Subaru has been using this slogan for years.
I'm baffled each time I hear it.
Seriously? Love?
I could understand if they said:
Sheet metal: It's what makes a Subaru a Subaru.
Or, perhaps:
Plastic, rubber, copper wire, circuit boards, etc:
That's what makes a Subaru a Subaru.
Are they saying that every Subaru employee,
from the assembly lines to the corporate offices,
from the showrooms to the service bays,
are all overflowing with love as they work?
Is love their prime motivation?
Are their no disgruntled employees?
No one clocking in just for the paycheck?
No one waiting impatiently for retirement?
Here's the thing about advertising slogans
(and, as we'll see, political slogans):
they aren't meant to communicate anything factual;
they're meant to stir emotion,
to appeal to the gut, not the brain.
Subaru doesn't really mean that love makes a Subaru.
Subaru simply wants you to associate love (warm, cozy feelings)
with their vehicles;
they want you respond to the Subaru brand
with warmth, confidence, acceptance.
This is advertising,
and advertising of this sort is very effective.
They could have easily said:
Meatloaf: It's what make a Subaru a Subaru.
Or:
Candlelight and soft music: It's what makes a Subaru a Subaru.
And to be clear,
I have nothing against Subarus;
I would consider buying one if I were in the market,
but not because a Subaru is made of, with or from love.
It's not.
It's a car.
It's a car made out of car parts, not love.
Which brings us to political slogans.
Political slogans (appearing on caps, bumper stickers, T-shirts, etc.)
are no different:
they are advertising slogans,
not designed to inform or provide facts,
but simply to appeal to our emotions.
Slogans are meant, not to be processed by the brain
but, in fact, to circumvent the brain and go right for the gut.
Be just as wary of any political slogan
as you are of "Love: It's what makes a Subaru a Subaru."
I offer as an example
the most prominent slogan currently being used in America:
Make America great again.
To be clear,
this is not an anti-Trump blog post,
this is a pro-thoughtfulness blog post.
So I deconstruct this slogan,
just as I did with that foisted on us by Subaru.
For now, I'm going to drop the word "again"
and just focus on "Make America great."
At some level, this slogan is meant to appeal to us all:
who wouldn't want their country to be "great"?
I suspect Canadians also want their country to be great,
and so do Venezuelans, Ugandans, Germans and Filipinos.
Everyone wants their country to be great.
But the slogan says zero
about what makes a country great,
and if you asked 100 Canadians, Venezuelans, Ugandans, etc.
exactly what would make their country great,
you'd get 100 different answers.
That's the genius of basing a slogan on a generic word
(like great)
that has no specific meaning in this context
and will be heard differently by every person who hears it.
"Yes, of course, let's make our country great, we say,
"and this is what great means to me--
let's make it that."
Let's make French fries great again.
Okay, let's make all French fries like those at MacDonalds--
thin and crisp!
No, let's make them like those at Wendys--
thick and meaty!
You're both wrong--too much grease;
let's make them in the air fryer.
Then French fries will be great again!
Some say a country is great
when it's military is powerful,
perhaps the most powerful in the world.
Some say a country is great
when it has eliminated poverty,
when there is economic equality.
Some say a country is great
when it is strong economically,
when the trade balance tips in our favor,
when corporations thrive.
Some say a country is great
when it has eliminated violence.
Some say a country is great
when everyone has access to quality healthcare.
Some say a country is great
when it's been cleansed of its minorities (ethnic, religious, sexual, etc.).
Some say a country is great
when it has grown beyond prejudice, discrimination and hatred.
Some say a country is great
when it is led by men of God.
Some say a country is great
when it is led by women of God.
Some say a country is great
when religion is kept separate from politics.
Some say a country is great
when all faiths are welcomed and respected.
Some say a country is great
when it leads the way to protect God's great creation.
Some say a country is great
when it is free of regulations and controls.
Some say a country is great
when we stop welcoming immigrants and refugees.
Some say a country is great
when it welcomes immigrants and refugees.
Who gets to say what makes a country great?
Do you?
Do I?
It depends, I believe,
entirely on your values.
Is wealth your reference point?
is power?
is your own comfort?
Is it compassion?
humility?
sacrifice?
Some would look to the Bible--
but, of course, their interpretation of the Bible.
I fall into this camp;
I filter "Make America great" through the Bible--
and yes, necessarily, through my interpretation of the Bible
(the only way any of us can apply scripture, biblical or otherwise).
This, for example (Micah 6:8):
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice,
and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
So what will make a country great?
Throughout both biblical testaments
the answer seems clear to me:
a country where justice is present for everyone,
where laws are applied the same for all;
and where all our acts and communications
are characterized by respect and kindness;
and where we act and communicate with humility,
with the recognition that,
no matter how strongly we believe in someone or something (even God!),
we may, in fact, be wrong about it all.
In a great country,
this would be true of everyone,
whether in politics, religion, education,
our neighborhoods, our homes...
That would be a great country...
according to the Bible.
Jesus never suggested that wealth made individuals or countries great.
Jesus never suggested that power made individuals or countries great.
Jesus never suggested that weapons made individuals or countries great.
Jesus represented the poor, the outcast, the disenfranchised.
Jesus championed love, forgiveness, humility.
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life,"
and that way, that truth, that life led him to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Sacrifice.
Sacrifice makes a country great.
So yes, I have my own understanding
on what makes a country great,
on what could make America great.
You do too, I suspect.
But the point is broader than that:
the point is, as we enter another election season
and political advertising ramps up,
question every slogan, bumper sticker, hat and T-shirt you see.
These phrases may sound appealing,
but are ultimately meaningless when carefully consdered,
or only have meaning when filtered through your (and my)
current viewpoint and values.
Whether you see humility as an important component
of governmental policy or not,
it's hard to get around the fact
that God calls you, personally, to humility.
Can you say it with me now?
This is what I believe would make my country great,
but I acknowledge
that I am a human being,
struggling, as all humans beings do,
to make sense of a complicated, confusing world.
In short, I acknowledge that I may be wrong.
Tomorrow, I'll further deconstruct our chosen slogan,
focusing on the word again.
Text and image © 2018 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.
Recent Comments