Accounting as a Metaphor for Morality
How Liberals and Conservatives Think: This Week in my Integral Politics Course
So, I’ve been thinking of my life in relation to the metaphor of debt for a while. Mostly—obviously—because I’m carrying some pretty significant credit card overextension, which I feel less than capable of balancing in the ledger. About a year ago, I heard a This American Life called Bad Bank explaining the economic crisis using a dollhouse that cost $100. Super simple; we spend more than we have. We borrow more than we can pay back. Banks extend credit to those who can't necessarily make restitution. All I could think was, Fuck, I’ve done as much to cause the recession as any big important banker! I spend more than I have! More than I can hope to pay back! WHY? Why do I live my life in a chronic state of debt? What do I gain? How does this possibly benefit me? How can I make sense of it?
It used to be so simple when I was a Christian. Jesus paid off all my existential credit cards, no strings attached—except, I then owed Him my life, for eternity. How does the metaphor of moral accounting change as we move through development? I see in George Lakoff’s work (see video & book link below) that we use fewer of the elements of the moral accounting metaphor at liberal than we do at conservative. He says that accounting is a quantitative way to measure something qualitative. Will we just keep shedding elements of accounting when dealing with morality? Will another metaphor take its place? Accounting seems to fit well with industrial age, social systems. Is there a digital/informational metaphor arising? I’ve heard that attention is the currency of our time…
