Just Seven Things

I was thinking about in-built/ deep-seated metaphors or beliefs in my post about consumers, brands and the unconscious.

Today I was thinking about one of the ‘giants’ referred to by the Zaltmans that they had called ‘container’. It was about how inclusion, exclusion and other boundaries affect consumer thinking. Their site explains this further as:

‘Containers perform two functions: keeping things in and keeping things out.  They can protect us or trap us, can be opened and closed, and be positive or negative.  They involve physical, psychological, and social states.’

Now, I have a confession to make that I am strangely addicted to Time Team. I don’t know why. I know other men of my age (mid-30s) who have confessed under muted breath to loving Antique’s Roadshow, but none to TT. I think it may be a ‘busy-people-Sunday-early-evening-crash’ thing (or it may just be a sad thing: depending on whether you have spoken to my wife). However, I’m willing to household-chore-barter a lot to get an hour or two’s peace to have it on in the background while I work on something.

To the point. During a Time Team special a couple of weeks ago on Iron Age hill forts (follow here for images of real iron age hill forts. I much preferred Galja Pletikapic‘s image of An Old Chapel though to illustrate a point (many thanks Galja)) the role of the forts was discussed. Although commonly used as defensive structures, a number seem just to mark their territory with otherwise indefensible ditch and bank systems. One archaeologist referred to the iron age concept of ‘inside and outside’ (the group/ clan/ settlement) and that being from the ‘wrong side of the tracks’ was as true then as it is now.

What struck me was that all of the Zaltman identified deep metaphors are powerful. However, when you think about the Zaltman’s explanation that “deep metaphors” are “unconscious viewing lenses” that help us to structure what we think, hear, say and do, ‘container’ – and the depth of its routes when considered in terms of the importance in the Iron Age – becomes incredibly salient in the study of removing limiting beliefs.

Unless we create a vision and sets of goals that break down our personal sense of ‘containment’, we’ll only be operating within pre-defined parameters. We may think that we have a chance of achieving our vision, but unless our beliefs are aligned we’ll be trapped in our current ‘physical, psychological and social states’. These could potentially be as deep-rooted as senses of class, gender or race.

I wonder though whether you may have to go deeper to cross the boundary between ‘inside and outside’?

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