Absurd Intelligence

About four years ago, in search of a hobby to keep me both fit and to interrupt my increasingly anxious mind, I took up martial arts. While other women my age were leaning into their maternal instincts, I was leaning into an urge to release some deeply suppressed rage at the world. Perhaps all those years of trying to make it better and feeling like we weren’t getting very far had altered something in me. Either way, I decided I wanted to learn, not just to defend myself, but to fight.

The co-founder of Extinction Rebellion Clare Farrell is working on a new Constructive Programme for the UK – you can follow progress on her Substack. It is inspired by Gandhi’s original constructive programme for Indian independence. Both constructive programmes are oriented around a spiritual grounding for practical revolution; both call for a flexibility of mind and heart to keep our humanity intact in this difficult work. I am lucky enough to work with Clare on the programme.

What does it really mean to be ‘out there’? If we were discussing someone’s tastes or proclivities we might describe their niche penchant for St Helenan philately’s ‘Extinct Seabirds Collection’ as somewhat ‘out there’. Or being ‘out there’ is a gesture to a broader, further horizon, a location perhaps unspecified, that carries the sense of possibilities in a world beyond the present time, space and constraints.

The phrase ‘saving the world’ doesn’t mean much, does it? A headline writer’s shorthand; a casual locution that can indicate a wide variety of doing-good-type activities; a figure of speech in which ‘world’ represents whichever kind of doing good we are referring to. I would hear ‘Oh, you’re off saving the world, are you?’ if I was going on a protest, or working to get a law changed, or planting trees on a permaculture project.

We began the journey back to London bleary-eyed. No sooner than Ffair Cymru had wrapped we’d piled over the road to the Elysium Bar for a banging night of anti-fascist South Wales punk. Hairdye. Anti-fascist South Wales punk. It proved a perfect (if tiring) segue, for we were heading back for You Are Here, Danny Boyle’s blink-and-you-miss-it takeover of The Southbank Centre.

It is well documented that the beloved Welsh poet and playwright, Dylan Thomas, had conflicting feelings about the town of his birth, Swansea. Famously referring to his post-industrial coastal home in South West Wales as an “ugly, lovely town”, many might argue that Thomas’s depiction still rings true today. Swansea has always been a place of contradictions. One turn onto High Street and you’re passing shuttered shopfronts, dilapidated indoor markets and people sleeping rough.

Last week Alex threw a particularly gnarly gauntlet at me. In his piece Another Economy is Possible he said: “One of the central questions of the conversation about the economy and perceptions, narrative and stories, is: who gets to define value?

Two thinkers we’re inspired by at Absurd Intelligence are Ursula K Le Guin and David Graeber. Their work circles around each other like the ouroboros (the two headed snake of eternal cycles: destruction and rebirth, infinity, and unity).

When we’re milling around, trying to look busy, it’s tense. Then we get a huge release once everyone starts singing. Loudly. Together. “Time to drop BP, don’t take their money” was our refrain at the British Museum. To the Space Odyssey theme tune. It sounded fabulous in the huge hall, and got both tourists and security guards smiling straight away. Our flashmobs have also taken us into St Paul’s Cathedral, the House of Commons and the AGMs of several dirty companies.

Ffair Cymru First up, if you’re in south Wales this weekend, you MUST! come to Ffair Cymru this Saturday 2nd May, 10am-5pm, for a brilliant day of coming together around what the people of Wales want for their country. And if you’re not in the area, but you know people who are, please share the details with them.