When I worked on an organic farm after I graduated from college, back in 1998 (!), one of my fellow interns had a bumper sticker that really annoyed me. I saw it again the other day.
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell
I just think that's the most conceited thing I've ever seen. Who has the "truth"? What's "universal deceit"? Human beings are polarized enough. Why set ourselves against one another with words like truth and deceit?
hmm... i actually kind of like it.
ReplyDeleteyes, it is a bit much to say that we're in a time of universal deceit, but then again... maybe we always are.
and even if we have trouble being confident about absolute truth, aren't we in the truth telling business? i know that i encourage the oppressed people with whom i work to keep telling the truth, that that is the power they have.
i hear why it bugs you. these are just my thoughts.
i think what is kind of smarmy about it is that you can believe / do /think anything and feel at home with this bummer sticker on your car. this is a GREAT sticker if you are totally alienated from your culture or belong to a fringe group.
ReplyDeletemy least favorite bumper sticker is the one that goes "when religion ruled the world... it was the dark ages." the historian in me starts flipping out when he sees that one...
i am generally opposed to bumper stickers (and also tatoos and most t-shirts).
if you think what people in Mao-ist china lived through, well, telling the truth was in fact enough to get you and your family sent to jail: very counter-revolutionary. why does this quote bother you so much?
ReplyDeleteThe whole problem with the Mao-ist government and this bumper sticker is that they both believe/d they had a monopoly on truth. Who gets to decide what "the truth" is? It's an inherently flawed statement. Mao would stay he WAS standing up for the truth. So would Hitler, Martin Luther King, George Bush, and my grandmother. "Truth" doesn't really MEAN anything. Standing up for the poor and oppressed is one thing, but that's not what the bumper sticker says.
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