2008 Woodie Awards
Bumper stickers oversimplify life
Thursdays
Wesley Jackson
Issue date: 4/10/03 Section: Opinions
I love to read bumper stickers while I'm driving, especially the ones that have two-to-three paragraph, small print messages on them. They keep me busy while I'm impatiently waiting for the stoplight to turn green.
One might argue that bumper sticker slogans have become the new creeds, the new declarations of belief in our modern era.
We generally want the big ideas, the life-changing policies and the solutions to the world's problems boiled down to a sound bite, a commercial slogan, a bumper sticker. If the message takes more than that to explain, we don't have the time, the attention span or the interest to listen to it.
Rather than seeking to understand moral behavior and why people do bad things, we're content with the sticker, "Mean people suck."
This is true, of course, but there's more to it than that. Far from being a self-justifying, universal principle, we could've all seen the absurdity if Colin Powell tried to persuade the U.N. Security Council to disarm Iraq followed by the argument, "Ladies and gentlemen, Iraq needs to be disarmed because, well, damn it, mean people suck. And Saddam Hussein is a mean person."
No moral reasoning? Nothing about good verses evil and fighting for truth and justice? Such an argument would have been a joke.
You can't squeeze life, much less war resolutions, into one bumper sticker slogan. Our world is too complex for that.
Another favorite bumper sticker of mine is, "Question authority."
Apparently this phrase is supposed to summarize America's freedom-loving spirit.
I would love to pull my car up behind those vehicles having the sticker and give their back bumper a little tap. Then, after hearing the drivers yell, "What do you think you're doing?" respond, "Just questioning authority."
But the sticker didn't mean they wanted me to tap their bumper, did it?
Maybe, maybe not. The slogan has tried to take a big idea about freedom and simplify it. But life is not that simple.
Yet another famous bumper-sticker phrase is, "What would Jesus do?"
As if this were an easy, think-about-it-on-your-way-to-work question, this phrase has essentially taken more than 1,500 years of theological debate and ideas by some of the world's foremost thinkers and writers and scrapped it. Those old preachers and priests didn't think it was an easy question. But, somehow, we now think if everyone just acted like they think Jesus would have, the world would be a better place.
Suffice it to say, there are a lot of different people with a lot of different ideas about what Jesus would, in fact, do. The slogan, by itself, is too simplistic for life.
The more recent bumper sticker, "Books Not Bombs," oversimplifies our current conflict in Iraq.
It's a well-intentioned idea, suggesting that education, not war, brings peace. But the bare-bones phrase ignores the fact that even the most well-educated nations are capable of committing horrific atrocities, as was the case with Nazi Germany. Education is not a miracle-drug, silver-bullet, catchall solution.
And neither is the bumper sticker.
Anyone proposing any solution for war better have more than just a catchy cliché to back up their ideas.
When it comes to making declarations about the world and what we believe, it should always involve more than just a few bumper sticker slogans.
Life is too complex to have all its parts oversimplified by a sound bite.
In order to form accurate ideas about anything, we always need more than just a catchy, shallow phrase.
People need to be talked to, books need to be read, and thoughts need to be mulled over. Forming ideas takes a lot of time and a lot of listening.
Don't settle for a world boxed in by clever clichés and sound bites. Don't let your belief system be limited to a 3-by-12 inch strip of paper on the back of your car.
May your creed for life do more than merely amuse people waiting at traffic lights.
Wesley Jackson is a sophomore English major and can be reached via e-mail at wtj2b@ mtsu.edu.
One might argue that bumper sticker slogans have become the new creeds, the new declarations of belief in our modern era.
We generally want the big ideas, the life-changing policies and the solutions to the world's problems boiled down to a sound bite, a commercial slogan, a bumper sticker. If the message takes more than that to explain, we don't have the time, the attention span or the interest to listen to it.
Rather than seeking to understand moral behavior and why people do bad things, we're content with the sticker, "Mean people suck."
This is true, of course, but there's more to it than that. Far from being a self-justifying, universal principle, we could've all seen the absurdity if Colin Powell tried to persuade the U.N. Security Council to disarm Iraq followed by the argument, "Ladies and gentlemen, Iraq needs to be disarmed because, well, damn it, mean people suck. And Saddam Hussein is a mean person."
No moral reasoning? Nothing about good verses evil and fighting for truth and justice? Such an argument would have been a joke.
You can't squeeze life, much less war resolutions, into one bumper sticker slogan. Our world is too complex for that.
Another favorite bumper sticker of mine is, "Question authority."
Apparently this phrase is supposed to summarize America's freedom-loving spirit.
I would love to pull my car up behind those vehicles having the sticker and give their back bumper a little tap. Then, after hearing the drivers yell, "What do you think you're doing?" respond, "Just questioning authority."
But the sticker didn't mean they wanted me to tap their bumper, did it?
Maybe, maybe not. The slogan has tried to take a big idea about freedom and simplify it. But life is not that simple.
Yet another famous bumper-sticker phrase is, "What would Jesus do?"
As if this were an easy, think-about-it-on-your-way-to-work question, this phrase has essentially taken more than 1,500 years of theological debate and ideas by some of the world's foremost thinkers and writers and scrapped it. Those old preachers and priests didn't think it was an easy question. But, somehow, we now think if everyone just acted like they think Jesus would have, the world would be a better place.
Suffice it to say, there are a lot of different people with a lot of different ideas about what Jesus would, in fact, do. The slogan, by itself, is too simplistic for life.
The more recent bumper sticker, "Books Not Bombs," oversimplifies our current conflict in Iraq.
It's a well-intentioned idea, suggesting that education, not war, brings peace. But the bare-bones phrase ignores the fact that even the most well-educated nations are capable of committing horrific atrocities, as was the case with Nazi Germany. Education is not a miracle-drug, silver-bullet, catchall solution.
And neither is the bumper sticker.
Anyone proposing any solution for war better have more than just a catchy cliché to back up their ideas.
When it comes to making declarations about the world and what we believe, it should always involve more than just a few bumper sticker slogans.
Life is too complex to have all its parts oversimplified by a sound bite.
In order to form accurate ideas about anything, we always need more than just a catchy, shallow phrase.
People need to be talked to, books need to be read, and thoughts need to be mulled over. Forming ideas takes a lot of time and a lot of listening.
Don't settle for a world boxed in by clever clichés and sound bites. Don't let your belief system be limited to a 3-by-12 inch strip of paper on the back of your car.
May your creed for life do more than merely amuse people waiting at traffic lights.
Wesley Jackson is a sophomore English major and can be reached via e-mail at wtj2b@ mtsu.edu.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 4
leverett
leverett
posted 4/11/03 @ 9:03 AM CST
Here's one of mine: MTSUPARKINGSUCKS.COM.
Its one of my stickers, and its pretty much the simple truth. :)
Ayn Baker
Ayn Baker
posted 4/14/03 @ 12:13 AM CST
Bumper stickers and symbols are very affective in showing a person's opinions- especially those born out of hate... the darwin fish is a prime example of showing one's hatred, religious bigotry, and Christian bashing attitude. (Continued…)
Ayn Baker
Ayn Baker
posted 4/16/03 @ 6:50 PM CST
leve. yep, I'm sure it shows all your hatred and ignorance, hate it for ya!
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