Symbolism Within the Symbolism

2009-02-17T10:50:00.001-08:00

If you've ever spent much time in the great states of Texas or Oklahoma there's a good possibility you've seen this T-shirt. The logo of the Texas Longhorns with broken horns and a quote from the book of Psalms. "I will cut off the horns of all the wicked" The actual verse varies a bit, as do the translations. In it's entirety, it goes; "All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted"

I'm not too fond of this verse myself as it's written but I've seen some interpretations that come off a little better than my immediate understanding of it. Some suggest that it means the weapons of evil will not succeed and those of good will succeed. Who, though, considers themselves to be evil? Don't we all think we are the good people? Does that mean that whoever makes the successful weapons are the good people?

At any rate, to me, it's just unbelievable that someone would use this quote to express disdain for a rival college sports team. The decision by an individual to continue their education at the University of Texas at Austin in no way is cause for the suggestion that they are in any way
"wicked". That's not even a stereotype, it's just a quote from the bible that contains the word horns and implies that one group of people is more righteous than the other, so people eat it up. I want to believe that the people who choose to wear this shirt don't put much thought into the statement they are making. I want to think that they simply see it as a way to express their loyalty to a particular sports team along with their faith in an outdated and over translated religious text. I'm certain they don't really believe this quote to be the "Word of God" justifying the bitter hatred and demonetization of a specific educational facility. However, some people may view educational facilities organized by a rival religion as being "the horns of the wicked" thereby justifying the demonetization of a church, mosk, or other religious temple.

I know, that to many, this comes off as me blowing an innocent school rivalry T-shirt way out of proportion. An understandable point of view indeed... unless you can recall a 2007 bar fight in "Sooner country" where a Longhorn fan was nearly castrated by a 53 year old church deacon over this exact rivalry. Allow me to reiterate. A FIFTY THREE YEAR OLD CHURCH DEACON!! A kind looking fellow too as you can see from this picture from the Associated Press. Well... he tried to tear another mans testicles off with his bare hands! Now, in this context, that seemingly biblical justification of hatred takes on a whole new meaning doesn't it?

While I am sure that nobody actually interprets Psalms 75:10 as being in reference to the University of Texas, it seems to me that this T-shirt is extremely symbolic of the ease with which mankind can alter peoples understanding of something that they believe so strongly in. Just think, hypothetically of course, if someone in power could see how easy this manipulation of understanding is and how quick people are to adopt such a falsification as their mantra. How simple an act would it be to convince a nation or ethnicity to despise another using words from a text that they dare not object to for fear of eternal damnation or social exile?

We as human beings have a responsibility to ourselves to understand how easily we are manipulated by authority, media, our peers and our emotions. If the majority of us learn to use this wisdom and pass it on to the next generations we can greatly reduce the chances of getting into unjust wars and inflicting pain and suffering on innocent people. On that same note, if the majority of us would realize that what we inflict upon others we inflict upon ourselves, we would find much less justification for war and many more innocent people.

The Ease of Religious Manipulation

Symbolism Within the Symbolism