Culture and mainstream politics used to go together. They don’t anymore. It’s a bridge that needs to be rebuilt.

Twenty years ago Philosophy Football kicked off. They sold tee shirts festooned with slogans and quotes from a plural left. It emerged out of the remnants of Marxism Today – the trendy monthly journal of the Communist Party – which gave us both Stuart Hall and in some ways New Labour.

Like Marxism Today, Philosophy football stated loud and clear that you could do politics and style at the same time. Being both political and a soccer fan (Charlton if you must know) and aspiring to style I was an early adopter of Philosophy Footballs sartorial offers. I can remember more than once standing outside the Valley waiting for my mates and being asked where my nifty Gramsci tee was from.

The brand has gone from strength to strength and adverts pop up regularly in the pages of the Guardian and the New Statesman. Meanwhile, formal politics is busy heading in the other direction.

Like all meaningful culture Philosophy Football shins a light both on what’s wrong and what could be. Its shirts offer the wearer and the watcher hope, not just through pluralism but through memory. They champion the best of the First World War, the Spanish Civil War, feminism, gay rights and racial justice. And they do so while looking good.

We live in a dangerous moment. Break neck technological development is tearing societies and economies apart. The future could be an egalitarian heaven or a populist hell. The job of culture is to help people understand the past, the present and the future – to make sense of it. But wider culture is lagging and people and floundering.

Through music, film, art, poetry, blogs, tweets, apps and yes tee shirts – we need culture to help us make sense of ourselves, each other and our fast changing world.

We can’t buy a better world and I don’t think anyone associated with Philosophy Football would argue you could. But beauty and awareness are not the same things as turbo-consumerism. The good society doesn’t have to be devoid of style – but it has to be style with a purpose.

 An exhibition marking the 20th Anniversary of Philosophy Football is taking place at Rich Mix in London’s Bethnal Green. Full details here.