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.


Wednesday

57. Look how you like and like how you look

Boothby Clopton was a celebrated dandy of the 18th Century, famous for his flamboyant dress and for squandering a massive family fortune. (In true gentlemanly style, gambling debts were always paid before money owed to tradesmen. His tailor, however, never went hungry.) Caricatured as “Prince” Boothby by contemporary wits, he eventually shot himself – not from disgrace at his vices or shame over his debts... but because getting dressed and undressed each day had become such a bore. His suicide note read simply: “I tire of all this buttoning and unbuttoning.”
Posted by at