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.


Monday

8. Dreams never end

The point about dreams is that they’re not supposed to come true. So you’ve never had a dream come true... you’re not supposed to. That’s not what dreams do. That’s not what they’re for. Dreams are impossible, unattainable, unachievable – they show us what could be, what might have been; they show us an ideal. And because it’s an ideal, because it’s perfect, it will remain forever just out of reach. It has to. If your dreams come true, you’ve nowhere left to go, you’ve nothing left to dream. Sad? Yes. But also full of hope. For if that’s the sad thing about dreams, it’s also what makes them beautiful. They’re never realised, they’re never achieved – and so they remain pure and whole, untouched and untainted. They remain shining goals towards which we can strive, or simply hope; they remain lights in the darkness, a belief that there is something worth keeping going for. Dreams don’t come true – and dreams never end. It’s their tragedy and their redemption.
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