The other day i was talking to someone who had a printed t-shirt. You know the kind... with spiffy slogans that are supposed to be cool/cool looking. Well, it took me a minute to understand what it was saying because it was using those funky < signs that you used in math and could never remember whether they meant "greater than" or "less than". So after a minute or two i figured out that this t-shirt was saying "action is less than development is less than acheivement" or as origionally printed
action < development < acheivement.
(At least i think the first word was action) It took me all of about 10 seconds to realize how messed up that was. Sure i agree for the most part that action is less than development and acheivement, but the idea that development is somehow less than acheivement seemed somewhat misleading.
To put this into perspective let me give you a couple of examples.
Attempting to memorize and learn more scripture < (is less than) successfully reciting John 3:16 100 times.
Practicing, learning, and then losing a game of soccer against a team of pro's < beating a group of 6 year olds at kickball (assuming of course that you're over the age of 9).
Attempting to lose 10 pounds and only losing 8 when you're 20 lbs overweight < sucessfully eating a whole chocolate cake.
Putting all of your effort into a game then losing is less than putting some effort into it, cheating, and acheiving victorious
These examples are obviously less than perfect and arguments could be made the other way, but you get the drift.
The point of all of this (well, one of them anyways) is that quite often we have slogans for ourselves, whether we wear them on our shirts or make them our life mottos, that we don't really think through. They sound good and seem good in concept but in reality they cause problems at the expense of ourselves and those around us. And the funny thing is that our society oftentimes teaches us these unhealthy mottos/themes/slogans without thinking about the consequences. Take the t-shirt manufacturer. The idea that development is less than acheivement sounds cool on a t-shirt, but what is it really saying?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
For myself, I don't pay too much attention to what a t-shirt says unless it is something oblivious. I assume that if I was to ask about something printed on a t-shirt I didn't understand I would look stupid. So I don't but I do understand what you are saying. To me the Nike slogan 'Just do it' at a superficial level seems very action oriented and harmless but used in any another context could be a problem. 'Just do it' in a negative mentality, which we all have due to sin, could be giving permission to some to do what they want for instant gratification. In your business Jay, you are trying to teach your clients to delay that instant gradification. I believe that society influences people at a deeper level than it gives itself credit for or admits to. Society says by buying this t-shirt with this cool slogan, you are cool. Yet no one stops to think about the message it is sending. Do you know what the t-shirt slogan Vote for Pedro is about? It is in reference to a movie called Napolean Dynamite. Napolean Dynamite is a satire about geeks and nerds unfortunatly it represents a number of geek, nerd, and poor households across the United States. I can relate to the movie and I don't think it is funny. Do half the elementary school children or the parents (who bought it for them) who wear the t-shirt know what it is in reference too or have even seen the movie, probably not. If given the opportunity I don't think they would understand it unless they understood social behavior. Unfortunately people are still buying t-shirts with slogans and sayings on them they don't understand and like myself they don't want to ask because then they might look stupid. This blog then begs the question who is responsible for slogans on t-shirts, the people buying the t-shirt or the company creating and manufacturing the t-shirt. I believe the consumer should be aware of what they are buying and advertising. I love my 5K t-shirts and I wear them all the time. I know what they mean and what they are telling society. There is not a lot of misinterpretation when I wear one.
Post a Comment