"Say Shibboleth"

A Dialogue Between a Sentimental Citizen and an Advertising Expert

EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

THE SENTIMENTAL CITIZEN. I am worried about the world.

THE ADVERTISING EXPERT. Oh, yes?

S. C. Yes. It is all wrong.

A. E. Are you proposing that we discuss the condition of the world, diagnose its malady, and prescribe for it a diet and a salutary program of exercise?

S. C. It was my hope that we might do so.

A. E. May I suggest that it is nearly midnight, and that with a subject of such generous proportions, we shall possibly not be able to conclude before dawn. Can you not propose for our consideration a matter dimensionally somewhat more modest?—with which we could nicely finish by, say, twenty minutes after one? I make it a point to be in bed by two o'clock, however distressing the state in which I leave the cosmos.

S. C. Well, I am worried about America.

A. E. Oh, yes?

S. C. Yes. It has no culture.

A. E. Ah.

S. C. But my greatest anxiety centers about the fact that it is impossible to make the American public think for itself.

A. E. Let us consider that.

S. C. I am delighted.

A. E. On what foundation do you base your A. argument, that it is impossible to make the American public think for itself?

S. C. Simply, on this: that it has never, in any circumstances however stimulating to the independent action of the brain, been known to think for itself.

A. E. Quite so. But your argument is, I believe, that it is impossible to make it do so. Am I wrong?

S. C. No. You are right.

A. E. The question then arises: has anybody ever tried to make the American public think for itself?

S. C. That I cannot say. Possibly not. Certainly it is not to the advantage of all that the American public should be made to think.

A. E. Precisely. But that is to-morrow night's consideration. I hold that not only has no one ever tried to make the American public think for itself, but that, should one so try, the desired result could easily be obtained.

S. C. How, for God's sake?

A. E. By advertising.

S. C. That is a novel idea.

A. E. None the less obvious. This is the age of advertising. It is impossible to launch upon a market controlled by advertising, any new and untested commodity without advertising it. Independent thought, to the American public, is by way of being a new and untested commodity.

S. C. Perhaps it would be as well to say "Any Public". I find that at the constant repetition of the phrase "American Public", in this somewhat ungracious connection, my gorge rises, and my tormented but very real affection for my country impels me to concede that within no borders have I come upon a population so concerttratedly thinking for itself that the phenomenon was apparent to the naked eye.

A. E. It was your own phrase. However, we will say merely "The Public", but for purposes of simplification consider only that section of it which inhabits the United States.

S. C. I am content.

A. E. It is a fact well-known to the dealer in advertising that man does not live by reason; he lives by catch phrases. In a situation not covered by some catch phrase, he is helpless. But life is very simple nowadays, at least, those roads of life which are all most people know. Man does not travel, for the most part, except by train. The train does not stop except at stations. There is no more chopping of trails through forests, fitting of logs together to keep the wolves out. And if a man's ext ernal life is rendered simple and easy for him, even more completely is his inner life simplified. His mind is a furnished flat.

The result is that, to the average man, life in its broader sense is still a foreign country. He travels about it, holding in his hand an open text-book of Useful Phrases. He can board a train, buy a luncheon, lake a girl to the theater. But beyond that he is at a loss. If he talk at all, in the train he discusses the time-table; at luncheon, the food. At the theater he does not know what the actors are saying; now and then he catches from the stage the word "train", or "luncheon" or "girl"; and he rouses, and listens for awhile. He has been taught to say "shibboleth"; but try him with "sham", with "shackles"—he cannot pronounce them.

WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST—he knows what that means. It means that a ship is sinking, and that he is to stand back while the women and children get into the lifeboats. Does it mean anything else? No. Obviously, what it does not mean, is that he is not to trample women and children underfoot while getting into the subway.

S. C. You have taught your dog not to eat the postman, but along comes the telegraphmessenger, and your dog chews him up.

A. E. Precisely. But there is another reason. The matter of getting on and off the subway is a matter of daily life. And for daily life another catch-phrase is provided—SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.

Now the only way to get the public to think is to tell it what to think. The public does scrupulously as it is told to do. For years now it has watched its step, counted its change before leaving, and kept the world safe for democracy. If it had been instructed to count its steps, leave its change, and keep its watch safe for democracy, it would have carried out that program instead. The trouble with the slogans by which the public's life is governed, is not so much that they are in themselves unsound, as that they do not go far enough. SAFETY FIRST: very good. But what second? There is no answer in the book. And having made himself safe, man is at a loss again. FOOD WILL WIN THE WAR. Of course; it has won every war. Whether it was important to win the war one did not consider. One simply left off eating sugar. DO IT NOW! —well, but what? The phrase is not supplied. Obviously, it is more important that something be done at once than that the right thingbedone.

There is nothing in any of these phrases designed to appeal to man as a reasonable being. There is none of them that could not be understood by any donkey in the street, if he could only read them. SAFETY FIRST—of course. WATCH YOUR STEP—naturally. ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES—i.e. don't take any worsted carrots.

As for the phrase SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY, it has had the public fooled for some time. It is like the slogan of our Pilgrim Fathers: FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD—that fine freedom of theirs which has bound and enslaved their children to this day. As if there could be such a thing as freedom to! Freedom must always be from. A man's freedom is limited no less by a goal of his own projecting than by that projected for him by his father or his neighbor. Fie is even more limited. For from his own self-imposed destiny he does not even struggle to be free. SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY must always, ultimately, read: SAFE —EXCEPT FOR DEMOCRACY.

BUT there has been nothing in any of these phrases which would goad a man to think for himself. And that man must be goaded into thought is not to be wondered at. Thought, even in small doses, is a most unpalatable medicine. Moreover, it pains the head, and interferes with the action of the heart; and it makes you much worse before you are any better.

But if you tell a man to think, and tell him often enough, and tell him in large enough letters, he will think. I do not know why this is so, but I know that it is so.

Now I have in mind several phrases, which, printed in large type and posted for the period of a month on the bill-boards of our public thoroughfares and in the subway, and Hashed on the screens at cinemas, will, at the end of that time, I promise you, have started the ball of independent thought a-rolling. And when 'tis once started, there's no stopping it.

These phrases are as follows:

USE YOUR OWN HEAD: ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES

BEFORE LEAVING THIS CLUB MAKE SURE YOU FIAVE YOUR OWN HEAD THINK IT OVER

YES—BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT?

IF A FLEA HAD A GREAT BIG BRAIN YOU BET HE'D USE IT DON'T LIVE BY EAR: INSIST ON SEEING THE SCORE

I am ready to begin the campaign at once.

S. C. It will take money.

A. E. Of course.

S. C. Have you any?

A. E. No. Have you?

S. C. No.

A. E. We must go to a man who has, and get him interested in making the public think for itself.

S. C. It will be impossible to find a man with money, who will be interested in having the public think for itself.

A. E. I'm afraid you are right. Well—I must be going; it's after one.