If You Can Read This... - By: Allan Michael Taylor

If you can read this, congratulations on not getting left behind at school, if you can't and are illiterate, you need help – see the end of this article for an address to write to for more information.

I also do sarcasm too.

Now where does that angst come from? You just swung by for a quick read and get insulted straight off the bat, but therein lies the rub – we see this kind of statement everyday on the backs of cars with the humble bumper sticker.

Where is all this going? Simple, after spending hours doing the commute and and experiencing the occasional guffaw when a bumper sticker has really hit my G-spot, someone has finally worked up the courage to take a look at bumper stickers and their kernels of truth or fiction. The brave man in question is Jack Bowen and his very funny, and yet deeply serious book is, "If You Can Read This: The Philosophy of Bumper Stickers" – available from Amazon and good bookshops for $14 (less if you wait a couple of months and hope it tanks in the best-seller lists).

Bowen teaches philosophy in California, and so he claims, he sees philosophy in everything around us – he just happens to have the idealistic mind which zeroed in on bumper stickers. I guess his commute is even more dire than mine. Nevertheless, as a lover of sophistry (lover of thought or wisdom, hence "philosopher"), Bowen has an inside take on bumper stickers beyond the "Honk if You're Horny" variety.

Bowen's argument is that inside every bumper sticker there is a kernel of truth just waiting to be explored. In an extreme form, he's right but that is also like saying that inside Guantanamo, every inmate is a potential born-again Christian just itching for the opportunity to become a door-to-door Bible salesman. Even so, Bowen takes us on a journey which peels away not just the sticker, but the substance behind the statement and gives us an intriguing insight into the human condition.

This is not simply an etymology of bumper sticker quotes, but an explanation of why they have struck such a chord with many people and what this says about society today (and back when they first rose to prominence). Like what they have to say or not, but bumper stickers are a very popular way for many of use to reach out and make a statement, and they have been for as long as we've had cars. Back before blogging, Twitter, online networking, instant messaging and email, bumper stickers were the social media which ad execs looked to hook into and hoped their campaigns would go viral.

I can honestly say that on every page I had a dual reaction – laughter and light bulb switching on. Bumper stickers are for the most part, funny as anything (which is why I write about them) but Bowen also manages to give you something to think about or a new piece of knowledge about drive-by line which makes you sit up and do what he obviously wants us all to do – think!

About the Author

By Mark Trumper, President of MaverickLabel.com, the Internet's leading provider of custom labels, stickers and decals. From bumper stickers, to window decals.

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Allan-Michael-Taylor/45501

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