3 Responses

1. Nobody likes “Independence – Freedom – Happiness” – I find it unbalanced (independence and freedom are similar, whereas happiness is way off in a different direction). One girl described it to me as “empty”.

   No motto is generally best. Something in Latin is always a winner because nobody knows what it means; like the way the lyrics to a foreign-language pop-song can’t turn you off an otherwise nice song. Or make it non-partisan at least: the example above has a highly partisan background.

   PS: “One nation under God, indivisible” is classy. Shame about the reference to ‘God’, but you can’t have everything.

   But the Hitlerian example that kicked off this thread takes the cake.

2. Senegal’s is “One People, One Goal, One Faith” (in French).

   Mottos and slogans like that always rankle me, because they always seem ham-handed attempts to push political conformity at the expense of open debate and individuality (The US has its Pledge of Allegiance: “one nation under God, indivisible…”).

   Of course, that’s all just me and my priors reacting. The sign must have a very different contextual meaning for you, since you professionally study violent conflict, where unity, however awkward, is a preferable alternative.

3. oooh – nice red soil; i can smell the iron ore……