Where do we look for the answers to the only question that really matters, the question that all other questions lead to, or from? Where do we look for the answer to the question: how can I be happy? In self-help books (“Chapter 1. Don’t look for off-the-shelf fixes...”)? On TV? In church? In the bottom of the glass? All these places lead to more questions.
The philosopher Cicero thought the answer lay in a “tranquillity of mind”. He didn’t spend his days sitting by a river contemplating the mysteries of existence; he didn’t teach theory in an ivory tower or preach repentance in the temple. He got out there and got dirty. He lived. He survived civil wars and Julius Caesar, championed the Republic, introduced the Romans to Greek philosophy and ended his life decapitated by the soldiers of Mark Antony. His tranquillity was not the peace of perfect stillness, but a clear-headed surety of purpose. Knowing what you want – that’s at least the start of the answer to the question.
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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.
Defining the age through a slogan a day
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.
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