OPINION:
Volvo’s latest commercial opens with a guy pushing through a crowd to get to his vehicle, then driving the open road, pausing momentarily to gaze at a flock of birds.
It’s a simple and short spot, visually speaking anyway. But the words — the words ought to be signed, sealed and delivered to the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and all her socialist-minded base, all her progressive-leaning friends and allies.
The words — the spirit they stoke — it just doesn’t get any more American than this.
“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best,” the background voice intones, “to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight.”
The camera flashes to a flock of birds, where one blasts from the bunch and soars solo.
“Does this sound dismal? It isn’t,” the voice continues. “It’s the most wonderful life.”
Take that, collectivism.
Take that, for the greater good types.
Individualism — rugged, independent, “my rights are God-given, not government-granted” individualism is the DNA of America. It’s the seed that springs greatness.
And the words are originally from e.e. cummings, an American poet and author who taught at Harvard for a time and who was asked by a high school newspaper editor for advice on how to become a poet. Cummings, in a letter, responded this way: “A poet is somebody who feels, and who expresses his feeling through words. This may sound easy. It isn’t. A lot of people think or believe or know they feel, but that’s thinking or believing or knowing; not feeling. And poetry is feeling, not knowing or believing or thinking. … [T]he moment you feel, you’re nobody but yourself. To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”
His letter went on for a bit.
Then he wrapped by saying, “And so my advice to all young people who wish to become poets is: do something easy, like learning how to blow up the world, unless you’re not only willing, but glad, to feel and work and fight till you die. Does this sound dismal? It isn’t. It’s the most wonderful life on earth. Or so I feel.”
Well said. How very, very American in vision.
It’s perhaps no coincidence that Cummings was a minister and a Republican whose political leanings were said to have been greatly influenced by a trip to the Soviet Union, after which he wrote “EIMI,” the Greek word for “I am.” As if that doesn’t say it all, Cummings also described in this volume the Soviet Union as an “uncircus of noncreatures,” and made several references to Dante’s “Inferno,” the story of a descent into Hell.
Cummings: Here’s a guy who saw firsthand the effects of overreaching government — and fled.
That’s the same spirit of freedom and quest for individualism that led to the founding of America, as well.
Now comes Volvo with a car commercial to remind.
And with all this socialism floating about Capitol Hill, with all this ongoing political battling over the proper role of government versus the proper functionings of a free society and a free-thinking people — what a clever, timely and inspirational reminder it is.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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