"We ARE x !"

[Victor Steinbok]

Just to be clear--there IS a reduced version--"We ARE 99%!"

Two more points of reference. If we go back far enough, we get "We are
the World!" song, although that clearly had a different stress pattern.

On the other hand, there is a current series of Farmers Insurance
commercials that includes the phrase, "We ARE insurance," followed by a
"We are Farmers!" jingle.

     VS-)

> I know, I know--it does not sound as romantic once you insert the
> article...
>
>     VS-)
>
> On 11/16/2011 4:04 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> News reports over the past several days have occasionally included
>> Penn State students both defending and deploring legendary coach Joe
>> Paterno as well as offering gestures of goodwill to the alleged
>> victims of Jerry Sandusky.
>>
>> The sudents can be heard chanting or emphatically asserting as
>> individuals, "We ARE Penn State!"  I'm not sure what that's supposed
>> to mean beyond, "Harken to us!"
>>
>> A few years ago, "We ARE Virginia Tech!" was the refrain of an alleged
>> poem by Nikki Giovanni, written in the wake of an even worse
>> situation. It seemed to mean, "We of VT are strong enough to get
>> through absolutely anything unfazed."
>>
>> Both of these usages seemed familiar, but how?
>>
>> In another one of those epiphanous moments, I suddenly recalled that
>> 1976 film _Taxi Driver_ ("You talkin' to  me? You talkin' to *me*?
>> Well, you must be talkin' to me, 'cause I'm the only one here!")
>> featured a slick political candidate, target of the insane Travis
>> Bickel, who was running on the slogan "We ARE the People!"   (Cf. "We
>> ARE the 99%!" )
>>
>> The irony seemed to be that the slogan in the film was utterly vapid.
>> It reminded me of the equally inane, but seriously intended, "Nixon's
>> the One!" of 1968.
>>
>> Moral: yesterday's inanity, today's inspiration.
>>
>> JL
>

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