Sean @ PagAnarchy

I've just watched the incredibly depressing movie Operation Solstice about the Battle Of The Beanfield.

20 years ago (1985) on June first, about 150 vehicles had an amazing "peace convoy" to Stonehenge (Wiltshire, England) where they were planning a free people's festival. Stonehenge has been used as a ritual and spiritual site for approximately 5000 years and the peace convoy were on their way to continue this amazing pagan tradition.

But the peace convoy was ambushed.

Cops started busting up the vehicles (which were in many cases people's homes), they bashed skulls, broke bones, set fire to vehicles and made 420 arrests. It seems the Wiltshire establishment took a disliking to the annual pilgrimige and authorised this extremely excessive force.

The movie doesn't end on a high note. It left me feeling with a deep sinking feeling that all life is rotten, that all police are pigs and that state corruption is so pervasive that there is no possible positive outcome for the people of this planet. Oh pessimism!

It is at these times of pessism that I remember that my political, cultural and social activism is for my own sanity and well-being as much as it is to make the world a better place. Even though at these times I feel there is not a chance in hell that we will be able to sort out the world's problems, I still continue to walk a path where I am ensuring my impact is moving in the direction of a healthy social change. The pessimism I feel could easily lead me down the path of total despair! Only by reminding myself that I am active because it keeps me spiritually healthy do I manage to keep on track and stay uplifted. I have many political and culturally aware friends who have given up activism because they see it as a fruitless exercise. We just gotta remind ourselves that simply being active (even if there is no chance for a lasting success) is a reward in itself!

On the other hand, sometimes I feel completely optimistic!! The movement for social justice is spreading across the planet, more people are turning off their TVs, more people are aware of the environmental impacts of their choices and close to 6000 US troops have deserted the army! These are all positive signs that the world can possibly sort out it's problems!

At these optimistic times I still focus on being active because of the benefits and sanity it brings me, but I get the extra bonus of feeling the positive outcomes of my work! I have to avoid not feeling too much attachment to the positive outcomes otherwise the despair will set in during the pessimistic trenches.

Some of the victims of the Battle of the Beanfield took the police to court and tried to win damages but the court case was a forgone conclusion (if you ask me). In fact the court outcome set the precedent for what later became the complete crackdown on free festivals, the later clampdown on Rave Culture, the introduction of the Criminal Justice Bill and it has set the stage for possible extreme levels of police violence at places like the upcoming protests against the G8 meeting.

And the "authorities" question why people become anti-authoritarians? At the end of the day, I am an optimist, especially if you who are reading me now decides to take some small action in this world to destabilise the current set of dominant paradigms and set yourself free. We are all in this together. Let's sort it out.

Love and Chaos,

Sean