The power of metaphors and framing

The power of metaphors and framing

We’ve talked about the power of metaphors in this blog before. We’ve noted the power of metaphors and how we frame our points or issues we are dealing with. Karl Rove and Frank Luntz for the Republican administration have been masterful in their skill in doing this forthe Bush administration. Complex issues are expressed in short metaphors by politicians.A good example of this is intoday’s Seattle PI whereGeorge Bush uses a powerful example. He was attacking Democrats for taxes and says "they are acting like a teenager with a new credit card." Now that’s a splendid example of the kind of Luntz and Rove framing in metaphors that communicates an image so much more powerful then words alone. We need to learn to do that in our practice. Finding the right metaphor that communicates a whole lot more then the words alone is a short hand way to go directly to someone’s belief system. We should be spending time in preparing for our cases in doing this.

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