Well that was a first:
As I left an event venue in London for another appointment… two people shouted “Right-wing fascist bitch!” - I turned to see who they were referring to (I’m more commonly labelled along the lines of left-wing/tree hugging/eco etc.) and realised I was all there was on the street! I worked out that it was because I was still wearing the lanyard that said: “Speaker - Battle of Ideas” and that they were protesting the event that is seen as right-wing etc.
…
I’d been invited to speak on the issue of ‘Lawfare’ (using the law to achieve political/commercial/campaign etc aims, rather than pure justice). I took some time to consider the invite because I’d heard positive and negative things about the event that has been running annually for about 18 years. It became obvious that if I said yes, I’d be encountering people, ideas and discussions that would challenge my views…. So of course I said yes.
Speaking only to those who agree or are on the same path (in my view) just reinforces divisions, allows assumptions to remain ill-informed and offers no opportunity (or hope) to understand how on earth we can be so (dangerously) fragmented. I say dangerously because I am still a tree-hugging type even after a blast of fresh debate from feisty, free-speaking others with polar-opposite views on many issues - because no matter how you look at it, we do need to work together if we are to improve the way life is. And I suppose a pretty key take-away from the event was indeed, that there is as much deep dissatisfaction and fear about the way life is - in this arena, as I see in my more ‘usual’ arenas (environmental/Green/socialist).
Words are tricky
In conversations and eventually the panel discussion I was on, I referred to the shared need for clean air, safe water and fertile soil as the stuff-of-life that we all need to be concerned about, if we’re to continue a healthy existence. Thankfully there was fairly easy agreement in the room that these things mattered. In other arenas I might have gone on to mention how climate too is impacted by the pollutants in the air, the loss of nature and extinction of key species etc. but I was well aware that in the room and on the panel with me, were many who do not see the climate as an issue and it wasn’t essential to my argument anyway.
The purpose of the Battle of Ideas is to create something pretty far removed from what is referred to as a ‘safe space’ - this is what I believe heard referred to as a ‘brave space’... where from one moment to the next, questions and views were aired that could as easily have you gasp in shock that anyone could think like that - as it could (and did for me) make you go “ahhh, now I get it.”
Our individual views of the world will naturally have come about because of how we’ve been influenced by the lives we’ve lived, places and people that impacted us, where we were educated, how we were treated, what those closest to us believed and what media we take in… of course we won’t all see things the same way. However, I think the polarisation of views that make people hate each other, lash out, attack, call names and fracture humanity even more - has become so much worse as a result of us ‘staying in our lanes’ and avoiding the presumed conflict of the conversations that come from ‘the other side’.
For now, I’m delighted to get home to find a quieter space to let all this sink in. Am I moved at all on the left/right spectrum? No bloody idea as I've always been a bit confused about where my wings are - but I am enriched with information, better understanding, a tad more tolerance and a whole lot more questions… so a good thing all in all.
