If you’ve been paying attention to UBC rhetoric as of late, you will have noticed that UBC has adopted a new slogan. It was the title of this year’s annual report and AGM: “Not Me. We.” President Toope has been overusing this phrase to a point that is almost laughable. He uses it in a manner of speaking that just seems forced nearly every time he addresses the UBC community from Senate to Board to the Alumni Achievement Awards. I guess the point of the rhetoric is that we have to work together and individuals don’t accomplish things on their own, or whatever. It doesn’t really matter. I personally find it to be wholly uninspiring, somewhat disingenuous, and bland.
The interesting part is the origin of this new slogan. Of course it has been brought to us by UBC Public Affairs, the propaganda arm of the University, but a quick Google search shows that this slogan isn’t even original. Here’s a sampling of where it’s been used:
Center for Family and Community Relations
(Starbucks)Red
We Not Me
Adidas
Is this really the best Public Affairs could come up with?
One reply on “Not Me. We.”
It’s a bit ironic, given how important individual initiative is in a massive and impersonal school like UBC.
Unless you make the effort to be one of the five or six members of your 200 person lecture who are actively participating, I think you get a lot less out of the school.