The metaphor of disaster

Before I continue with the "Mr. Vietnam" series, I have just one word to say:

TSAR?!?!?

This penchant for appointing "tsars" goes back to the "drug tsar" idea from the 1980s, when the US government famously declared war on drugs. Who's winning? You decide.

The weird part of this story, of course, is the choice of the term "tsar." Why on earth would you choose a term connoting the following:

• The failure of European monarchy in general.
• The autocratic Romanov dynasty in particular.
• The authoritarian government that preceded the longest-lived totalitarian regime.
• The royal family that ended ignominiously, shot, burned, and covered in acid.

In no way, if I were President, would I want to call my new top-level official in charge of Iraq and Afghanistan a "tsar". From where does this penchant for applying the term "tsar" to important new officials come? It's largely a by-product of American business culture, where people are attracted to the muscular-sounding language behind terms like "tsar," with no awareness or interest in the sort of historical disasters they connote.

For example, I worked at a company, which shall remain nameless, that called an important marketing campaign "Rolling Thunder." Since I have a congenital defect that prevents me from keeping my big yap shut, I had to point out that Rolling Thunder not only implied the Vietnam War, but one of the least effective campaigns in that conflict. It was too late for anyone to change the name, however, since senior managers at this unnamed company already fell in love with the basso profundo sound of Rolling Thunder.

At the same company, a new project somehow got the codename Tsunami. Several people questioned the wisdom of naming something after a national disaster, but the moniker, once again, had already gathered momentum. However, in this case, the very real tsunami of 2004 forced an abrupt re-titling of this project. Ahem.

At least some people, such as Sean Penn, have the good sense to know when a metaphor doesn't work.

Comments

[BLOB[11]]

Don't ignore the symbolism. The Republican obsession with appointing "Tzars" speaks heavily to their desire to wield absolute executive power.

[Alexei McDonald]

I always assumed that it was the Czar's ability to rule via ukase that was being referred to, which I guess is much the same point as the previous poster was making. However, the actual ability of the new Iraq/Afghanistan Czar to issue an ukase seems limited. From what I hear, no one will take the job since the holder would have no control whatever over the most important decisions.

[David Tomlin]

The first 'czar' I recall was the 'energy czar' of the 1970s.

From a little googling, it seems 'czar' was an unofficial nickname, possibly originating with Gary Trudeau's 'Doonesbury' cartoons.