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.



Thursday

58. Be positive

“I’d like to say people can change anything they want to; and that means everything in the world. People are running about following their little tracks. I am one of them. But we’ve all gotta stop... just stop following our own little mouse trail. People can do anything; this is something that I’m beginning to learn. People are out there doing bad things to each other; it’s because they’ve been dehumanized. It’s time to take that humanity back into the centre of the ring and follow that for a time.
Greed... it ain’t going anywhere! They should have that on a big billboard across Times Square. Think on that. Without people you’re nothing.”
Joe Strummer