Greenbelt Vignettes
Some other little thoughts
Greenbelt is a liberal Christian festival that, in my past life, I’d not have gone to. I wrote about it the other day.
But there were some little thoughts and stories that didn’t fit in that piece, so here they are.
I enjoyed the chilled vibe. Liberal Christians are relaxed and genuine. They really want to end poverty, to reduce racial inequity, to end LGBT+ suffering. And they aren’t as prickly or self-involved as some progressive spaces I’ve been in. And there is none of the self-flagellation of an evangelical conference, where the talks are deep, challenging and often exhausting. They’ll say hi, offer you a seat, talk about nothing. I’m sure many are personally generous.
I struggled to see the impact. If you are a regular Greenbelt attendee, please write to me. What has Greenbelt achieved? Grace Petrie sang a song with the words “If I spend my life on the losing side, they can lay me down knowing that I've tried," and while it was a great tune, I struggled to watch a 1000 middle class people mournfully singing it. If they spend their lives on the losing side I suggest it was because they didn’t give enough money to effective left-wing advocacy. This was a place oozing with middle-class wealth but also an anger at the current status quo. It made me want to shake people - Are you aware that the top donor level for the Labour party is £5000? Do you know you can commission a think tank report for £20k? Go influence policy.
Gordon Brown is quite a good speaker. Not a lot of content but I was left feeling he was a deeply moral man and given what Blair and Cameron’s self-confidence achieved, perhaps I underrated his humility. It’s not easy to see the mistakes you choose not to make, perhaps he avoided some mistakes in his, I sense, fairly workaday premiership.
No one knows how to run events and Greenbelt don’t either. I have been spoiled by EA Globals with their ruthless focus on creating connection and agency in attendees. If I ran Greenbelt, I’d suggest that 80% of political talks need to be focused on connection - how can people meet those they will work with in future? How can we optimise this festival for the creation of justice campaigns? The people do not know what they need. I refuse to give talks that people could find on youtube. Panels delenda est.
Find some millionaires. I know that this annoys people, but earning to give is underrated. Most communities could do with a few multimillionaires to support their work. Greenbelt is no different. If they focused on empowering young people to become entrepreneurs they could massively increase the work they do. And yes they would have to wrestle with how they were part of a system they sought to change. And this would be a good thing.
Progressives are pretty gloomy. It surprised me that the self-concept of these people was of defeat. They think they are losing on LGBT+ issues (I disagree), on the climate (I disagree) and politically in general (It’s been a bad few years, but it’s on the up). Again, this bothered me because they are obviously so wealthy, but also it just seems incorrect. And it’s a pretty dangerous cocktail to mix power and defeatism. It means people can never acknowledge their wins and so never discuss honestly with other groups. The UK is much more LGBT+ friendly than when I grew up. It is bad to act as if this isn’t the case. We aren’t where we need to be but let’s not pretend we haven’t moved.
I don’t enjoy camping. Greenbelt was pretty fun, but I wouldn’t have wanted to stay overnight unless I’d found a local airBnB. I hate the burning sun in the mornings and the hot groggy stuffiness of tents. I hate not being able to sleep for the noise of everyone else. Cities are good for agglomeration effects but if I had the use of a teleporter I’d live on an island with good plumbing.
What would a city-wide festival look like? Could we make our cities more like this? What would it be like if there were things you could go to all the time and everyone was happy to smile and talk? In some sense that’s already what a city is - there are cinemas and bars. But I think that London could be friendlier. If we had more shared trust and narrative I think even a very multicultural city could have a lot of connection. I’d love to see that.
Extra story:
I was walking past Parliament Square yesterday for the March For Life, an anti-abortion protest and there was a counter-protest there as well. It was an experience just to wander between the two groups and feel how different they were but also how similar. I like both kinds of people - I like people who believe things. The pro-life protesters were more chilled and steady. The pro-choice protesters were angrier and sharper. Both groups had a smug edge - that deep down, they knew they were right. It’s not clear how one would really start a dialogue there - it feels again that power relations are worryingly close.