This photo was taken last month on the University of Washington Campus. I was on my way to a class which limited our conversation to about a minute.
The man was elusive about his purpose. He seemed sincere and said the sign wasn’t mean to be ironic. He wanted to know what the sign meant to me, but he denied this was research (like for a psychology class or something). And, no, this wasn’t some sort of performance art. He said nothing to suggest it was a religious thing.
He wanted to tell me all about the meaning of the sign, but said it would require a longer conversation (and, I presume, some thinking). I never saw him again.
Anyone have a clue?
Uhhh. Probably some stooge making some chump change sprayed out by a Koch brothers financed astroturf group.
Sorry. Don’t want to think about it.
I’m sorry, but as the demands on my time increase, my patience with those who don’t clearly and concisely state their position decreases as well. I realize this isn’t necessarily a good thing, but there it is.
Plus, I have a bias against someone who wants to start a conversation on the basis that I shouldn’t think.
Perhaps the sign was made special for you to accurately describe what goes into your posts?
“Don’t Think” is our Tea Party motto.
The guy’s obviously a paid lobbyist for decreasing education funding and eliminating student financial aid.
It’s just a matter of time now before Wisconsin’s fascist dictator sends tanks into the streets to break up the pro-democracy rallies.
Maybe some kind of anti-IBM (the company, not the missile) message? “THINK” is the famous sign at the Watson Research Center. Maybe this guy is a ticked off Jeopardy contestant???
:)
Excellent post! Thought-provoking!
@8: Good idea.
My take is that it is about being present. If you think, you won’t act.
Hopefully this isn’t a warning about the government controlling English grammar.
Don’t Double Think?
Anyone else a little weirded out by Troll’s compliments for the posters?
Xar,
“Anyone else a little weirded out by Troll’s compliments for the posters?”
Perhaps his mommy put him on a high-fiber diet….
You just happened to run into YLB working his full-time day – and night – job!
“Don’t think, don’t smoke – what do you do?
Don’t think, don’t smoke – what do you do?
Subtle innuendos follow
There must be something inside”
14 – LMAO! The Koch bros have been berry, berry good to you!
It’s rapidly becoming very clear the House Republicans are playing politics with spending cuts. They’re not just trying to reduce the deficit; they’re defunding Democratic budget priorities while funding Republican spending priorities. Given a divided Congress, this can only be considered bad faith, because the House Republicans can’t expect Senate Democrats to go along with a scheme like that. Either budget cuts are bipartisan, or they’re just political grandstanding, and so far it looks like political grandstanding. This means Republicans aren’t serious about reining in deficit spending.
This means Republicans aren’t serious about reining in deficit spending.
I am SHOCKED, SHOCKED I tell you, to find out that the Republicans are putting politics ahead of the the country!
@12
For the last week I’ve been doing an experiment. My comments were being deleted for what I can only assume was disagreeing with Darryl. So I wanted to see if he deleted my comments if I agreed with him. He didn’t. Not one.
@19. Paranoid much?
The guy in the picture doesn’t want people to think, so why are we spending time thinking about what the sign means?
I think it’s pudge.
@22:
Nah, Not Pudgy enough. Besides, Pudge would never be caught carrying a satchel like the one leaning up against the tree.
koch brothers! bawk bawk! koch brothers! bawk bawk!
@22
You beat me to it!
Well it wasn’t David Wu. Although don’t think just post seems that’s the mantra of HA leftists lately! Look at post#16 for instance. This one never thinks. Just a bunch of repeat comments.
Troll,
“My comments were being deleted for what I can only assume was disagreeing with Darryl.”
Not at all, little boy. Your comments were deleted because they were inconsistent with the comment policy.
Really…get your mommy to explain it to you.
I think it’s a cosmic riddle akin to the photgraph of John Lennon standing in front of a large stone monument that had the phrase ‘This is not here’ chiseled into it.
Koan, anyone?
LMAO! Hardly any thoughts that aren’t warmed over right wing bull crap from the fool @ 26..
Heh. Almost 6 years going and certainly not ANYTHING worth remembering.
Don’t think is the Sign that is posted above Liberal’s in Congress@! Don’t think what 14 to 20 trillion dollar deficits mean to children and grand children. Don’t think what 10% – 11% and growing unemployment do to families.
Don’t think about what making cuts without thinking will mean.
@27
So it’s just coincidence that my comments that agreed with you didn’t “violate comment policy,” and my comments that disagreed with you violate them?
re 30: …and the best place to not think about these things is on a liberal college campus.
The guy says ‘don’t think’ and we immediately start thinking about not-thinking.
Think about that — or not.
My sign says ‘think about everything’.
sigh. total irony fail here. By writing about it and asking us to write about it you’re promoting thinking about it exactly contrary to the suggestion thus pointing out the contrariness of the ordinary human, etc. as a philosphical or ironical or artistic point in a highly subtle and ironical way that to explain step by step takes all the joy out of it. IOW he’s forcing you to be the unwitting agent making performance art to display cluelessness.
That’s what it made me think.
We’re trapped in a vortex of irony that can only lead to reading Henry Miller novels as high art.
It’s almost tropical.
I’m the guy with the sign. I enjoyed reading your thoughts, especially those of “irony fail” (#34). His interpretation was the closest to what I had in mind.
For further explanation and a record of responses to other signs (there have been 11 so far; a twelfth is planned for Tuesday, Feb. 22), see:
signsonthequad.blogspot.com
All the best to you all…
I liked what “samson shillitoe” (#28) had to say, too.
you should make another sign, scribble “narcissist” on it, and hang it around your neck.
just saying…
Bogart character in Play it Again Sam, to Woody Allen’s character, “Ya think too much, kid, jusht do it.”
The building in the background is the section of Savery Hall where the philosophy department is located.