The war against metaphors - Analysis

We received an article to read and analyse for TOK homework. It's titled "The war against metaphors" by Melinda Wenner and published in the Guardian. Essentially, the author argues that military terms are not appropriate for use in scientific language because it induces just one way of looking at a problem and that scientists who use such terms may risk credibility because they are not being completely objective as science is. War terms cause more subjectivity and hence enforce people to think of the scientific terms in one way, an extreme; such as bacteria being described as the "enemy" and the "war" against cancer making people think that the only way to eradicate the problem is to attack and defend it rather than having another approach and looking at the physical and social environment. The author does make a good point, but overall, I do not completely agree with her. Since this has to do with general public not specializing in the environments of bacteria and other factors, they should at least be aware of the high importance of such conditions and how dangerous they could be. Being completely objective and having a statement such as "The avoidance of cancerous cells in a body with the help of many factors such as learning about the environment and figuring out the cure through the study of..." will not appeal to anyone trying to help the cause. In terms of financial purposes, not many will donate understanding that this is a long procedure requiring the study of the best possible solution. Like George Lakoff said as an opposition to this was that, "this is not language, this is the way people think." He says this to illustrate how people's perception is restricted as a result of this. However, I think that using war metaphors in science is effective BECAUSE of that statement. When action is required, we want people to contribute and by using war metaphors, it will make the cause that much more urgent. Using these metaphors encourages people and causes urgency for them to take some action and help the cause because that is the way we think.