Sleuthing Patriotic Slogans Gary Sloan

In the United States, slogans are hard to escape. They are ever-present on radio and television, and, when walking or driving, we see them just about anywhere. In this rhetorical analysis [published on AlterNet.org in 2003], Gary Sloan, a retired English professor, digs a little deeper into the meaning of these slogans. Notice how he questions whether the slogans have any deeper meaning by paying close attention to the words themselves.

1 In this best of times and worst of times, the American landscape is dotted with signs, billboards, posters, and stickers emblazoned with patriotic slogans. In my hometown, merchants have scrawled on their display windows a smorgasbord of venerable shibboleths: “United We Stand,” “Support the Troops,” “Pray for the Troops,” “Let Freedom Ring,” “Home of the Brave,” “God Bless America.” Taped on many windows is a flyer that reads: “Pro-America Rally in Railroad Park. Bring lawn chairs, flags, and snacks. Dress patriotic.” 2 When I read the flyer, I thought: Shouldn’t that be “Dress patriotically”? 3 Because I have spent much of my life studying and teaching language, I respond inappropriately to patriotic slogans: I parse them grammatically and try to explicate them the way I would an obscure fragment in an essay. Like Hamlet, I sometimes become sicklied over with the pale cast of thought when I shouldn’t be thinking at all. The slogans are designed to evoke warm feelings of camaraderie and unity, not grimaces and cocked brows. 4 Yet I persist in my folly. To wit: Many patriotic slogans are in the imperative mood. They issue a command (“Support the Troops,” “Pray for the Troops”). Commands are risky. They create resistance in natural-born rebels and in patriophobes (those with an excessive fear of patriotism). 5 Are “Let Freedom Ring” and “United We Stand” logically compatible? If everyone exercises freedom of speech and conscience, will we all stand united? Instead of assenting to the war against Iraq, some may opt to ring their dissent. How does one “Support the Troops”? Letters? Pep rallies? Boxes of home-made cookies? Can one support the troops by urging them to obey their consciences even if their consciences conflict with their orders? 6 “Home of the Brave.” Hmm. Brave in what sense? Obviously, many Americans aren’t physically brave. Millions are afraid to walk the streets at night or open their doors to strangers. If “brave” refers to moral courage, might the bravest Americans be those who resist the will of the majority? Might it require more bravery to protest Operation Iraqi Freedom than to support it? 7 “God Bless America” is almost as inscrutable as the utterances of a Delphi oracle. Grammatically, the words are in the subjunctive mood. They express a wish or a prayer: “Please, God, bless America,” or “May God bless America.” 8 The real conundrum: What do the words mean? In what sense is God to bless America? With good health, bouncing babies, supportive spouses? Good schools? High IQs” Philosophical wisdom? Fat paychecks, sirloin steaks, sport-utility vehicles, faster computers, more cable channels, bigger boom boxes? Competitive Superbowls? Better face-lifts and liposuction? Speedier cruise missiles, smarter smart bombs, stealthier stealth bombers? Continued monopoly of the planet’s natural resources? 9 And does “America” mean Americans? If so, does it comprise all Americans, including murderers, rapists, thieves, swindlers, embezzlers, muggers, liars, cheats, bullies, pederasts, pornographers, conceited airheads, slobs, slum lords, domestic tyrants, bigots, and racists? 10 Or does “America” refer to land, spacious skies and amber waves of grain? Or to some platonic ideal of government embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, worthy of being blessed even if some Americans aren’t? 11 Now, if I can just figure out how to dress patriotic.

Noun 1. a peculiarity of pronunciation, behavior, mode of dress, etc., that distinguishes a Shibboleth particular class or set of persons. 2. a slogan; catchword. 3. a common saying or belief with little current meaning or truth. Verb (used with object) 1. to analyze (a sentence) in terms of grammatical constituents, identifying the parts of speech, syntactic relations, etc. 2. to describe (a word in a sentence) grammatically, identifying the part of speech, Parse inflectional form, syntactic function, etc. 3. to analyze (something, as a speech or behavior) to discover its implications or uncover a deeper meaning: Political columnists were in their glory, parsing the president's speech on the economy in minute detail. Explicate Verb (used with object), ex·pli·cat·ed, ex·pli·cat·ing. 1. to make plain or clear; explain; interpret. 2. to develop (a principle, theory, etc.). adjective 1. incapable of being investigated, analyzed, or scrutinized; impenetrable. Inscrutable 2. not easily understood; mysterious; unfathomable: an inscrutable smile. 3. incapable of being seen through physically; physically impenetrable: the inscrutable depths of the ocean. adjective 1. (in English and certain other languages) noting or pertaining to a mood or mode Subjunctive of the verb that may be used for subjective, doubtful, hypothetical, or grammatically subordinate statements or questions…. noun Conundru 1. a riddle, the answer to which involves a pun or play on words, as What is black m and white and read all over? A newspaper. 2. anything that puzzles. Sloan, Gary. “Sleuthing Patriotic Slogans.” Writing Today. Eds. Richard Johnson-Sheehan and Charles Paine. Boston: Longman, 2010. 683-684. Print.