Wednesday, February 04, 2009

We have a theme at
GREENBELT FESTIVAL
every year which does not chain us down but provided a stimulus to all.
It expands our thinking. The site design, the speakers, artistes and .....
everyday-humans-like-me-and-you.


The Theme 2009 is::

Greenbelt 09: Standing in the Long Now

Standing in the Long Now.

We asked Martin Wroe, journalist and Greenbelt trustee, to give us his impressions.

'The Long Now'. The phrase was coined by the musician, producer and all-round interesting thinker Brian Eno. And a good way to capture what it alludes to is with a legend about the C14th founders of New College, Oxford.

The story goes that the dining hall of New College was built with a series of huge oak beams. About half a millennium later, at the end of the C19th, the beams needed replacing. Being a wealthy institution the College owned some land and wondered if there were any oak trees on it. 'Ah...' said one of the tenants who farmed their land,

'We wondered when you'd be in touch.'

Turned out the farmers had a tradition that back in the C14th a new grove of oaks had been planted to make up for those cut down to provide the dining hall beams. The story was passed through the generations, one farmer to another: these oaks were protected, set aside for New College. Through the generations, the farmers were waiting, for century after century. For half a millennia.

In 1966, Eno, Stewart Brand, Danny Hillis and others set up The Long Now Foundation designed to 'foster long-term thinking'. At the Foundation they take a different perspective on time - they want to signal that life is not about speed but about presence, not about 'faster and cheaper' but slower and deeper. For example, they're developing 'The 10,000-year Clock' which only ticks once a year, has a century hand not an hour hand - and might even have a cuckoo, but only to emerge on a millennium.

'Civilization is reviving itself into a pathologically short attention span.' explains Danny Hillis. 'The trend might be coming from the acceleration of technology, the short-horizon perspective of market-driven economics, the next-election perspective of democracies, or the distractions of personal multi-tasking. All are on the increase. Some sort of balancing corrective to the short-sightedness is needed....'

In an age of 'do-it-now' and the instant decision, when waiting times are always coming down and the destination always trumps the journey, the idea of 'the long now' is deeply resonant for people of faith. In our traditions we keep alive the stories of iconic figures from past millennia because we know they will inspire us in bringing change to the present one. We mark a season of advent, consciously waiting for hope to be born and some kind of culmination of history. We recite a C4th creed which 'looks for the world to come' but subconsciously admit that it's turning out to be a pretty long now when after seventeen centuries it often seems no closer.

So what does it mean to stand in this long now? To become long-sighted? To plan for a present we may never experience, to long for a world we may have left before it arrives. What would it be like if gratification was not instant and the waiting had not been taken out of the wanting.

Would a credit-crunch take on a different perspective?

Would a painting or a piece of music take on another kind of value?

And how about a career? Could that find itself in competition from something as old-fashioned as a 'vocation'?

We're all standing in The Long Now - and at Greenbelt 09, we're going to stop and notice it and wonder what it means."

I hope and trust that you will consider coming to Greenbelt this year.

Don't credit crunch your soul!

I know some humans who come by themselves or with a partner. That is great but even better is coming as a group and sharing the experience together. Please don't keep Greenbelt for yourself.