ok, so here I am, over 2 years later, back with the Blog…. Blush….
I admit, I fell hopelessly in love with Twitter & have devoted nearly all my scribblings to it. I knew it would be compulsive, addictive and obsessive, but didn’t realise just quite how powerful a calling it would have over me!
However – today I have been inspired by an amazing tweet from @BienSoeur which I recreate here: “…. I think Danny Boyle’s show gave us permission somehow to be really angry with this govt – gave us courage”.
I thought about it a moment, and realised I totally agreed with her. This led on to an excellent and inspiring Twitter discussion involving a number of people. As we were talking, it really struck me what an important cultural and even historical event could have played out on Friday night. This Blog is essentially based on my comments during that discussion.
Danny Boyle’s fabulous-beyond-words Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games on Friday has already inspired goodness knows how many words of praise from many people across the world. It was a truly mind-blowing experience and one that surely no-one who witnessed it will forget in a very long time. Indeed, I expect it is already indelibly imprinted on the brains of many – one of those rare events that genuinely affects the lives of those witnessing it.
I confess, it was something of a shock to me – I’m no fan of the London Olympics, and hadn’t expected anything much of the Opening Ceremony. In fact, I wasn’t even watching until I started to read amazing things about it on my Twitter feed. Clearly something unexpected and very special was unfolding in front of people’s eyes, and I wanted to be a part of it, so I started watching….
What I saw was a monumental event – something incredible. Something meaningful, something moving, and something incredibly SUBVERSIVE. The last thing I’d expected! The genius Danny Boyle was pulling off an event of total subversion, right in front of the British government and the world’s elite! And using the ultimate symbol of the British Establishment, the Queen, to help do it! WOW
This is only the Monday after the Friday, and I know I am still absorbing what I saw and heard, as I’m sure most people who experienced it are. It was an incredibly powerful occasion, made all the more so by its unexpectedness, and really was quite overwhelming.
Its early days yet, and the longer term results of Friday night are still to unfold, of course – but I instinctively feel that Danny Boyle’s show was one of those moments that will go down in history as a critical moment – a defining moment in British history. A moment where nothing will be quite the same again. You cannot plan it, you cannot make it happen – but when it happens, it is a Revelation. A moment of Epiphany.
As @BienSoeur so rightly said, Danny Boyle’s extravaganza has given the British people the ‘permission’ to be really angry with its government. It is as if Brits have finally woken from a long slumber. The Opening Ceremony appears to have unexpectedly hit a huge nerve with Brits – it has suddenly given people back their confidence in being British.
For many years it’s been almost shameful to be proud to be British, it’s something we’re supposed to be ashamed and embarrassed about, if anything. Now Danny Boyle has given us permission to take pride in our country’s huge achievements in many areas, not least culture and the arts – a gift to the whole world.
Many people were jerked into a realisation of what we had, what we have – but maybe not for much longer. You can talk to people till your blue in the face about these things – but the timing has to be right before people are able to take it on board, for some reason. A Critical Mass effect, perhaps. One event to motivate and catalyse, happening in a moment. A moment that can never be put back into the box, a moment that changes everything. Please God.
I’m sure it was a wake-up moment for many – a paradigm shift. We tweeters tend to forget most people aren’t on Twitter, and don’t know how many others think in exactly the same way they do. If people only hear news and views from mainstream media, it must be very easy to feel isolated in your thoughts about the world. You may feel it’s only you who feels like this! So when a major world event comes along and supports your worldview, it could be something of an epiphany for many.
Perhaps now we’ll take a stand for our future. People have realised that we can’t just sleepwalk on and passively allow the goverment to destroy us and everything we hold dear – things that our ancestors worked so hard to achieve.
There is no direction, no relief and no hope coming from the political establishment –
We have to look to ourselves to save us and to save our heritage – including the utterly vital NHS – and I hope people finally understood this on Friday.
PS
Ironically, this is the first Blog post I’ve written since my tribute to Malcolm McLaren following his untimely death 2 years ago. I found myself wondering what Malcolm would have thought of Friday’s show. Could it be said that Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony was a supreme Situationist act? – it certainly was a Spectacle to behold and it certainly was Subversive!
And delightfully – the inspired use of the Queen in her Jubilee year to undermine the Establishment takes us straight back to her 1977 Jubilee and the glorious contribution of Malcolm McLaren and the Sex Pistols to proceedings! Nothing was ever quite the same again!
Here’s to Hoping!