The “Scouts’ motto”, as espoused by Robert Baden-Powell in his 1908 book Scouting for Boys. According to the author, this means being “always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your DUTY”. It means “having disciplined yourself to be obedient to every order,” and “making yourself strong and active and able to do the right thing at the right moment”. It means being “prepared to work, and to work hard, and to turn your hand to any kind of job”. It means “every good Briton must be prepared to keep up our Empire,” and most of all, it means “be prepared to die for your country if need be, so that when the moment arrives you may charge home with confidence, not caring whether you are going to be killed or not.”
Not caring whether you are going to be killed or not. A fine doctrine for a generation.
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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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