Coexist

It is not entirely clear whether the sentiment expressed is some kind of pluralism or syncretism, but one way or another the bumper sticker argues for the preservation and affirmation of the different ideologies it depicts. The fact that this bumper sticker has been around so long suggests that people resonate with it in some fashion.

1. Curiously, if the sentiment expressed by the bumper sticker were given a symbol, such a symbol could never be integrated within the sticker. The ideology of the sticker constitutes a totality of which it cannot be a part; it is a position with respect to ideology that can function only on the basis of the exception of itself as ideology from the logic of its position. On the one hand, like the various religions depicted, the "coexist" ideology is just another absolutism, and would thus fit quite nicely, but this would destroy the concept on which the sticker's message hinges in the first place.

2. Could we have a similar bumper sticker with respect to systems of government? One that urges for a democratic-theocratic-communist-monarchic-totalitarian-libertarian-feudal form of government? Although the logic is the same, I suspect that a majority would view the governmental version as either incoherent or objectionable, even those whose first inclination is to affirm the religious version. Why is this?

(All due credit goes to the Thomist blog I follow regularly.)