Words matter. Worry about the words that are used and—equating omission to action—the words that are not used are not mere preciousism. The form of speech is as important as its content. In fact, this distinction between form and content makes no sense. The speech is one.
The use of diseases as metaphors is as natural as the diseases themselves. In my text, Manifesto for Useless Knowledge, for example, I say that the notion that valid and credible knowledge is necessarily scientific "has metastasized as cancer that is".
Cancer is used to represent a destructive and impetuous evil, which quickly expands its domain area. In this sense, it is a very useful metaphor. Claiming that something is a cancer allows for a fantastic saving of words, as well as assigning a serious and almost as aggressive tone as the disease. Cancer represents a secret, impetuous invasion that doesn't knock on the door before entering.[1]
The problem is that this type of linguistic device is relevant due to the inferences that become possible. If whoever survived cancer "won," are the others losers? An athlete who loses, in a competition, loses because he did not train enough or perhaps because he did not have the discipline and willpower needed. And who loses the fight against cancer?
These ideas were developed and popularized by the great Susan Sontag in her book Illness as Metaphor1978. In this brief essay, the objective is to study, as the title indicates, tragedies as metaphors.
In the documentary Regarding Susan Sontag, the narrator—taking Sontag's voice and reading excerpts from his diaries—It says, "I feel like the Vietnam War. They're using chemical weapons on me. My disease is invasive, colonizing."[2]. The disease in question—of which the writer suffered three times during her life—It's cancer. What the author does here is the opposite of what she criticizes in the book I quoted. It uses war (a tragedy) to define a disease, a somewhat less lazy literary resource and not as critical as its inverse.
Sickness has victims, but they have no guilt. Tragedies have victims and almost always guilty. "If we treat a particular disease as an evil, an invincible predator, not just a disease, most people with cancer will feel demoralized when they discover the diagnosis"[3]. Thus, what he blames, which blames the sick for their illnesses besides not being right, makes no sense.
In the case of the tragedies committed and not simply occurred, we must blame, blame and demoralise the guilty. But this will still be the object of exploration and completion of this text.
Sontag, in his book, presents three diseases and explains how they are used in different ways as metaphors. In this article, we will explore very briefly two tragedies, focusing more on classification criteria than on the analysis of how they are used as metaphors. We will see the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001 and the fires in Portugal this year, 2024.
The most controversial example, of course, is what was popularized by the date, in which it occurred: 9/11. It's controversial because of the relativization of US victim status. It makes sense to separate "American people" and "American government/state."
The American Government, unquestionably imperialist, practices a philosophy, as far as international relations are concerned, of extreme interference. The US played a decisive role, shaping the geopolitical landscape of all continents, mainly from the post-war period. American intervention was a key factor, for example, for the planning and success of the Chilean military coup, led by Pinochet[4]; for the planning and success of the Iranian coup in 1953, which overthrew the Mohammad Mosaddegh government[5], and for the planning and success of the Guatemalan coup d'état in 1954, which dismissed President Jacobo Árbenz[6]. These are just a few examples of an immense and growing list, whenever the CIA decides to disqualify a batch of documents.
Any speech, however, that relativizes Al-Qaeda's guilt and blames the US for the September 11 attacks is constituted by ignorance, bad faith, or wishful thinking by those who dream of watching America burn. Since this is not a text on 11 September (on the subject, there are already numerous books), it is important only to say that this is an example of a tragedy and—briefly and categorically—to mention how disgusting are attempts to relativize the guilt of the group led by Osama bin Laden.
This year, between September 15th and 19th, Portugal was on fire. The places that did not catch fire were coercively possessed by a dense and orange mist, unlike the usual white and fresh mist of Porto.
When researching fires using the word "negligent", or "negligence", almost all the results found refer to arson. With a little deeper research, the state's negligence becomes evident.
We see reports with reports of firefighters who, in 2013, for over a decade, denounced government investments as insufficient.[7] Nine years later, in 2022, we saw the complaints.—by firemen—remain unchanged, with the Firefighters League categorizing the situation as "chronic underfunding"[8].
The fires of 2024 only surprised the public who have forgotten the recent past—with amnesia (selective or not)—and to the public suffering from the evil that is the wishful thinking, a phenomenon already mentioned, but allow me a brief note.
The problem of wishful thinking it is not to think that the future will be better than the present, but to be surprised when the future comes, it becomes present and is as terrible as the past or even worse.
Then we come to the real point of interest, the classification of tragedies and the possibility of instrumentalizing them. I went, as you may have noticed, forwarding some categories, but now it is time for us to proceed with a systematization.
The first case examined, on 11 September, is an excellent example of a tragedy. The second case, the arson case, negligent.
Because of the succinct nature of these articles, I will not explore the metaphors that may arise from these tragedies. Be creative. We had, in one example, one of the biggest symbols of the American financial system being destroyed by 15 Saudi terrorists, two from the Arab Emirates, one from Egypt and one from Lebanon. After the attack, the United States invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. In the other example, we saw a burning country and politicians praising the preparation of firefighters (who were not properly prepared and who criticize and denounce this reality for over a decade).
As for the classification of tragedies, with my robes as Baptista Machado, I propose the "Criteria of the Agent" and the "Criteria of Guilt".
The first serves to determine whether the tragedy examined itself—and if its impact—is attributable to the conduct of a person or group of persons. It would not resist the screening of this criterion, for example, the sudden intense hurricanes and rains that are not predicted by meteorologists.
If we find, with the first criterion, responsible, we apply the second—The Criteria of Guilt. Through this, we characterize the agent's responsibility. If the result is attributable to active conduct, in other words, intentional, let us call tragedy "painful tragedy". If it is imputable to a negligent conduct, we are faced with a "negligent tragedy".
With this text, I simply habilito (and encourage) my reader to use tragedies as metaphors and, using them, to pursue those who kill and destroy.
Once the trial is over, the trial is over, once those responsible have been identified, do not let them sleep ever again.
Porto, 2024.
[1] SONTAG, S. (1978) Illness as Metaphor. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. p. 5.
[2] Regarding Susan Sontag (2014).
[3] Ibidem, p. 7
[4] Cf. Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973, by Peter Kornbluh.
[5] Operation Ajax.
[6] Operation PBSuccess.
[7] "Firefighters consider that 4 million reinforcement is insufficient," in Daily News, published on 12/16/13. Available in https://www.dn.pt/portugal/bombers-considerinsufficient-strength-of-4-millones-3590061.html/
[8] "Firefighters' call criticises "chronic underfunding" attributed by the State to corporations," in RTP News, published on 12/02/22. Available in https://www.rtp.pt/noticias/parents/bomber-critical-subfunding-chronic-as-corporates n1383976
This text was originally published by the Catholic Policy Society (CPS), defunct since 2025.