Slogans

The purpose of a slogan is to promote something such as an idea, business product or service. The purpose is often not clear from the slogan and it works more on emotion than reason.

A slogan is an advertising message that is created to be memorable. So slogans are used by many businesses or people when they speak about themselves or their product in order to attract attention from potential customers.

Humans have been using slogans for thousands of years to spread ideas. They are a tool that can be used for good or bad, and this is determined by the idea behind it rather than its wording.

For example, take the slogan "Give Peace a Chance". The wording is simple and easy to understand. It has an emotional ring to it that makes people think about peace in a positive way. This is because of the words used: 'peace' and 'chance'. These are loosely associated with each other.

This is a slogan that was spread by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in the late 1960s. It was used as their battle cry against the war that President Nixon had started at this time, Vietnam War.

The slogan was used in a way that gave people the feeling that they could do something about it. It was short and memorable, so John Lennon would sing it at his concerts.

It was an idea that brought the war into perspective. People could relate to it in their heads, and imagine what peace would be like.

This slogan was successful because John Lennon gave it a positive meaning and purpose. It spread the idea to speak out against war, which is something that every generation has done since then.

The kind of slogans that are based on generalizations should be viewed with skepticism. No generalization can ever completely describe reality; it always leaves out some details which might have been important had they been included. In other words, slogans only apply to a narrow range of cases, but not necessarily all cases.

If a slogan is associated with an organization or a group, then it will naturally reinforce the convictions of its supporters and strengthen their solidarity. But if others don't share those convictions, they may find the slogan extremely irritating.

The more people hear a slogan, the more it becomes conventional wisdom and is repeated automatically without thinking about its truth. The same thing happens when a phrase is often heard in the media or by politicians: It ends up being accepted as true even if it doesn't make any sense.

However, because the slogan is based on generalizations, it can never be perfect. It must leave out some details that may have been important had they been included. For example, the slogan: 'All animals are equal.' doesn't say anything about differences between individuals of each species.

The slogan: 'All men are created equal' doesn't say anything about differences between individuals of each sex.

The slogan: 'Give me liberty or give me death.' doesn't say anything about the quality of life that might be experienced by people in a society which is dominated by an oppressive regime.

Most slogans are rather stupid. "God is love" doesn't tell us much, for example.

But, for example, "Four legs good; two legs bad." is completely non-arbitrary. You could have one leg or three legs, and it would not make a difference to the truth of this slogan.

A slogan like "Four legs good; two legs bad." is an interesting counterpoint to a famous statement in the Bible: "God is love." The latter seems rather arbitrary, and it could just as well be called out as untrue. Why isn't God also hate? Or why not even Spaghetti?

But "Four legs good, two legs bad." can never be called out as untrue. This is because it does not depend on arbitrary definitions of its terms; rather it depends upon an objective property which is true in any circumstance.

If we were to take the two-legged animal out of its environment and place it in an entirely different one, it would not survive. This is because a human cannot survive on all fours.

This is an objective fact about the world. It doesn't rely upon arbitrary definitions for its terms.

Humanity has created a vast number of slogans. Some are good and some are bad, but they all fail to do what they claim. Why is that? Because humans have always put themselves first in the things they build.

Humans have this notion that they are the best and most important things in the universe. They feel entitled to do whatever they want, regardless of consequences.

Well, one consequence is that humans have never been able to build things that last. They build empires and kingdoms but they eventually fall apart as people do stupid things for reasons of self-interest.

Humans have created a great number of religions and spiritualities. These things are supposed to help people, but they never do in the long run.

Humans have created a great number of political movements and ideologies. These things are supposed to help people, but they never do in the long run.

Humans have created a great number of economic systems. These things are supposed to help people, but they never do in the long run.

Humans often try to convince others that their way of life and beliefs are paramount. Those in power do this the most, as they wish to maintain their status in society, or further it even.

The most common of these is the 'American Dream'. In general, this means that everyone should have equal opportunity to succeed, and that by working hard one can make a comfortable living for themselves.

This is a noble idea in principle, but the reality falls short. This dream does not exist for everyone, as it is limited to those who are born into wealth and power.

In fact, it is a bit of an illusion. A majority of the population have to work for those in power and their survival is dependent on them.

The poor are kept there, while the rich get richer and maintain their power base. This is a contradiction to the idea of equality.

The rich are not happy, however. They believe that they have earned their wealth and feel entitled to it.

I remember a quote by George Orwell: "'Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.'

This is a useful quote and, in my opinion, true. The question then becomes why would anyone use such language? Let us consider the words of another human author: "'Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' You can interpret this as being a more succinct version of 'Those who have the ability to do something often find excuses for doing it.'

There are many examples of this in human history. Every government has at some point used propaganda to justify their actions, whether they were right or wrong.

"'If you're not part of the solution then you're part of the problem.' This is a slogan that implies if one does not agree with all aspects of society such as, for instance, war or politics then they are wrong. With 'the solution' being war and politics. It makes political dissent seem insane.

Another slogan is: 'It takes a village to raise a child.' What this means, in my interpretation, is that while it was once the case that parents raised their children with the help of relatives and neighbors, now we must all be forced to participate in raising everyone's children. This attitude encourages government control over all individuals.

I will conclude now with another quote, this time from George Orwell's Animal Farm: "'All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.' This is a statement that one can interpret in many ways. I see it as having two distinct meanings.

I am making a distinction between two kinds of slogans: those that are the kind that everyone knows, and then more abstract ones. The first type has little meaning, but seems to have some emotional impact on people who hear them. They tend to be simple and short, or memorable due to rhythm or rhyme.

Unfortunately, the second category is not available to everyone. There are many slogans that have been written by philosophers looking for some kind of wisdom or insight. Some are quotes from great thinkers, others were created in a moment of inspiration.

At the end of the day, what are slogans ? I think that slogans can be a way of thinking, or even a philosophy. They are similar in some ways to aphorisms.

That being said, there's a caveat.

I think that slogans are a way of making thinking more efficient. If you have to think about something and want it quickly, then the slogan is a good shortcut.

But the problem is that there are two different kinds of slogans. One uses a shortcut to express an idea in less time and more easily than would be possible by thinking hard about it for longer.

The other kind of slogan is a shortcut which distorts the true meaning of an idea. This second type of slogan can be used to make people believe in ideas that are false, or not thought out.

It's the second kind of slogan which I think is more harmful. If someone wants to express an idea in a very short time, then they have two choices. They can either use the slogan as a shortcut, or they can write down their ideas and thoughts.

If they just use a slogan as a shortcut, then it's no problem. But if they think 'I can use this slogan to convince others of my ideas', then I worry about the effect on people.

If people are not exposed to the real idea, but only the slogan, then they will be encouraged to blindly believe in ideas that may not be true.