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Abstract
In the ongoing debate between two organizations in higher education, the National Association of Scholars and Teachers for Democratic Culture, the rhetorical position of each side resemble those of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union of the 1950s and 1960s, where each side created a mirror image of the other based on ethnocentric perceptions. While the image of cold war is itself a metaphor, the metaphor is developed and articulated by the use of images and stories that sustain the understanding of the conflict. A mirror image can develop when the parties in conflict believe that: (1) there are only two sides, (2) the conflict is zero‐sum, and (3) their side is losing. When disagreeing bodies create a mirror image of the other side a destructive cycle of rhetorical imagery is generated that prevents resolution of the conflict. The image created does not define the world, but rather defines the protagonist.