Last weekend saw the return of Glastonbury, in all it's muddy glory. A visceral manifestation of humankind’s eternal connection to music. The visually spectacular closing set of Ed Sheeran, where he showcased total mastery of the loop pedal and his uncanny ability to pull at your heart strings, as if they were chords on his guitar. I grew up on a strict diet of Annie Lennox, Mozart and Coldplay. Throughout my life music has been a tremendous antidote to the riggers of my disability, especially in my teenage years. Whenever things got a little too much, I would put in my earphones and escape.
This years Glastonbury had performances from a wide range of artists, an eclectic mix of genres and ideas, even a politician. Jeremy Corbyn entered the Pyramid Stage as a conquering hero to rapturous applause, having won a resounding victory. Unless I am mistaken Corbyn lost, losing so badly his party are 56 seats behind the Conservatives, a Conservative party that failed to win a majority. We are living through unprecedented times where political discourse has become a reality TV program, figure heads preach to the converted rather than trying to reach a new audience.
The landscape of politics is shifting into a new era. The anglosphere has fallen out of love with the centre ground, instead we seem to delight in continuing polarisation. Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn are two sides of the same coin, both advocate radical change whilst categorically refusing to face up to the realities of governing a country. They champion “movements” which hold the opposing view in utter contempt, limiting the possibility for constructive discussion.
We have developed “echo chambers”, in part fuelled by Social Media, where our exposure to different opinions is minimal. People create their very own soap boxes, condensed into 140 characters and punctuated with over use of the Caps Locks key. President Trump is the undisputed expert of diplomacy by tweet, reducing state policy to key strokes. It is impossible to have intelligent dialogue when it is delivered by digital proclamation. The age of the “Keyboard Warrior” has begun.
The “missing middle” phenomenon is also prevalent in Britain today, a prime example being Brexit. Certain sections of the mainstream media appear to have adopted a selective approach to how they report the goings on in Europe. Despite any evidence to the contrary, we will never deviate from the path we have taken, anyone with misgivings is deemed to be talking down the country. Similarly, ardent supporters of remaining within the European Union gaze in disbelief at those stupid people who voted to leave, forgetting that the decision has been made.
We need to rediscover that fundamental ability of respecting other people's opinions, no matter how much we might disagree with them. Only then, will we have any hope of effective communication with one another.
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