and function of
metaphor, myth, and meme in society or as
tools for social changelanguage and images which reveal the deepest
level of our cultural myths
The Metaphor Project,
Susan C. Strong, Ph.D., Founder
tel. 925-254-7198, Post Office Box 892, Orinda, CA
94563, e-mail: metaphorproject@earthlink.net,
fax 925-254-3304