A dear student raised a point about slogans. He said that slogans are of no use. If it means that we constantly engage in chanting slogans without implementing them, then what he said is true. Under such circumstances, slogans cannot do anything. However, you should not consider slogans as a thing of little value. Slogans are important. I do not forget that many years before the Revolution, I had a meeting with students in Mashhad. I used to teach Tafsir there. A large number - compared to those times - of students were present in that class. There were several hundred students there and I used to teach them Tafsir. There are many interesting things about those meetings, but I do not want to expand on them. Someone chanted a slogan in one of the meetings. I used to manage the meetings in a special manner: I conveyed fundamental revolutionary discussions through Quranic ayahs and I did not want to do something to make the regime sensitive because it would prevent me from teaching. Therefore, I said that no one should chant a slogan because a slogan is neither a word nor an action. It is not a word because it is a mere expression that we utter. It is not an action because it is merely a sound that comes out of your throats.
I said this in that speech. A week later, a student approached me and said, "I want to debate with you about what you said last week because I do not agree with you". I said, "OK, you can debate with me". He said, "According to your claim, a slogan is neither a word nor an action, but as a matter of fact, a slogan is both a word and an action. It is a word because it contains an important message. It is a sentence that contains a number of messages. Therefore, you who are a man of words- we used to speak and therefore we were men of words- should appreciate the value of slogans which are actually words. And it is an action because it motivates and inspires. Slogans bring individuals to the arena. They make them united and give them a direction. Therefore, contrary to what the teacher- he meant me- said, a slogan is both a word and an action."
The youth who said this at that time is an official of the country in the present time and all of you know him. I was sitting there and was ready to argue with him, but when I listened, I said, "You are right. A slogan is both a word and an action." Now, I would like to say the same thing to you. If a slogan is good, cogent and meaningful and if it tells of a truth that can be expanded intellectually, then it becomes a word and an action and chanting it will channel and motivate. If someone constantly repeats, for example, the economy of resistance without putting it into practice, then this slogan will be of no use. However, if the slogan of the economy of resistance is repeated and pursued by the activists of the country - you students are among the most important of these activists - then it will become important.
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