The conscripted metaphor

This article explores the relationship between the language of the State and its influence, either seen or unseen, on the language of the writer. The article builds on the claims made by authors such as Edward Said and Albert Jay Nock who posited that the State, in effect, monopolizes cultural and educational institutions, as well as digital mediums, to such an extent that the poet/critic trained or educated inside this State system is compromised at the level of the metaphor, and in the writer’s ability to pursue disinterestedly any real and meaningful criticism of the State. In support of this thesis, the article analyses several historical and contemporary entanglements between Iraq and the west, with an emphasis on critical literature, State demagoguery and higher education.