I'm very intrigued by your assessment of the book (and it's idea). I've already started imagining what could fit that bill; and I have to admit I'm seeing how inextricably we're tied to our limited formative metaphors. I can't wait to get my little o-book (online book).
There's a lot of variety in the formative experiences that folks go thru (especially these days in the world), but I agree that (I think just because of the nature of life) competitiveness is at the base of most experience [or words to that effect]. Even fulfilling our own needs, drives, etc. is a competition (even with ourselves?).
Joseph Ellis -historian, was just talking about how, much as children first see parents as infallible (and later as the source of all that is wrong with the world), adults still use that "all or nothing" approach to understanding other's points of view (individually, and on a national level). Logic and rhetoric classes should be mandatory in high school.
