“We are at war,” French President Emmanuel Macron said gravely in one of his first evening messages about COVID-19 to the citizens of the country where I live. Five times he repeated it. My family and I were just beginning to adjust to our home confinement. I had not fully registered the battle imagery before then, but it was certainly there, in reports from the Italian “front line” and regions soon “under assault.” Two weeks later, by the time U.S. President Donald Trump said that watching doctors and nurses heading to work was like seeing “military people going into battle,” I felt besieged by the metaphor. It’s everywhere, in politics and business, and it might be doing us more harm than good.
I understand why people keep using it. Our physical bodies are at risk and our social bodies under strain. Our freedoms are restricted, our economies wrecked. There is a growing death toll. Many of us are sheltering in place while those who cannot stay home serve and protect us at great self-sacrifice.
I am also used to warfare metaphors. With all its talk of missions and strategic targets, management scholarship, my field, has long portrayed leaders in military camouflage. Executives themselves are now relying more heavily than ever on war talk. For many businesses, after all, each day is a battle for survival. And yet, language that evokes aggressive action and stoic resistance is problematic.