Life often has too many regrets.
As an activist I regret not being more involved with the road protests of the 90’s and although they were very much the noise that woke me up. As a historian coming of age in the 80’s I regret not crossing the Iron curtain to Eastern Europe, to visit countries as yet unaffiliated by western capitalism, in what must have been a truly alien world, for better and worse. And finally as a child of the 70’s,with a travelling soul, I regret not being old enough to turn on, tune in and drop out to hit the hippy trail from London to Istanbul to Goa and beyond.
The flotsam I’ve found in the beach huts of Dahab and the drug culture of Nimbin suggest little remains of what I would have like to have found, but one day I will follow it. One has to wonder why people started the journey, and if they ever returned. Were they seeking drugs and a good time, to see something of the world that had previously only been accessible to the rich, or something more spiritually enlightening from suburban Guru’s, Swami’s, Lama’s or elderly Beetles.
In a quest for enlightenment, not so much spiritual as digital, I recently returned from a somewhat simpler trail to the remote wilds of British Colombia, via the embryonic protests at Wall Street – which perhaps offered something more cosmic.
The justification to burn carbon, was that the US is pioneering models of online to offline activism and heroic digital list building – using the mass marketing techniques of the commercial sphere. As an event, Web of Change on Cortes island offered the hook, drawing forward thinking digital folk and offline mobilisers, from across the not for profit sector. As a digital quest, well if the UK has sated itself with offline activism, and if the purely online remains in a different sphere then perhaps in and amongst the bears of Canada, I can find out what lies in between.
Travelling invigorates ones imagination, and as jouneys go, the chance encounter with whales, the Rainbows across the ferry bow and time to enjoy Vancouver, Washington DC and New York didn’t hurt. Travels aside, as an event it was interesting but sadly lacking in the cosmic ray of inspiration I demanded.
To take away, were the detailed plans for ladders of engagement (or perhaps swimming pools of engagements) – and apparent pioneering from the Engage Network, some scars from west coast North American hippydom – sorry I’m British, I simply don’t care how you feel about that last workshop, and no I don’t want to express myself – I’ve spent years developing this angst, lots of cool people and future contacts, a new found admiration for the Tea party, lots and lots of academic jargon and yet more buzz words tied to storytelling – although there were some interesting stories to be heard.
But I didn’t find the big answer, which is a shame, so moved on to the offices of Greenpeace in Washington DC, seeking something more. There’s some fuel here, but again more confirmation of my prejudice that the UK is quite good at offline activism. I met like minds, asking similar questions, but no-one really assembling the pieces into some answers.
And finally I ended up at Occupy Wall Street weeks in, which seems disorganised, but a powerful idea, and perhaps the beginnings of something bigger. If such protests can take inspiration from Egypt and find fertile ground at the heart of capitalism, then there is hope for us all – but still they need more people, as the handful in the park, while a very poignant manifestation of offline activism, have a way to go before the authorities become threatened.
So as a journey of 10,000 miles I didn’t find the answer, and perhaps there is more to be discovered in one’s own imagination. And yet I hear good things from Argentina, bold frontiers from the mobile technologies of sub Saharan Africa, clever ideas from Turkey and yet my hope rests in the high tech professional culture and, rapidly emerging activist culture of India. Perhaps there is a path to follow down the old hippy trail to digital as well as spiritual enlightenment.
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