Humanity’s Fringe - and why it shouldn’t be trimmed

The European Adventure I referred to in my previous article has taken us through France, the Low Countries, Germany, and Denmark before reaching our final destination - Angsbacka in Sweden (Slightly north of Karlstadt for those of you wondering).

We were there for a ‘No Mind’ festival, lasting a week with the theme centred around love. I want to avoid the use of generalisations so I’m going to refrain from using the term ‘hippie’. Also, ‘hippie’ carries connotations of long straggly hair and drugs and Angsbacka has a strict zero tolerance policy - on drugs not straggly hair.

Based on my experience of the No Mind festival,  I want to express my feelings towards this culture and where it fits in in this modern world and what future it has. So here goes nothing...

One of the great satisfactions of Angsbacka was the openness. Every day for an hour there was the chance to open up and share your feelings or accounts with both friends and strangers all whilst maintaining a confidentiality BFFs could only dream of. It is a very British attitude to hide your feelings from public and it is one spreading through the wider world and people attempt to conform to their expectations. And to these conformists I simply ask them this: Did Dr Jekyll’s suppression of his sins and feelings benefit those surrounding him? One of Robert Louis Stevenson’s talents was to subtly implant his ideas and wishes into the mind holes of his reader. Whether they acknowledge this or not though varies with each individual. William’s Golding and Shakespeare are other examples. Imagine if for a moment, Jekyll, MacBeth, or Ralph had felt able to express their true feelings to Utterson, Banquo or Jack without the expectations of being able to deal with their own problems without sharing their struggles and emotions with one another. After all what is the purpose of fiction if it doesn’t provoke, engage and raise awareness and understanding? For then it is a mere description lacking any moral compass. 

I’m aware this tangent would make my maths teacher proud but I do hope I’m demonstrating how sharing can lead to a more calming connected world of support and understanding, and that the confidence and trust between individuals is stronger than any individual’s mental resolve.

But being open doesn’t mean that problems and concerns won’t vanish. Before we departed from Stansted Airport, I was in great discussion about whether I would feel comfortable at Angsbacka for a week having never been to a festival or meditation centre before and having only attempted meditation a couple of times. But what eventually won me over was the freedom. The ability to pick and choose what workshops I wanted to do. I was also told that Angsbacka had a youth movement where I could meet other like-minded proles who agreed with the principles of Angsbacka and the workshops, yet didn’t feel comfortable immersing themselves in unfamiliar activities to achieve them. As it happened, I attended Improvised Theatre, Gong Relaxation and Ecstatic Dance. And I was treated no different to anyone else throughout the week - apart from when we watched England defeat Sweden. Then, the glares could be felt on the back of our necks whilst remaining modest and congratulatory of our performance and jealous of our Goalkeeper Pickford. Since our semi-final woes, many have since approached me to speak of the Swedish curse, whereby teams which beat the Swedes are promptly eliminated in the following game.

Nevertheless, without this aforementioned social group, I would’ve felt out of place surrounded by people who mostly enjoy being on society’s cusp and even in their own little world. Others meanwhile, see Angsbacka as a holiday and a detoxification from their otherwise normal lives. It is the people on the cusp who intrigue me most. They seem to thrive in this open, left-field environment where openness is the word of the day and love is the rule of law - literally. Yet, in this utopia, if society was so open and loving, then these people wouldn’t be on the fringe but in the mainstream and not attracting attention for their ideas and dreams. 

And I believe that would be detrimental.

For if these beliefs and lifestyles were to be introduced to the bustling worlds of the general public, then this community of people would be destroyed and become part of a larger cog where each individual is overall less significant to the workings of the Earth’s machine. That is slightly abstract so let’s use an example. As online gaming and e-sports have grown, the gaming culture is far more integrated into society. However, individual gamers don’t feel as important or valued when so many other people are gaming and your place is no longer of great significance to all the other people in the community. It is different in a smaller group where your presence is noted by everyone around you.

 So, let’s link this back.

Each individual deserves the right to feel important and cared for by others. And this tangible feeling can be better felt in a smaller environment even if that means not being part of mainstream culture.

I believe the world should be a more loving and open place but the methods to achieve this and destruction of this cluster in society would be detrimental to incumbent lovers and sharers who appreciate their relative value and don’t want it detracted from. 

It therefore means that their longstanding dream of universal similarities in love and openness may have to remain that way.

However, a lack of change in lifestyle doesn’t mean opinions can’t be swayed. For one thing which is achievable is respect. Respect can be earned by openly spreading messages that society should hear and changing people’s perceptions. What if more people were to maybe respect what Angsbacka’s festivals were trying to achieve, instead of dismissing it as the work of ‘hippies’. And maybe what if people could at least experience the chaotic organisation of such an environment and how it contrasts with the organised chaos of a working life.

Maybe if all of this could happen, then the fringe of society can remain unswept and the brain below it could widen in awareness and respect and close down a world of generalisation and dismissals. But that is my utopia. And that is another story. One that definitely won’t be told on the long road journey back to Birmingham!