This is the age of the slogan, the soundbite, the snappy phrase in place of considered argument. Thought is dying; reason’s gone critical. In bookshops and magazine racks we’re told only what we want to hear: we’re told it in neat, bullet-pointed affirmations of our own worth.

No more. This is the fightback. The resuscitation. This is the slogan as explainer of the world. One a day for a year. Three hundred and sixty five phrases, soundbites and bullet points with which to make sense of the way things are now and point to how things could be tomorrow. Read them and weep.


Friday

5. It is the fate of the ignorant to condemn

Rejection is a kneejerk reaction, it’s the instinct of the wary. But it’s also the watchword of the ignorant. I don’t understand; I don’t comprehend; I’m not in full possession of the facts... so I’m out. I don’t want it. Go away. Leave me alone with the things that I know. Round-Earthists were condemned, Darwinians were condemned. (Some still are.) And always, always, by those wielding ignorance as a stick with which to beat their points home. (This is not to say that every condemnation springs from ignorance, however. Rather that the ignorant cannot help but condemn.)
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