Crisis metaphors dominating public discourse had no basis in economic theory

Evidence

Upon reflection, it was perhaps not unexpected that the concepts which came to dominate “explanation” in the generalist press were a mélange of biological and religious metaphors: Nature and God usually trump the market in America. Although the actual array of metaphors bandied about back then pose all sorts of interesting questions from a rhetorical point of view (and someday should attract its very own Derrida), the main lesson we shall draw here from our superficial survey is that none of them had anything whatsoever to do with economic theory. They were the flimsiest of jerry-built constructs, improvised on the fly to make someone disoriented by panic believe we could make some instant sense of the crisis. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 465

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle: why panic-driven explanatory metaphors supplant disciplinary theory, and what ‘Derrida-worthy’ rhetorical analysis of crisis framing could yield.
• XREF: Relates to the book’s recurring theme of how crisis discourse gets captured—connects to later chapters on austerity ideology and the thought collective’s reframing. — connects to: A tiny economy’s crisis was weaponized as a metaphor for austerity — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 202; Neoclassical economics had no framework for deflationary crises — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 158; Economists lost control of crisis discourse to journalists—a sign of being caught unawares — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 464 (+4 more)
• QUESTION: What specific biological and religious metaphors dominated? Worth chasing examples beyond this claim—e.g. ‘contagion,’ ‘heart of the system,’ ‘act of God.‘

Broader Connections

• Ideology shapes economic crisis rather than merely reflecting it #expands (0.75)
• Cartesian metaphors valid for small facts fail on big contested ones #exemplifies (0.75) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 359
• The 2008 crisis was fundamentally a crisis of economic ideas #corroborates (0.72) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 132
• Orthodox economics models structurally excluded the possibility of major crises #expands (0.70) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 491