Green Pill Inquiry at the 2009 Green Festival
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The Green Pill Inquiry examines how metaphors and pop culture can be used to change hearts and minds. Visit here the play-by-play of the Green Pill Inquiry workshop at the 2009 Green Festival. http://greenpill.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/metaphor-in-the-green-pill-inquiry/
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Green Pill Inquiry at the 2009 Green Festival
- 1. THE GREEN PILL Mining Pop Culture for Compelling Metaphors San Francisco Green Festival 13 November 2009 Dave Room daveroom@gmail.com TheGreenPill.com
- 2. Today’s Path • • • • Brief performance piece Primer on Metaphors Warm-up: Group exercise Breakout groups: uncover compelling metaphors • Short closing discussion
- 3. See the movie or read the book?
- 4. What are your Goggles? • Goggles as a metaphor for the set of filters that shape how we see the world • Or set of metaphors that we live by • IGNORANCE IS SPECTACLES • Blinders prevent him from seeing the truth • The disappointment is attributable to beer googles • Rose tinted glasses colored her view of the situation
- 5. Experientially Complementary Pop Culture Understood Concept Reference Concept Metaphors Simplify Abstract Concept Perspective Interventions Element 1 Element 2 Think Element 2 Element 9 Speak Element 3 Act Element n Element 1 Element 3
- 6. Metaphors Shape Perspective • ARGUMENT IS WAR – Your claims are indefensible – She shot down all of my arguments – His criticisms were right on target • ARGUMENT IS DANCE – Her criticisms are on point – Her argument is graceful – His dirty moves offend comprehension • Perspective determines intervention
- 7. Types of Metaphors LOVE IS COLLABORATIVE WORK OF ART Constitute new view Criticize/transform dominant view Describe dominant view LOVE IS JOURNEY LOVE IS DEAD END STREET
- 8. What Do We Look Like to Nature? • If nature could see us in our entirety, what might we look like? • How to think about this question – Identify key elements of our relationship to nature you want to emphasize – Think of archetypes or metaphors that embody the aspects you want to emphasize – Identify examples from pop culture and art
- 9. HUMANITY IS WILE E COYOTE MUTINY of HUMANITY IS SMART EMPHASIZED ELEMENT = OBLIVIOUS TO DANGER UNTIL TOO LATE
- 10. The Monkey Trap HUMAN PREDICAMENT IS MONKEY TRAP MUTINY of HUMANITY IS SMART EMPHASIZED ELEMENT = GREED, ENTITLEMENT
- 11. MUTINY of HUMANITY IS STEWARD EMPHASIZED ELEMENT = PLAGUE ON THE LAND HUMANITY IS LOCUST
- 12. MUTINY of HUMANITY IS STEWARD EMPHASIZED ELEMENT = OVERCONSUMPTION HUMANITY IS CATERPILLAR
- 13. ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS A OUT-OF-CONTROL MACHINE MUTINY of ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS PROGRESS EMPHASIZED ELEMENT = DESTRUCTION
- 15. ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS ROBOT MUTINY of ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS PROGRESS EMPHASIZED ELEMENT = CONVERSION OF NATURE TO PRODUCTS
- 16. ECONOMIC SYSTEM is ROBOT THE BRAIN OPERATING SYSTEM LANGUAGES/COMMANDS APPLICATIONS THE BODY SENSORY MECHANISMS MANIPULATION OF THINGS MOVEMENT PRODUCTION OCCUPATION
- 17. Breakouts: Pop Culture Metaphors 1. Pick someone to take notes and report back 2. Focus on assigned relationship for your group 3. Think about elements of relationship you want to emphasize 4. Identify examples from pop culture illustrating elements to emphasize 5. Write element, metaphor, and pop culture reference on tablet paper
- 18. Key Relationships to Explore 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Humans and Nature System and Nature Humans and System Global North and Global South Indigenous and Modern Society
- 19. Green Pill Inquiry • Purpose to enhance understanding of complex situations and identify interventions • Three premises that form a lens of inquiry 1. 2. 3. Blind spots affect decision making Social systems constrain our choices Change happens; support, resist, or shape it
- 20. The Green Pill Inquiry • Use pop culture metaphors and art to awaken and activate, develop emotional connection • Can focus on big picture and/or specific topic • Can tailor workshop (length, topic, purpose) • Pilot for a Cable/Youtube show • Collaboration opportunities • TheGreenPill.com or Fan us on Facebook
- 21. Green Goggles at CPUC Hearing
- 22. THANK YOU! We are all connected
- 23. THE GREEN PILL Mining Pop Culture for Compelling Metaphors San Francisco Green Festival 13 November 2009 Dave Room daveroom@gmail.com TheGreenPill.com
Editor's Notes
- This workshop is about choosing metaphors to live into rather than living metaphors we inherited. Our aim today is to discover some metaphors from pop culture that are already resident in our minds that can be activated to support the shift towards an inclusive, low consumption future. The best of which will be highlighted on the web site: thegreenpill.com
- We’ll start out with a performance piece and a discussion of how metaphors affect our thinking and behavior. Then we’ll do a group exercise, breakout into groups to discover some compelling metaphors, and end with a short discussion. Sounds good?
- Put your hands up if you recognize this. Someone tell me what it is in three words. Put your hands down if you only saw the movie. Great! Well, looky here, we’ve got some visitors. [skit starts] Dorothy - pointing as they walk: "Oooh, that must be the Emerald City. Its glowing so bright, and brighter with our every step"All, skipping, arm in arm, scarecrow waves arms BIG.[stop at wall, all look up at the huge wall]Scarecrow: "The yellow brick road ends at this gate. What do we do now?" Dorothy pushes the button which opens the gate - "Oh look a button. Let's go in"Gatekeeper [looking up at Dorothy]: "What do you wish in the Emerald City?"Dorothy: "We came here to see the Great Oz" Gatekeeper: "He is powerful and terrible, and if you come on an idle or foolish errand, he might be angry and destroy you all in an instant."Lion: "It is important errand. And we have been told that Oz is a good Wizard."Gatekeeper: "And so he is. I am the Guardian of the Gates. I will take you to his Palace. But first you must put on the spectacles." Dorothy: "Huh?" Gatekeeper, touching key on his neck: "If you did not wear spectacles, the brightness and glory of the Emerald City would blind you. Even those who live here wear spectacles night and day. They are all locked on, for Oz so ordered it when the City was first built." Tin Man: "Fast forward four chapters, we've dissolved the Wicked Witch of the West and Oz says he can't help us."[Dorothy peaks behind the curtain and screams...]Oz appearing - "I am Oz, the Great and Terrible.. But don't hurt me--please don't--and I'll do anything you want me to."Dorothy: "Are you not a Great Wizard?" Oz: "Don't speak so loud, or you will be overheard--and I should be ruined. I'm supposed to be a Great Wizard." Tin Man: "You're a fraud. How did this come to be?"Oz: "Just to amuse myself, and keep the good people busy, I ordered them to build this City; they did so willingly and well. Then I thought, as the country was so green and beautiful, I would call it the Emerald City; and to make the name fit better I put green goggles on all the people, so that everything they saw was green." Scarecrow: "But isn't everything here green?" Oz: "No more than San Francisco or Oakland. But when you wear green goggles, everything looks green. My people have worn green goggles so long that most think it really is an Emerald City." Lion, coming back, unlocking the green goggles on his friends and then audience members: "I got the key from the gatekeeper. Lets take off these green googles."Dorothy, to the audience, raising her hand: "Won't some of you take off the green goggles as well."All: give high fives for audience members who raise their hands
- Here’s a question we all need to be asking ourselves – What are my goggles? When I say this, I’m presenting goggles as metaphor for the set of metaphors or filters that determine how we see the world The metaphor IGNORANCE IS SPECTACLES is an extension of the metaphor IGNORANCE IS OBJECT You’ve all heard of rose tinted glasses and beer goggles right? This metaphor leads us to think and speak about our ignorance in certain ways, and how we think drives how we act
- Why do we use metaphor? Some concepts are more abstract (like IGNORANCE) and are more easily in reference to something we understand better like spatial orientation and objects. In this case, it is spectacles but it could also be clouds or fog… Metaphors emphasize some aspects, while de-emphasizing or hiding others. Certain aspects of a concept flow from the general metaphorical definition of the concept. Other aspects do not fit well within that construct, and are therefore not addressed. Some of those hidden aspects can be addressed through complementary metaphors Complementary Metaphors IGNORANCE IS OBSCURING WEATHER (CLOUDS or FOG) IGNORANCE IS BLISS IGNORANCE IS INFINITE (Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe. ~Albert Einstien)
- Metaphors shape how we see the world. This is very apparent. A common metaphor is ARGUMENT IS WAR. We speak of arguments in terms of war, such as she shot down all of my arguments. This perspective leads us to view arguments in a very adversarial and competitive manner. [click] How might we view argument if we were in a culture that used the ARGUMENT IS DANCE metaphor. [click] It is critical note, that our perspective determines the possible interventions. There will be different interventions in a argument in a culutre that thinks ARGUMENT IS WAR vs. a culture that thinks ARGUMENT IS DANCE
- Metaphors are a simplification. Metaphors emphasize some aspects, while de-emphasizing or hiding others. Certain aspects of a concept flow from the general metaphorical definition of the concept. Other aspects do not fit well within that construct, and are therefore not addressed. Some of those hidden aspects can be addressed through complementary metaphors
- Certain metaphors
- Mirrors are conventional metaphors that describe the dominant cultural narrative. Magicians are new metaphors which constitute a new way of looking at things. Mutinies are new metaphors that criticize and transform the dominant narrative. [click] Take the concept LOVE. LOVE IS A JOURNEY is the typical way of thinking of it – start, end, ups and downs, etc.. LOVE IS A COLLABRATIVE WORK OF ART suggests much greater control and co-creating something that others might consider beautiful. LOVE IS A DEAD END STREET riffs off LOVE IS A JOURNEY, saying this is a journey not worth taking. Another mutiny. Life’s a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Mutiny of LIFE IS A STORY. Dave, covering up chest: My shirt is a mutiny for street culture. Put your hands up if you saw the picture. Keep your hands up if it said Godfather. Can someone out here tell me what it really says? FATHER IS GODFATHER FATHER IS GOODFATHER What is a mutiny in one community can be a mirror in another.
- This is our warm up exercise. This question intrigues me because there is no right answer. There are however many metaphors that answer the question well. Think about it this way. First, what aspects of the relationship between nature and humanity do you want to emphasize. Second, what archetypes or metaphors embody the aspects you want to emphasize. Extra credit is the come up with examples from pop culture. I am going to quickly go through some examples.
- Are we like Coyote who is so intent on catching Road Runner that he runs off the cliff? HUMANITY IS WILE E COYOTE MUTINY of HUMANITY IS SMART EMPHASIZED ELEMENT = OBLIVIOUS TO DANGER UNTIL TOO LATE
- HUMAN PREDICAMENT IS MONKEY TRAP MUTINY of HUMANITY IS SMART EMPHASIZED ELEMENT = GREED, ENTITLEMENT This is a metaphor that I use. All monkey needs to do to escape is let go, but most won’t
- HUMANITY IS TERMINATOR MUTINY of HUMANITY IS SMARTEMPHASIZED ELEMENT = KILL THE FUTURE
- Van Jones asked Power Shift 2009, do we want to be Locusts or Butterflies.. Locust is the swarming phase of short-horned grasshoppers One of the Plagues of Egypt in the Bible was a swarm of locusts, which ate all the crops of Egypt.
- MUTINY of HUMANITY IS STEWARD EMPHASIZED ELEMENT = OVERCONSUMPTION HUMANITY IS CATERPILLAR As they prepare to go into the cocoon, Caterpillars eat just about everything in their path If caterpillars were human, they might look something like this
- what's the metaphor represented? b) what do you see that makes you say that? ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS A OUT-OF-CONTROL MACHINE MUTINY of ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS PROGRESS EMPHASIZED ELEMENT = DESTRUCTION
- KEY ASPECT = PIRACY ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS PIRATE SHIP From the Watchman
- KEY ASPECT = INJUSTICE AND ECOLOGY DETERIORATION ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS TRASH COMPACTOR
- KEY ASPECT = DESTRUCTION OF LIFE ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS DEATH STAR
- ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS ROBOT MUTINY of ECONOMY SYSTEM IS PROGRESSEMPHASIZED ELEMENT = CONVERSION OF NATURE TO PRODUCTS
- Metaphor leads to elements of the machine Core is worldview that we are all separate, nature has no intrinsic value or rights, and we discount by time and distance… This metaphor provides multiple intervention points.Interventions can happen at any level *** Any topic can be looked as its own robot
- Count off groups of X
- Ask audience a) what happened in the video? b) what did you see that makes you say that?
- - Please fill out evaluation form- Learn more at TheGreenPill.com- Thank audience and collaborators