Slogans

I used to tease a friend who drove a car with a New Hampshire plate. The license featured the state motto: Live Free or Die. I asked her if anyone in the Granite State had ever considered less drastic binary options. A realist might live mostly free but accept the limitations consequent to membership in an organized society. A nihilist could just not give a damn. Embezzlers could live for free until indictment. Habitual proclaimers of the obvious could Live Free or Don’t…

Some people take slogans more seriously than I do. They have a few catch phrases that sum up their attitude toward life. When they explain themselves, they trot out their mottos with a hint of stubborn pride. One should note the hidden threat. If you challenge their statements or point out inadequacies, then you’ve attacked their identities and invited a battle.

Some “run silent” and never declare. They hum their theme songs to themselves. They either wish to avoid debate or think that their attitudes are self-evident. When you unwittingly cross a line, they challenge with a glare or a few sharp words. Fists may fly without warning.

Examples of slogan-cadets I’ve known: 1. An addictive type lived by the get-it-while-you-can motto. He grabbed at pleasurable opportunities in fear that they’d soon disappear. 2. Another “acted like a man”. That meant that he absorbed years of abuse. According to his book, a man took what he got and didn’t complain. 3. A naive optimist believed that “anyone could do anything if they tried hard enough”. She disagreed when I pointed out that I could never play linebacker in the NFL. According to her, I’d soon don a Steelers helmet and jersey if I didn’t let inexperience, slow footspeed, a spindly frame, and a distaste for physical violence stop me.

Slogans offer some benefits. They give clear guidelines during either abrupt confrontations or while dealing with long term issues. You can’t get lost when the signposts are printed with large, bold letters. Clarity bestows confidence and eases the difficulty of making choices. And branding people who follow different paths becomes easy. If fools insist on heading to Indianapolis while you’re on the road to Cleveland, then they must be misguided, stupid or evil. Only the righteous know the way to Cleveland.

But a slogan-directed life eventually runs into trouble. Repeated failures usually confront an unrealistic optimist. A person following a vengeful honor code becomes stranded in a scarred wasteland. A sensualist turns into a jaded burn out. A stoic reaches a point where he breaks under his cumulative burden.

Simple answers and easy guidelines don’t work in the long run. Fortune often runs contrary to expectation. Effort and preparation make success more likely but offer no guarantees.

If I had a slogan it would be, “Watch out for slogans.” The Fates have a way of punishing those who insist on the validity of shallow beliefs and simple solutions.