bumper stickers

Do you have a coldfusionnow.org bumper sticker on your car?

I do. And I believe that having bumper stickers on your car which refer to something you believe in helps you be a more conscientious driver, not necessarily a better driver, but a more conscientious driver, aware that you and thus your cause is making a good impression, (or a bad impression), dependent on how your driving is.  The world sometimes seems a little more rude, less aware these days, all those drivers on their cell phones.  A few cheerful bumper stickers, however, can brighten someone’s day.

My Cold Fusion Now sticker reads, “This isn’t the nuclear power your mother told you about.  www.coldfusionnow.org”.

With a second bumper sticker, one can start of with a little dialectic, play the two off each other, make the driver behind wonder what, say, your favorite political candidates or gun rights, or organic collectives have to do with cold fusion. Cold Fusion Now and Trout Unlimited would be a good combination. Think of it, with cold fusion we would need fewer hydro-electric dams: salmon runs would be restored, hot damn!

There are other strategies, one can work with multiple different bumper stickers either on the same theme or different ones.  Emphasize different nuances of a topic, or just make them wonder.  There are also the “fish wars” of the Jesus fish, the Darwin fish and so on.  “My child is an honor’s student,” may be of little importance except to the parents and the child, but without that bumper sticker we wouldn’t get the ones saying “my Jack Russell Terrier is smarter than your honor’ student.”  It is a little rude, and _probably_ not true, but it is legitimate commentary towards the bragging of the parents of the honor’s student.

Bumper stickers are best when they subtly tweak the nose of society.  Vulgar bumper stickers should be avoided, but fortunately the nanny-state has not gotten to legislating them yet, unlike trans-fats, sugary drinks and cigarettes.  In this small manner of free expression, individuals get to decide, for better or worse, what goes.

The ones that I like the most right now are the stickers representing the members of the family, as zombies.

And if you have more than five bumper stickers (not counting repeats of different kinds on the same themes), and an old car, then the question arises whether the bumper stickers are bumper stickers, or whether they are rust bandages. If you have an old rusted car, they transform into a variant of the handyman’s secret weapon, duct tape.

Bumper stickers can bring a smile to a stranger’s face, let them realize that there is something new out there, even if it is very old (a friend has a bumper sticker for his church, 2000 years of Orthodox Christianity).  A good bumper sticker is new at least in its form (I bet you didn’t know Orthodox Christians had bumper stickers).

And it can nudge the viewer a little into a new direction, possibly even spurring them to check out something new and integrating it into their life.  We need more people to think good thoughts about cold fusion, even if it is just to know we are out here and working towards a better future.

And who knows, maybe our angel of cold fusion (if she is not too busy already), will have some cold fusion stickers by Christmas, for all the boys and girls.