“Every action is a positive action.”
Why it's great
A flat slogan that labels even destruction positive, which makes it both funny and chilling.
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Use it yourself
Every rehearsal is a positive action, even the bad ones.
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Oblique Strategy Cards on the Street, Explained
Slacker · 1990
Chapter 18 of 22 · 3'13"
One man hands over a dubbed tape and rants about the myth that most of the brain goes unused. Then a woman offers oblique strategy cards, asking a passer-by to think of something and draw one. The cards deliver lines like "It's not building a wall, but making a brick."
Key moments
Start here, then watch the full scene- 0:02–1:07
❝ Monologue · 8 lines A Short Life in a Blaze of Glory
66s
Oblique Strategy Cards on the Street, explained
What happens
A man passes on a dub of a tape and argues that the idea of dormant potential, of unused brain power, only frustrates people. He praises a film where a man goes out in a blaze of glory. Later, a woman offers oblique strategy cards and lets people draw one at random.
What's really going on
The scene is a portrait of a subculture built on borrowed ideas and used objects. The first man is handing out a dubbed tape and a theory he half understands: everyone believes in unused brain power, he says, and it just makes them unhappy. His praise for a film that ends in violence — "What could be better than a short, uncomplicated life?" — is the closest the film comes to a creed for its drifters. Then the scene turns to the cards, which are the perfect object for this world: random instructions that feel like wisdom. "No two cards are alike. Think about whatever you want and take a card." The advice, "It's not building a wall, but making a brick," lands on a day he calls a breakthrough, which is funny because nothing has happened.
Key lines & what they mean
- “Every action is a positive action.”
- His attempt at a philosophy: no act is wasted, which lets him praise even a pointless, destructive one.
- “What could be better than a short, uncomplicated life?”
- His romantic idea of an early, dramatic death, offered as both a question and a way of life.
- “No two cards are alike. Think about whatever you want and take a card.”
- The rule of the game: the randomness is the point, and any personal question can be answered by a card drawn at random.
- “"It's not building a wall, but making a brick."”
- The card he draws, which he reads as advice to take things one piece at a time and then calls his whole day.
Theme
- Philosophy — The scene trades in half-digested theories of potential and action, and offers random cards as if they were guidance.
- Absurdity — A man treats a violent ending as a noble creed, and a card that says make a brick is called a breakthrough.
What this chapter teaches
Teaching points
Review right after watchingMy level1/7
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
Language points
Click a card to jump to its moment in the videoGolden lines
A great line in its own right — why and how to use it“What could be better than a short, uncomplicated life?”
Why it's great
A light rhetorical question that quietly idealizes dying young.
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Use it yourself
What could be better than a long walk and no plans?
“No two cards are alike. Think about whatever you want and take a card.”
Why it's great
A plain sentence that gives the whole deck an air of mystery.
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Use it yourself
No two of her paintings are alike.
“"It's not building a wall, but making a brick."”
Why it's great
The whole task shrinks to one brick, which is the only way to start anything large.
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Use it yourself
You don't have to write the whole book, just make a brick today.
Monologue
One character carrying the scene — shadow the whole passage❝ mocking the potential myth
He has this-this unending potential, this dormant potential... this stupid idea that 95% of the brain is unused... and that if we could tap into that we would just have... we would have Superman or something absurd like that. All it does is frustrate man. All it does is remind him of his limitations and frustrate him. It's just a concoction of lies... a dynamic that drives man to do things.
He peels the self-help myth apart until it becomes a lie that drives people.
Up next · 19safety in numbersThe scene: Chaos, Cartoons and Scooby SnacksTakeaways
What you walk away with- A slogan can make destruction sound positive.
- The tape becomes proof that a strange idea worked.
- Cards here are a way to reset your thoughts.
- He talks about a body like it is a machine.
People also search
Questions, then the linesWhat is the man ranting about?
He says the belief in dormant potential, especially the idea that most of the brain is unused, is a lie that only frustrates people. He calls it a concoction of lies that drives people to act.
Why does he praise the film?
In the film he is passing on, a man destroys his own camera and goes out in a blaze of glory. That romantic, violent ending is what the man admires.
What does the woman do with the cards?
She shuffles them and offers one to anyone who passes, asking them to think about something first. She says no two cards are alike and they can draw as many as they like.
What does the man say about the card he draws?
He reads it as a perfect description of his day, and says he is having a breakthrough day. The card simply says it is about making a brick rather than a wall.
What does the woman explain with the cups?
She uses them to show a menstrual cycle, with twenty-eight cups and different colours for the days before a period. It is part of the scene's mix of theories and everyday facts.