Friday 4 November 2011

Non-sequitur Friday conundrum

Two slogans have caught my eye this morning.

1. Love Music, Hate Racism.
2. Violence to children must stop. Full stop.

I must confess to not feeling any less racist or violent towards children having absorbed these messages. I don't hit children or hate people based on their race anyway. But I have developed an irrational and violent hatred of sloganeers.

Who on earth came up with the idea that there's something inherently contradictory about loving music and being racist? Certainly not a Wagner fan, the Macc Lads, Skrewdriver, or the man who told me that I should listen to Bruckner because 'the Fuhrer' played his music after dinner every evening. Plenty of people love music and racism, sadly. I'm sure there are lots who hate both. Or are indifferent to one, the other or both. Let's try a commutation test. Does 'Love Racism, Hate Music' make any sense? Of course not. Music and racism are apples and wardrobes - there's no logic in the opposition here at all.

As for the NSPCC slogan - why? I cannot believe that anyone inclined to abuse children will have spotted the poster and decided to call it a day. Nor do I think that anyone disposed to prevent cruelty to children will have redoubled their efforts. It's such an empty phrase, akin to New Labour's verb-free slogans like 'A brighter tomorrow'. Fine, but let's have some details.

Have you got pet phrases which annoy you? Use the comments section.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

From Graduate to Great
Great what, for heaven's sake??

The Plashing Vole said...

That is utterly awful.

We use 'a university to be proud of'. Which doesn't mean much, and should be 'a university of which to be proud'.

Anonymous said...

You are what you eat

Oh god I hope not!

Benjamin Judge said...

Vole, I think your blogger account might have been hacked.

oldgirlatuni said...

"The all important" as in "the all important phone numbers", "the all important weather report", "the all important traffic news".

Just makes me wanna scream profanities at the television or radio. Which, I usually do.