REPORT ON ALASTAIR MCINTOSH'S PUBLIC TALK IN BRISTOL

  
Alastair McIntosh speaking to the Bristol eco guests

Engaging The Powers’. David Fuller of Sustainable Redland reports on what this recently held Bristol Ecoshows event means for Bristol.

I shall try to summarise the lessons that I gained from being in the presence of Alastair McIntosh, but will never be able to convey the energy that just being there, mustered. The summaries are with Sustainable Redland discussions in mind, but they may be relevant across Bristol.

Do we belong?
A Scottish term “Gall-Gael” (Gael are the original inhabitants and Gall are the strangers), means strangers that have been fully assimilated and have a sense of belonging. In the sense that none of us are totally indigenous, we may all be best described as Gall-Gael, but perhaps we need to listen to each other’s stories before we can truly establish ourselves as Gall-Gael, because even people that have lived in a place all their lives, due to the kind of lifestyle they lead, may sense themselves disconnected from the land.

Why didn’t they teach this in our history lessons at School? McIntosh discussed enclosure (privatization of common land) in England, starting in 1235 and then speeding up under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I and being completed in the 1800’s. The English take landed power for granted. One folk singer puts it this way: “It is easy to forget that England is the most colonized nation in history.” In Scotland, Highland Clearances happened much more recently and that’s why they provide such a vivid window into the processes of cultural genocide. One of the activism successes that McIntosh has been a part of, is that of gaining community ownership of the Island of Eigg, at a time when its owner was trying to sell the Island off as a piece of real estate. The headline in the Daily Mail suggested that the Scottish were a bad lot, just like the Zimbabweans, but the land reforms that have taken place in Scotland have been totally non-violent.

Small group talks after Alastair's eco night

The Cycle of Belonging:
There is, according to McIntosh, a sequence for reconnecting with place. He calls it the cycle of belonging (a virtuous cycle which perpetuates itself): 1) When we start to connect with a place, we have the beginnings of "a sense of place" (grounding);
2) This gives rise to a sense of identity (ego/head);
3) Which carries with it a sense of values (soul/heart);
4) This generates a sense of responsibility (action/hand).
That final sense of responsibility feeds back into renewing sense of place. I expect many that have been working in SusRed, have had a direct experience of that cycle.

How a Street Party might be used to facilitate grounding/a sense of place.
One participant, Ciaran, of Transition Montpelier, described how they had created a safe space for people to share their stories, at a street party he had helped organise. People told about how they came to live in Montpelier and the extent to which that place gives them a feeling of belonging. This could be replicated in Redland. Ciaran also mentioned how somebody had researched and presented Montpelier's story as well.

Bubbles
Something that came up many times was the idea, that those of us working with sustainability, often do so in a "green bubble"; we meet like-minded people and preach to the converted. There are clearly voices that are completely marginalised and never enter the debate.
In Scotland, the Galgael trust is able to give drug users, and youths that might be on the verge of a lifetime in crime, a chance to get onto that virtuous cycle described above. Youths that are mentored by Elders, while they learn crafts like woodwork and boatbuilding, learn that they can create a thing of beauty. While they are focused on working the wood, the Elder is focused on the shaping and forming of the human. Some of these Elders are even more powerful examples because they have spent time in jail themselves, so they can give examples of why these youths should avoid making the same mistakes that they did.
The great power of “A Sense of Place” as our theme in Redland, is the opportunity of widening the circle of participants, as well as broadening the agenda (to greater than, but including environmental issues). An idea for Withywood/Hartcliffe, that might be adapted to Redland, is to invite facilitators from Zambia, that use a combination of dance, song and theatre, in public places, to create a form of communication that can give a voice to some of those marginalized youths in those communities. The hope is that by doing so, a community project that follows, will meet with their approval, rather than becoming the newest target for their graffiti.

The Wounded Healer
Many of those with wounds of addiction or other experiences of brokenness, find that it is from the source of their pain that they are able to bring healing to others. McIntosh, admitting that he himself is very definitely middle class, told how he experienced realness in the presence of these people, experiencing their tough lives, hence he actually felt more comfortable in their company than he did socializing with people from his own class.

The Hero’s Journey
There was a very profound psychological element to Alistair's talk. Happiness at the deepest level can only occur when we experience Self at the level of “The Collective Unconscious” (Jung’s term), something greater than the “Ego Self” that we normally experience at the conscious level. The obstacle to that experience of the 'liminal', is the “shadow self” (in our personal unconscious), those aspects of ourselves that we have been unable to assimilate positively (often due to childhood experiences that made these aspects of ourselves seem unwelcome or inappropriate). The hero’s journey requires each of us to face our demons. We must cross a psychological threshold. Those of us that are successful, bring back a boon for the community that we are a part of.

Consumerism
McIntosh described how in the early days of advertising in Scotland, when perms were all the rage, most families resisted giving their daughters perms. This was for 2 sensible reasons. One was the toxicity of the chemicals in the perm; the other was the possibility of making a child more sexually provocative. The advert presented young girls with perms surrounded by lots of friends and those without looking dejected. Hence, a false need, a need for young girls to have their hair permed for a short-term gain in happiness, was created. In “Hell and High Water” McIntosh writes (quoting Richard Rohr): “But consumerism, the wares of tobacco companies and other forms of addiction, don’t offer real liminal experience. They just offer a transient glimpse. They merely offer the ‘liminoid’, which is a false semblance of the liminal … The liminoid is a movement into trance and unconsciousness so nothing real will be revealed … The liminoid feels like the real thing, it feels momentarily renewing, but it is just a diversion and actually reaffirms the ego … and our capacity for denial. It is not a threshold at all, only more of the same.”
And of course it is fuelling "climate change".

We must educate for elementality
The Galgael trust don’t just build boats, they also sail them, and in so doing, they create an opportunity for people in a city, to get out into wilderness. In Hell and High Water, McIntosh echoes what he stated at the talks, that “I am convinced, especially from my own experience growing up on the Isle of Lewis, that children both young and old need an ‘elemental education’ fully to be able to appreciate reality. They need contact with nature where they can learn about matter and energy, cosmology, the atmosphere and its weather, the soils and the rocks, and the rivers, lakes and seas and their flora and fauna. they need to experience nature’s beauty and the sheer fun of it, for nature absorbs children in so many different ways. We adults must be careful in our shouldering of the burden of awareness not to instill in our children the kind of eco-hypochondria that so often afflicts jaded greens- moaning about all that’s wrong with the world, but forgetting to notice the magic of the crocuses pushing up and into blossom for yet another year. children need to have a positive hand-on engagement with the ancient four ‘roots’ or elements of reality – fire, air, earth and water. They need to know them in all their dangers – in their wild vicissitude that demands respect and courage on the hero’s Journey. And they also need to know them in all their sensitivity and vulnerability – in the filigree of frost on a winter’s morning leaf – the hallowed loveliness that brings a tear to the eye.

Reconnection with Soil Soul and Society
The cure for our disconnectedness from each other and from Earth, is to build community on three strands: soil, soul, and society. By soil, he means our relationship with the earth; by soul he means our relationship with our own psyches; by society he means our relationship with our communities. It requires all three, and “the breaking of friendship between any one of these three ruptures the fabric of reality.” We must develop a shared language to help us describe our deeper ties, those that give us our sense of identity and of place. McIntosh refers to this as teaching ‘psycho-spiritual literacy’. Out of this inner work, understanding ourselves better, the outer signs of community can then flow. We can begin to take responsibility for ourselves and for others, learn to share feelings of both joy and sorrow, create and nurture shared values. We can learn how to break out of our various bubbles, the green bubble, after all, being just one of the ‘private clubs’ that we, as members of society, divide ourselves up in.

Being a part of it:
If you are planning any events that you think will enhance the sense of community in Bristol, let us know about them. If you have any skills or ideas that can help Bristol Eco Show or ideas for how to connect with other parts of Bristol, let us know.