I was wandering around Berkeley a year and a half ago, trying to decide if I wanted to go to Berkeley, when I found this beautiful sticker. It seemed like such a perfect phrase for my socialist/teenage radical mindset. As long as you complain about the perceived problems, you are upholding freedom, justice and Mom's homemade rhubarb pie. As Mad Eye Moody would say, constant vigilance!
But bumper stickers are misleading.
Dissent for the sake of dissent, or the lack of compromise due to focusing on the negative is very harmful. Enter Poland circa 1600. Poland was a proud nation, hell bent on protecting each lords' freedoms. In their version of Congress, each representative had a series of rights, the main one being the right to "explode" the diet, or end conversation/legislation on a particular topic. Due to the massive amounts of exploded topics, Poland was not able to legislate effectively; the dissent caused too many arguments and not enough compromise. Eventually, the nation was swallowed up by its less progressive and more assertive neighbors. Dissent killed their country.
Bumper stickers don't tell the whole truth - they just wrap up one side of it in a pretty message and a bow. They sound great and make it seem like you are intelligent - and you don't even have to think! [That was sarcastic.] But really? Save yourselves. Don't slogan me.
1 comment:
Well said - and is generally why I find political slogans on bumper stickers annoying.
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