this is a great article on metaphor and behavior -- as George Lakoff notes at the beginning of the piece, "metaphors can kill." this is not something that we think about much, but it is indeed quite true. we live in a symbolic world and act based on our understanding of things. we act based on the sense we make of things. this sense that we make emerges from the words, ideas, beliefs that we use to understand the world. these "symbolic" materials are not fixed things, although we treat them as such. so, we do, indeed base our "reasons" for killing on such things as metaphors.

moral of that story...pay attention to what and how you think and know that it is just that, "thinking" -- manipulation of symbols that takes place in your mind -- nothing more, nothing less.