Bumper Stickers

Bumper Stickers. You know them, the clever little signs on the back of cars. The ones where folks espouse political positions in catchy little phrases. I’m not talking about the Obama/Biden or McCain/Palin type of bumper sticker or the one where you support your favorite college or pro team. No, I’m talking about the self righteous political ones.

I see the one where they spell the word PEACE using the various world religious symbols. I just want to go up to these folks and ask them how sales on those are going in islamic countries. 

My personal opinion is, if your political beliefs can be summed up on a bumper sticker, you clearly haven’t given enough thought to your positions. You need to step back and ask yourself, “If my beliefs on X can be correctly stated on a 4” by 12” vinyl strip meant to be read at 40 feet, have I really given this enough serious thought?” Now my guess is that most of these simpletons would respond with one of their patent answers that are equally bumper sticker worthy, and equally simple.

Now understand, I believe this theory holds true whether we are talking about a conservative or a liberal bumper sticker. However, it does appear that the majority  of these bumper stickers are sported by liberals. Maybe it’s because I live in a college town and it is chock full of aging hippies and idealistic young dolts who know all the answers, neither of which have ever had to deal with the real world. (Kind of like the crowd our President has assembled to run our country.) 

But I guess, at the end of the day, I really kind of like having these folks sport these stickers, they are like a book jacket, they give you a pretty good idea of what your are going to find on the inside. And like many books, it tells me not to invest to much time or energy in them because they clearly haven’t fully developed a clear and consistent story line. One that has shown critical thinking and an understanding of the world.