I’ve just returned from the 2004 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. It’s a huge five day event with camping, markets, arts and crafts, standing in muddy fields, getting rained on and, most importantly, about 12 stages with three days of live music.
The full photo gallery gives the story of how I spent my time. It was a fantastic time, I managed to get over the jet lag and see most of the bands I wanted to see. Highlights included Zero 7, Ocean Colour Scene‘s acoustic set and Muse whose dramatic music is perfect for a big festival finale.
But what I really want to talk about here is the politics of Glastonbury. I feel somewhat out of place at the festival. I’m a libertarian, pro-free-market, pro-capitalism, pro-globalisation, pro-Iraq-war type of person, and Glastonbury is ostensibly all socialism, environmentalism, anti-globalisation, anti-war-ism, anti-capitalism and anti-anything-to-do-with-the-West-ism. I’m everything they hate and they’re everything I hate. But I did my best to subvert them with my own propaganda, as the photos here show.
In fact, the Glastonbury Festival is a wonderful example of capitalism in action. For a start, without capitalism the event wouldn’t be anything like it is. Big name bands like Muse would never have sold millions of CDs, companies would not be making P.A. systems that can fill huge fields with sound or giant TV screens so that people can see from the back, and only the elite would be able to go because we’d all be too busy toiling in the fields. You can actually see capitalism working and socialism failing right in front of your eyes at Glastonbury. There are markets with hundreds of vendors selling anything you could possibly need: various types of food, both exotic and straightforward, vegetarian and greasy burgers; raincoats and camping equipment; artwork and gifts; and an Aladdin’s cave of useful goodies from the 24-hour shops (from which I bought a torch, double A batteries for my camera, and lip-balm).
On the other hand, tickets for the festival were sold at below their market value resulting in nightmarish queueing and effective lottery allocation, free firewood disappeared before anyone but the quickest could get some, and certain “public facilities” were under-supplied resulting in queueing at peak times.
The tone of the festival is, in a way, set by the charities it supports. On the Pyramid stage these charities run videos between acts, trying to drum up support for their various causes. Oxfam want to eradictate poverty everywhere, Water Aid want to eradicate poverty in the third world by supplying it with clean water funded by aid, the Drop The Debt people want to eradicate poverty by getting whoever lent money to third world countries to forget about it, War On Want want to eradicate poverty by opposing privatisation, the Fair Trade people want to eradicate poverty by encouraging over-production of coffee, and Greenpeace only want to eradicate poverty if it doesn’t involve killing fluffy animals.
War On Want were showing a particularly acerbic video in which water company executives talk about water as “the new gold”, and give a glass of urine to a black child. They are opposed to third world privatisation, which presumably means they want third world governments to be in control of the water supply. I am not so convinced of the reliability of third world governments.
What all these people seem to miss is that countries with liberalised economies, free markets and free international trade get richer automatically thanks to capitalism. The East Asian tigers have flourished where Africa has become poorer because East Asian countries have embraced capitalism and globalisation, and African countries are stuck with corrupt governments, socialism, dictatorships, bureaucracy and tarriffs. Oh, and policies like the CAP don’t help either but the fair trade people rarely mention that.
Even some of the bands like to get out their left-wing hippy message. The lead singer of Bright Eyes complained that even though he went to an anti-war protest, we went and “killed a bunch of people” in Iraq anyway. Killed a bunch of people? Is that really what we did? How about, “liberated millions of Iraqis from a dictatorship, giving them freedom and hope of economic growth and prosperity”? How can the same people so dedicated to eradicating poverty have so much to complain about greedy corporations (who quite often invest in third world countries) and so little complain about oppresive regimes that are the real cause of poverty?
One answer is that they just don’t think enough. When one of the Sisters Sledge implores, “brothers, stop hurting each other”, and the crowd cheers, they clearly haven’t considered what a facile statement it is. Of course everyone wants world peace and an end to war, but just saying so and then cheering and clapping about it doesn’t achieve anything, and it completely ignores the political oppression that leads to war. Singing about freedom would be much more worthwhile, but that is out of fashion. Perhaps this is because freedom is part of the American way; the mentality is such that Big Hard Excellent Fish‘s song Imperfect List lists “the all American way” alongside, Hitler, the (alleged) death of the rain forest, Myra Hindley and apartheid.
Another example of the lack of thought is the proliferation of Che Guevara merchadise. I saw his image on flags and T-shirts everywhere. I still can’t fathom why: he was a mass murdering communist. Perhaps those wearing his image think he helped liberate Cuba. I have two questions for these people: If Guevara and Castro liberated Cuba, in what sense didn’t the Americans liberate Iraq? And have you been to Cuba? The people there don’t seem so liberated – unless they risk their lives escaping to America just for kicks.
Don’t get me wrong: I want to see poverty eradicated as much as anyone else. I suspect I want it more than most – I don’t just want to see people in the Third World with clean water and enough food, I want to see them driving SUVs to their air conditioned offices to do their nine to five jobs, then driving home again to watch travel shows on TV so they can plan their holidays to Australia.
But jumping on the bandwagon of the hour is not the way to do it. Sending aid to poor countries is, on its own, pouring money down the drain. In some cases it makes things worse: sending money to Zimbabwe only props up Mugabe’s regime. The most important thing is to eradicate oppression, liberalise economies, and encourage free trade. Only then can the third world begin to catch up with the first.
Quite what can or should be done by us in the West to achieve this is debatable. Freeing up imports would be a good start, and would help our own economy at the same time. Fighting the wrong enemies does not help. For my part, I tried to do my bit to get festival-goers thinking the right way. This display showed messages sent by SMS. My message would have been cycled round for an hour or so. I wonder if anyone read it. Quite possibly not: one thing I noticed about the festival-goers themselves was that they were mostly indifferent to the campaigning going on around them. They were there for the music.
Nice! As it happens, one of our occasional contributors (Dave Shaw) was there too!
Sir, you rock!
Words cannot express how cool that is.
Some guerilla marketing for Samizdata.net
Rob Fisher has discovered a foolproof plan for getting invited to our famed Blogger Bashes… …advertsing Samizdata.net at the Glastonbury festival…
Thanks guys, glad to know you appreciate my efforts!
Good effort Rob.
I take it you avoided the Left Field then?
Nicely done… But why do I think it may be a case of pearls before swine?
Nicely done mate… I would love to go to Glasto some day. However, it would help if the bands on were half-way decent.
Excellent! Especially the mickey guevara tee shirt and the not so subliminal samizdata plug!
Oh, there’s one of the swine I was talking about.
Gutless too – just another AC.
Mark: Unfortunately I didn’t get time to visit the Left Field. A shame too, a nice debate with a Socialist Worker seller might have been entertaining.
Andrew: Perhaps it is a matter of taste, but there is so much on that there’s bound to be something you’d enjoy listening to at the festival. I guess you need something that excites you a lot to counterbalance all the left wing preaching, though…
I was there too and was slightly intimidated by all the righteousness (esp. the endless adverts for greenpeace and co). My own small contribution was to subvert some union’s (amicus?) voting form by putting libertarian policies in place of their anti-business ones!
Andy: Righteousness! That’s *exactly* what it was. I should have used that word in my article. Good work with the voting form.
“Sanctimonious” also applies
I agree with the sentiment. It’s interesting how to many on the left, Che Guevara tee shirts and vegan humous sandwiches aren’t a form of capitalism but McDonald’s burgers and Gap t-shirts are. Oh well, mine is not to reason why.
where to start? OK, “pro-free-market”. Is this some kind of joke? Are you suggesting that the
massively subsidised and protectionist western markets somehow represent a free market?
So you are pro-globalisation? Do you really think anti-capitalists are anti-globalisation just because that’s what the mass media has labelled them as? Even though they are setting up communication and solidarity networks across the world? Is that the sort of globalisation you’re all for?
You seem to complain about the environmentalism campaigns at glasto, what’s your problem with that? Have you got a spare planet somewhere for you and all your neo-liberal mates to live on once capitalism has destroyed this one? Or it this part of your so called libertarianism? Should corporations be allowed to continue to devastate the planet just so long as there’s a profit in it?
If your t-shirts are supposed to be clever propaganda you should be a bit clearer. The coke style one seems to be critical of Coke’s environmental (poisoning water supplies in India) and employment (killing trade unionists in Columbia) record. The Mickey/che one looks like a criticism of both meaningless consumer capitalism of both Disney and empty pop icons like mr Guevara. Maybe a t-shirt saying “money grabbing bastard†would work better.
No, I’m not suggesting that subsidy and protectionism has any place in a free market. Quite the opposite.
I’m lumping globalisation and capitalism together because globalisation is what you get when you have capitalism and free international trade. I don’t see how you can be anti-capitalist and pro-globalisation.
I have various problems with environmentalism in general. Things are rarely as bad as environmentalists say. Corporations are not “devastating the planet”. Greenpeace et al seem to want to save the planet (not that it’s in much need of saving) at the expense of people. The DDT ban is an example of this. Green policies that hold back developing countries are counter-productive because when countries get richer they damage the environment less. Finally, as a libertarian I automatically dislike groups that lobby governments into coercing people.
I’m not *against* preserving the environment, I just don’t think environmentalists have their costs and benefits worked out right.
As for the T-shirts: I didn’t design them, but I think the Coke one is being literal. Enjoy Capitalism. It tastes good. The Mikey/Che one is pointing out the irony of putting a socialist icon on merchandise.
[English only here, please -- Rob]
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For see Cuba.
Program on the emergence of civilization.
“14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind.
None from the sub-Saharan African continent.
13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa.”
Favor.
And disfavor.
They point out Africans’ attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it’s applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.
The roots of racism are not of this earth.
Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals.
The North American continent had none. Now 99% of that population is gone.
Organizational Heirarchy
Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:
1. MUCK – perhaps have experienced multiple universal contractions (have seen multiple big bangs), creator of the artificial intelligence humans ignorantly refer to as “god”
2. Perhaps some mid-level alien management –
3. Mafia (evil) aliens – runs day-to-day operations here and perhaps elsewhere (“On planets where they approved evil.”)
Then we come to terrestrial management:
4. Chinese/egyptians – this may be separated into the eastern and western worlds
5. Romans – they answer to the egyptians
6. Mafia – the real-world interface that constantly turns over generationally so as to reinforce the widely-held notion of mortality
7. Jews, corporation, women, politician – Evidence exisits to suggest mafia management over all these groups.
Survival of the favored.
Movies foreshadowing catastrophy
1986 James Bond View to a Kill 1989 San Fransisco Loma Prieta earthquake.
They can affect the weather and Hurricane Katrina was accomplished for many reasons, as anything this historical is::
1. Take heat off Sheenhan/Iraq, protecting profitable war machine/private war contracts
2. Gentrification. New Orleans median home price of $84k is among the lowest in major American cities, certainly among desirable cities.
3. Punish red states
Journal: 10 composition books + 39 megs of text files
Program on the emergence of civilization.
“14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind.
13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa.
None from the sub-Saharan African continent. ”
Favor.
And disfavor.
They point out Africans’ failed attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it’s applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.
The roots of racism are not of this earth.
Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals.
The North American continent had none. Now 99% of that population is gone.
AIDS in Africa.
Organizational Heirarchy
Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:
1. MUCK – perhaps have experienced multiple universal contractions (have seen multiple big bangs), creator of the artificial intelligence humans ignorantly refer to as “god”
2. Perhaps some mid-level alien management
3. Evil/disfavored aliens – runs day-to-day operations here and perhaps elsewhere
Terrestrial management:
4. Chinese/egyptians – this may be separated into the eastern and western worlds
5. Romans – they answer to the egyptians
6. Mafia – the real-world interface that constantly turns over generationally so as to reinforce the widely-held notion of mortality
7. Jews, corporation, women, politician – Evidence exisits to suggest mafia management over all these groups.
Movies foreshadowing catastrophy
1985 James Bond View to a Kill 1989 San Francisco Loma Prieta earthquake.
Many Muslims are being used like the Germans and Japanese of WWII::being used to hurt others and envoke condemnation upon their people.
They can affect the weather and Hurricane Katrina was accomplished for many reasons and involves many interests, as anything this historical is::
1. Take heat off Sheenhan/Iraq, protecting profitable war machine/private war contracts
2. Gentrification. New Orleans median home price of $84k is among the lowest in major American cities, certainly among desirable cities.
Our society gives clues to the system in place. We all have heard the saying “He has more money than god.” There is also an episode of the Simpsons where god meets Homer and says “I’m too old and rich for this.”
This is the system on earth because this is the system everywhere.
god is evil because of money.
I don’t want to suggest the upper eschelons are evil and good is the fringe.
But they have made it abundantly clear that doing business with evil (disfavored) won’t help people. They say only good would have the ear, since evil is struggling for survival, and therefore only the favored could help me.
The clues are there which companies are favored and which are disfavored, market domination being one clue, but they conceal it very hard because it is so crucial.
I offer an example of historical proportions:::
People point to Walmart and cry “anti-union”.
Unions enable disfavored people to live satisfactorly without addressing their disfavor. This way their family’s problems are never resolved. Without the union they would have to accept the heirarchy, their own inferiority.
Unions serve to empower.
Walmart is anti-union because they are good. They try to help people address and resolve their problems.
Media ridicule and lawsuits are creations to reinforce people’s belief that Walmart is evil (disfavored).
I believe the coining of the term “Uncle Sam” was a clue alluding to just this.
The middle class is being deceived. They are being misled into the unfavored, and subsequently will have no hope.
Amercia is a country of castoffs, rejects. Italy sent its criminals. Malcontents.
Between the thrones, the klans and kindred, they “decided” who they didn’t want and acted, creating discontent and/or starvation.
The u.s. is full of disfavored rejects. It is the reason for the myriad of problems not found in European countries. As far as the Rockafellers and other industrialists of the 19th century go, I suspect these aren’t their real names. I suspect they were chosen to go and head this new empire.
Jesus Christ is a religious figure of evil. These seperatist churches formed so they could still capture the rest of the white people, keeping them worshipping the wrong god.
And now they do it to people of color, Latinos and Asians, after centuries of preying upon them.
Since Buddism doesn’t recongnize a god, the calls are never heard, and Chinese representation is instead selected by the thrones.
It was set up this way. Perhaps dyanstic thrones had a say, but maybe not.
Budda was the Asian’s Jesus Christ::: bad for the people. “They came up at the same time for a reason.”
Simpson’s foreshadowing::Helloween IV special, Flanders is Satan. “Last one you ever suspect.”
“You’ll see lots of nuns where you’re going:::hell!!!” St. Wigham, Helloween VI, missionary work, destroying cultures.
Over and over, the Simpsons was a source of education and enlightenment, a target of ridicule by the system which wishes to conceal its secrets.
Jews maim the body formed in the image of “god”, and inflicted circumsision upon all other white people, as well as the evil that is Jesus Christ. I believe Islam is the one true religion, and those misled christians and cooperating Jews who attack “god’s” most favored people will pay for it dearly one day.
Program on the emergence of civilization.
“14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind.
13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa.
None from the sub-Saharan African continent. ”
Favor.
And disfavor.
They point out Africans’ failed attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it’s applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.
The roots of racism are not of this earth.
Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals.
The North American continent had none. Now 99% of that population is gone.
AIDS in Africa.
Organizational Heirarchy
Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:
1. MUCK – perhaps have experienced multiple universal contractions (have seen multiple big bangs), creator of the artificial intelligence humans ignorantly refer to as “god”
2. Perhaps some mid-level alien management
3. Evil/disfavored aliens – runs day-to-day operations here and perhaps elsewhere
Terrestrial management:
4. Chinese/egyptians – this may be separated into the eastern and western worlds
5. Romans – they answer to the egyptians
6. Mafia – the real-world interface that constantly turns over generationally so as to reinforce the widely-held notion of mortality
7. Jews, corporation, women, politician – Evidence exisits to suggest mafia management over all these groups.
Movies foreshadowing catastrophy
1985 James Bond View to a Kill 1989 San Francisco Loma Prieta earthquake.
Many Muslims are being used like the Germans and Japanese of WWII::being used to hurt others and envoke condemnation upon their people.
They can affect the weather and Hurricane Katrina was accomplished for many reasons and involves many interests, as anything this historical is::
1. Take heat off Sheenhan/Iraq, protecting profitable war machine/private war contracts
2. Gentrification. New Orleans median home price of $84k is among the lowest in major American cities, certainly among desirable cities.
Our society gives clues to the system in place. We all have heard the saying “He has more money than god.” There is also an episode of the Simpsons where god meets Homer and says “I’m too old and rich for this.”
This is the system on earth because this is the system everywhere.
god is evil because of money.
I don’t want to suggest the upper eschelons are evil and good is the fringe.
But they have made it abundantly clear that doing business with evil (disfavored) won’t help people. They say only good would have the ear, since evil is struggling for survival, and therefore only the favored could help me.
The clues are there which companies are favored and which are disfavored, market domination being one clue, but they conceal it very hard because it is so crucial.
I offer an example of historical proportions:::
People point to Walmart and cry “anti-union”.
Unions enable disfavored people to live satisfactorly without addressing their disfavor. This way their family’s problems are never resolved. Without the union they would have to accept the heirarchy, their own inferiority.
Unions serve to empower.
Walmart is anti-union because they are good. They try to help people address and resolve their problems.
Media ridicule and lawsuits are creations to reinforce people’s belief that Walmart is evil (disfavored).
I believe the coining of the term “Uncle Sam” was a clue alluding to just this.
The middle class is being deceived. They are being misled into the unfavored, and subsequently will have no hope.
Amercia is a country of castoffs, rejects. Italy sent its criminals. Malcontents.
Between the thrones, the klans and kindred, they “decided” who they didn’t want and acted, creating discontent and/or starvation.
The u.s. is full of disfavored rejects. It is the reason for the myriad of problems not found in European countries. As far as the Rockafellers and other industrialists of the 19th century go, I suspect these aren’t their real names. I suspect they were chosen to go and head this new empire.
Jesus Christ is a religious figure of evil. These seperatist churches formed so they could still capture the rest of the white people, keeping them worshipping the wrong god.
And now they do it to people of color, Latinos and Asians, after centuries of preying upon them.
Since Buddism doesn’t recongnize a god, the calls are never heard, and Chinese representation is instead selected by the thrones.
It was set up this way. Perhaps dyanstic thrones had a say, but maybe not.
Budda was the Asian’s Jesus Christ::: bad for the people. “They came up at the same time for a reason.”
Simpson’s foreshadowing::Helloween IV special, Flanders is Satan. “Last one you ever suspect.”
“You’ll see lots of nuns where you’re going:::hell!!!” St. Wigham, Helloween VI, missionary work, destroying cultures.
Over and over, the Simpsons was a source of education and enlightenment, a target of ridicule by the system which wishes to conceal its secrets.
Jews maim the body formed in the image of “god”, and inflicted circumsision upon all other white people, as well as the evil that is Jesus Christ. I believe Islam is the one true religion, and those misled christians and cooperating Jews who attack “god’s” most favored people will pay for it dearly one day.