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.


Tuesday

13. The devil is in the details

Big ideas are easy. Listen to the politicians, the think tanks, the ideologians, they make it sound so simple: society must be fairer, safer, healthier, happier. People must be able to walk the streets in safety, to sleep easy in their beds at night. There must be freedom, equality, liberty and justice for all. These are the poll-winners, the approval-boosters, the headline grabbers. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime. Education, education, education. We will stand shoulder to shoulder. The problems come when the words are peeled back and the substance has to be filled in. The details – they’re never quite nailed. They can’t be pinned down: tricksy, squirming, wriggling around like lizards in a tin. And so they’re pushed aside, abandoned, at best implemented half-cocked and fudged... while another Big Idea is sought to divert attention from the last one. Big Ideas are easy – the devil is in the details. And so the details rarely get bothered with.
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