I am not inclined to take up political blogging any time soon, its just not my cup of Dargeeling. But now that the curtain on the biggest head of state inauguration theatre on earth has come down,(next performance 4 years hence)i do wish to offer up a comment about the importance of;
'Being There'
That is the need for us humans to be present at an Event.
The political hysteria and hyperbole of 2 weeks ago is but a footnote to history now , so we can reflect a little on Event Management.
If an anthropologist from Mars were to be looking through a telescope at Earth, on the 20th of January 2009, searching for mobile crowd formations like shifting sand dunes on the red planet, our google eyed Martian would see around 2 million of us bipeds assembling in a flat open space in Washington DC.
'What's going on down there?'
'Pink Floyd re uniting ?'
' Free iPhones ?'
No not this time, but bipeds gathering in very large numbers to witness something else. People coming together to be part of a ceremony. And as it happens to hear a speech, a soliloquy if you will, by one of the most gifted orators since Pericles addressed the ancient Athenian crowds 2500 years ago.
This crowd formed by people wanting to be there, for their own reasons, of their own volition. Unlike the vast manditory turn outs of sycophantic masses as say in North Korea, to profess their allegiance to some loony dictator.
Unfortunately our Martian has seen plenty of that through his telescope.He also would have observed that dictators come and go but crowds keep forming.
This assemblage was voluntary. Albeit perhaps under the spell of one the most charismatic & hip politicians who has ever aspired to high office.
Shakespeare himself couldn't have invented a more appealing character to take centre stage for a while.
Sure Barack Obama is perhaps the most 'Improbable' of all presidents, with his name, his multi racial background and global upbringing.
As improbable as this Mid Winter's Night's Dream might have been written by Shakespeare, Barack Obama is now an integral part of what journalist Christopher Hitchens has called a real change in the Zeitgeist.Coming from such a learned scribe as he it is worth noting.
Perhaps thats why it was such a momentous Event.
That being so, and heres my rub, we humans have a need to be a witness to significant events. Just perhaps once in a life time.
Most of us can't make events that make history , for all our toil most of us won't even get a mention, let alone a make dent in our collective story.
But sometimes we can BE THERE when IT happens. Or seems to be happening. That is when someone else makes a big dent.
And 'Being There' means you are beyond or rather before the representation of the said event.
In real time.In real space.
You are not watching it on TV in the Situation Room of CNN, or on any other remote viewing device.You are not hearing some ones 'live' commentary on the radio, or reading about it in tomorrows newspaper.
YOU ARE THERE. Part of IT.
As Audience - To a Performance.
And this is a powerful human experience.
We all seek it from time to time for what ever reason.
I am not a big events/crowd person, especially when there are few exits, but i can feel the need to be there for the occasional big gig, like a Pink Floyd concert.
But its not that we go to rock concerts just to see The Rolling Stones, or to hear U2 or watch Madonna, or to see the dashing actor of the day perform another Hamlet's 'To Be..' on stage, or to watch Ali 'Float like a Butterfly', or to see the torch lighting ceremony of an Olympic games.
At a deeper level, its not the event content, its that there IS an Event.
We feel it as a need to become fully present at something which will be our EVENT, that we attended in person, perhaps later becoming a defining moment in our lives.
There is nothing more gob dropping assertive, when in a heated conversation about what really went down, with some would be wise ass pundit, or arm chair idiot expert, than to say:
"Because I was there Dude!"
When you can do BECAUSE I WAS THERE, you get street cred, and with it will follow
'He knows because he was there Dude!
When you are old and grey in the future it may be all you have left.
Even after you are gone and in another world on a different planet i can almost guarantee that if some 10th dimensional alien life form who never ufo'd it to this part of the Galaxy, starts shooting its mouth off about your ole planet Earth, you are gonna stand up and say to end the discussion drivel quick smart;
"This Zombie knows nothing ....Because I was there Dude"
Its even got Space Cred.
I think for many people in that particular crowd who were there dude, freezing their tits off in the Washington Mall on the 20th Jan, it will be THE defining event, at least culturally speaking in their lives.
But there again who am i to define anyone, and who knows what events are in store for us, that may do some big time defining for everyone in the future.
Being There, has a lot to do with the excessive amount of 2nd hand representational experience we get to feed off these days. Most world events of note are viewed electronically, via tv & internet. We are not personally there. You are there in your head, or in Wolf Blizer's head (sorry Wolf) but you are not there physically.
I think there is a part of our spirit that occasionally demands when we are suitable inspired (ie: in spirit ) that we be fully present to an event, both in mind & in body.
You gotta get the Ticket to get the T shirt. There should be a law against wearing T Shirts that you show where you haven't been.
Don't you think?
Then basically you just gotta show up early sos you can get a place.
That be the number one rule of witnessing events in person on the planet.
Make a note cos we are getting big on population:
SHOW UP EARLY!
Over the years our bemused Martian would have seen crowds turn out for many unknown reasons here on earth;
To see a Pope, the Olympic Games, World Cups, ticker tape parades for returning Apollo Luna astronauts, after Linberg flew the Atlantic, for all manner of aid this & aid that music concerts. To witness Battles (in the days when armies fort on battle fields).At the end of Wars.For religious pilgrimages like The Hajj. For coronations of heads of state, or to watch heads of state roll off the block in guillotine revolutions. On the eve of one northern winters night of the year, where people really go stupid; especially every hundred years, and yes, if iPhones were being given out for free no doubt a crowd would assemble in a nano second anywhere on earth.
A Pink Floyd reunion? I reckon so.
Sure the events of the 20th of January this year had a lot to do MLK 's Dream, with Barack and with Abraham Lincoln & The Gettysburg Address:
'That Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth'
And neither shall the formation of crowds perish here on earth, as long as there are things we feel are important EVENTS to witness.
And so it was that one of those MEGA World Events that rolls around every once in a while, rolled around - and 2 million people showed up in person and from all reports behaved exceptionally well.
We should learn from that.
We know what human crowds can turn into....
I can't speak for the individual reasons that people showed up for that event, it was i believe beyond the representation of government for the people, beyond even the significance of the first African American in the White House, beyond the Dream, beyond the representation of the media to hype the message, like these photos of CNN's coverage i snapped off a live tv screen.
For 2 million men women & kids it was about witnessing AN EVENT in the flesh,
and like seeing Pink Floyd live in concert,
It was about BEING THERE DUDE.
There is an endless sunset and sunrise on this planet. It is seamless, continuous setrise, because the earth is round.
