Posted on 09/23/2003 7:45:16 PM PDT by dpflanagan
What should a political party do to minimize debate on the part of their constituents over real issues and simply pre-program voters to think and act a certain way? Well, first thing, control education at the national level where you can teach kids WHAT to think instead of HOW to think. Secondarily, feed your constituents a series of one-line bumper sticker slogans which sound great but have about as much real meat as your average soy-burger.
Can there be any doubt that liberals are the masters of this art? Personally, I have, for a long time now, been very wary of bumper sticker slogans of any kind.
Why? Because bumper sticker slogans are to rational thought as the Big Mac is to a healthy diet. The fact is, you are better off without the Big Mac in your life, but you just can’t resist that tasty, fat-filled concotion. Eating the thing fills your stomach, but, ultimately, does more harm than good—as your cholesteral-clogged arteries are likely to tell you.
In the same way, bumper sticker slogans sound great and seem to zing the opposition, but what they really do is retard logical thought and erode public discourse on the issues of our day. On the other hand, if you are the kind of person who needs aspirin any time someone actually asks you to think for yourself, then I guess the “Bush’s War,” sweatshirts and the “He’s not the President-Elect, he’s the President-SELECT” signs, are your dream come true.
I guess I can understand why some of those protesters from the Viet Nam era would want others to think for them. After all, how many brain cells are left to think with after all those drugs they’ve taken? In similar fashion, young people having been subjected to our modern public school system are ripe candidates for manipulation.
Truth be told, the time was that I too was one of those mindless high school grads ripe for the picking. Thank goodness I learned to think for myself in college, otherwise, I might be a bumper sticker toting, slogan-filled pamphlet-bearing, catchy phrase t-shirt-wearing automaton myself.
So, if a thought-free existence is “your thing,” then go ahead, raise up that liberal slogan and cast off all real thought! You are a free citizen of this nation! Free to blindly follow any leader you choose, to spout mindless, meaningless, pre-chewed rhetoric at will and, especially, in the face of someone trying to engage you in REAL debate.
If you want someone else to do your thinking for you, then more power to ya! In this country, you have the right to grow up without even once exercising that gray blob in your head commonly known as your brain. Isn’t America wonderful?!
What am I gonna do? Well, I guess I’ll go have myself a Big Mac!
David Flanagan
http://www.viewpointjournal.com
"That cell phone would look great up your @ss."
"That cell phone would look great up your @ss."
Too bad Maplethorpe isn't around to photograph it.
"Don't Be a Dick."
LOL.
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