Strength

Here in my city there is a new slogan, found everywhere on merchandise and billboards. "Boston Strong". The colors of many items have been designed to coincide with the logo of the One Fund, which is intended to aid the people injured by the Marathon bombings. The blue-and-yellow color scheme is oddly reminiscent of Best Buy or IKEA branding. I find this pretty creepy.

 

Of course, the "Boston Strong" brand is not quite as disconcerting as the flashing "We Are One" marquees on buses and electronic highway signs. "Really?" I think to myself. Is that why we have to lobby for equal marriage rights in this society?  Is this why the wealth distribution is so skewed to the tiny top of the pyramid? Hmm.

 

"Boston Strong" is the kind of cowboy-up nonsense that high school football coaches scream at youngsters to beat out whatever humanity they may have left while participating in violence on the field. It is the hollow chant of a bully who has a bloodied nose. It has nothing to do with actual human strength.

 

Humans are strong because they can use their frontal lobes to work out problems, to take responsibility, to forgive, to get on with the work of life with proactive design. Human strength is the strength of understanding beyond selfish animal impulses for vengeance or aggression. Human strength is the strength inherent in thinking before acting and then acting thoughtfully.

 

Bumper stickers don't teach us anything. They are simply tools of mass hypnosis or cries for attention. Using the illusion of strength to raise money is simply cynical social manipulation. It is the stuff of totalitarianism and Fascism. It is Orwell's 1984 in action. These are strange times when there is so much nonsense in the media about hatred of government while citizens are so willingly manipulated by government and the corporations which control it.