Freeconomy Blog
Sun
02 Mar
Paper accepts all ink...
| 35 comments |
I woke up early Friday to a barrage of phone calls - a programme about the walk was due out that evening and as the BBC were promoting it on thier breakfast news, the whole media caught hold of the story. It was relentless all day and a lot of it was intended to be negative though I did my best to neutralise a lot of it by being as honest as I could be.
What was reported though was highly inaccurate at best and very irresponsible. According to almost every paper and radio station we had 'quit' the walk, the French thought we were 'asylum seekers' and that I went to France expecting everyone to speak english! I am not going to respond to any of it, everyone who has been reading this blog will understand that about 99% of it is very inaccurate. Even down to the level of research - they all call me a 'Brit' or an 'englishman'! I don't mind at all but I think I should set the record straight - I am Irish!
It raises two issues for me - one, if they are so inaccurate and irresponsible with a small story like this, how much more so with the really big news! Is anything in the papers or on the news really true? The second thing it highlighted was how much they like to focus on the negative. I hadn't receive half the attention when I set off or when everything was going amazingly well in the UK. But then, once you stumble they pounce like vultures who smell blood! That is the nature of the game at present though and I accept that.
But I don't blame journalists. They are under strict orders to get a certain angle and most of them are very overworked, with big profits coming from cutbacks in the workforce. One reporter told me that the level of reporting gets worse every year. However, I do think that journalists should take responsibility for what they write, and like everything, if you can't do it with integrity and truth then go find something you can.
Apart from all that they have inadvertently done me a huge favour! We have had a flood of new members all over the world in the last two days! My friends tell me I should stop working with the media because they will never be pro-freeconomy, and that they will always be looking for me to slip up. But for me they can slaughter me as long as they like as long as it raises awareness of this project and it gets some debate going. I always said that this walk is not about me and so I am more than happy to take the heat in order to see this community grow. Character assassination - who cares! I think I am desensitised to it all now anyway by the amount of criticism I receive everyday!
So what have we been up to? Yesterday we went to a guys house and cooked him some dinner in the afternoon before being invited to a party in the evening (its not all hardships!). Today we are going to work with a couple of folk on their allotments and go around and do some 'guerilla gardening' for other allotment holders there. Tomorrow we may be working with a man who has injured himself and needs lots of work in his studio done, whilst it looks like we may be going into a so-called 'rough' school on Tuesday to talk about what we are doing, which is perfect as that is exactly the kind of place that needs this message most. Or maybe fate will have something else in store for us, who knows!
One thing I cannot feed back to you guys is any personal connections we make on the way. I would love to as it is what this pilgrimage is all about, but a lot of it is deeply personal for both the people we meet and ourselves, and I just cannot jeopardise any of that by talking about it publicly. Needless to say there has been a lot of emotional stuff going on through the nature of what we are trying to do. I just don't want people to think that it is all really impersonal - the opposite is in fact true. I just don't feel it is fair to give away any of the details on it.
Life on the road with Eric has been one huge laugh too - sometimes I can't walk as I am laughing so hard! He really ripped into me at every moment! His blog is a completely different account of this pilgrimage than mine and for those of you who want to know the knitty gritty fun stuff, check out his blog. Just don't believe everything he says about me!
The pilgrimage itself is actually fast becoming what it originally inteneded to be - walking from town to town helping people for however long it takes. I feel like I am finally finding my feet, though the learning curve is really steep. The ironic thing is that as soon as the pilgrimage is actually working the media are saying it 'is over'! If it wasn't true it would be comical.
What I would like to ask everyone who has a negaitve opinion about what I am doing and how I do it to at least accept that there may be things about my methodology that you just misunderstand. Everyone knows best and things can seem very obvious when you are looking on from afar. I would love every critic out there to come and walk with us, even for a few hours. I am not going to sit here and defend my actions - it won't change anything and I'd rather just get on with things. I feel its strange that I seem to be the centre of abuse for a lot of people who assume they know me and understand why I do certain things. All I am is a very ordinary guy trying to stand up for what I believe in - I don't expect everyone to agree, but I think people should at least ask some questions first before judging us on stuff printed through a media that has long lost its integrity and accuracy.
If anyone wants to ask me questions, give me criticism or vent some stuff at me, please just phone 0775 886 1783, you might find I am not the egoistical, west-centric, arrogant, self congratulating megalomaniacal monster that some of my critics (which to be fair is the overwhelming minority). Or just come for a walk - if you still think me to be what you believe after, then I respect it wholeheartedly. You may even be right. At least you will have our perspective of things.
Lots of love.
Comment on this Post:
john hee comments ...
Sod em all Mark - you just keep on doing what is right for you
;-)
http://walkaboutuk.blogspot.com/2008/03/sunday-pleasures-monday-pain.html
john hee comments ...
oops
help if I leave the right link to my post relating to this
http://walkaboutuk.blogspot.com/2008/03/mark-boyle-gentlemen-of-press.html
Bill Chapman comments ...
I wish you well. You might have been more successful on your pilgrimage if you had known Esperanto. This planned language has a worldwide network of speakers, some of whom offer free accommodation. There are Esperanto speakers in all the countries you intended to visit. Try the free Esperanto postal course available from Esperanto-Asocio de Britio (Esperanto Association of Britain).
clare comments ...
This soap opera is all very stimulating.
In the meantime, I’ve been asked to compile a book of seasonal rituals for some young women that I work with in a secure hospital and I need 2 packets of 100g A4 paper and a HP 5150 colour cartridge.
If anyone’s actually interested in getting some freeconomics done, or frankly just giving me the cash so I can buy what I need that would be very nice. It’s great being richeous: there are any number of people in desperate circs who don’t have the luxury.
best wishes
cs
caroline comments ...
I think good on you both for the help that you are giving to so many people , unfortunally there are very few of us who would be prepared to give up the creature comforts that you both have in order to help others .
Well done for beleiving in the good ! Take care and look out for each other xxxxxxxxxxx
Serguei comments ...
I was really funny to learn this news. Again a \"hippy, no to capitalism\" type showed how naive they are :)
Get a job, looser, like everybody else does.
alex comments ...
Serguei
why should he get a job or eric for that matter
thay aint costing you enything in fact there not costing anyone anthing so in stead of them getting a job how about you getting a LIFE ;)
andrea comments ...
Exactly, if they meet you they would understand. It’s so cowardly “safe” to be that cynical. Cynical people don’t take risks, but also can’t possibly be happy. Please just keep the work with compassionate! Every smile you get is an amazing precious thing. xxx
Ameliamillie comments ...
Yes, it’s fair enough if you don’t feel the same way but just because someone doesn’t agree with you doesn’t make them a loser. There’s no need to be nasty and, anyway, it just depends on your perspective: does happiness or money matter to you more? If it’s the latter I hope it’ll be a good friend to you.
Penelope comments ...
I want to say I have been following your story by way of the BBC’s Newspod podcasts and I have found it to be very inspiring. I am in a way getting ready for my own journey for similar reasons however, I am doing by way of a 37 foot sail boat. I am still working on the details, but I hope to get out in a couple of years at most, maybe sooner if I can get through those details. Keep at it! If you find yourself somehow in Texas, and if you interested in learning how to sail or sailing, drop me a line. My username on here is timechick.
Anne McDonald comments ...
Dont worry Saorise, when you rock the boat, someone always tells you to sit down! I expect what you are doing is so far removed from a lot of peoples preoccupation with having things and working to pay for them, that you may have inadvertantly ruffled feathers they didnt know existed!.
keep going, you are an inspiration!
anne
noiiko comments ...
i know yr story from Thai magazine, just wanna say hi.
take good care n God bless u. :)
Ulrich Zwingli comments ...
Inspiring? To do what - sleep in a toilet? Have no command of geography (the whole Bruges episode beggard belief)? I think we’ve covered the linguistic issues?
Or maybe it’s inspiring because you think if you jack in your job etc it’ll all be fine because so long as you wear silly trousers the rest of the world will feed and water you.
Abject nonsense rides again.
Sophie comments ...
I watched Inside out West on the web last night, and read an article on the BBC website - I’ve got to admit I can understand why you are getting annoyed at the negative spin the media have put on this story so far.
As someone who works in and has studied the media industry, it is wise to accept a couple of truths about the industry: You can’t change it or control it, you have to accept it for what it is. It will always (in large part) side with the negative as this is what it thinks we want to hear/see. Think of all the celebrities that have unwanted 99% negative attention - you are experiencing that. It is destructive. It about control, and in that sense you cannot expect that the media will help you. Consumerism is what drives the media industry, it seems to me freeconomy is the opposite of this. So to put it crudely you are asking a Devil like figure to say nice things about you. It wont, it will mock you and wait for you to trip up and fail.
Anyway, I am a great fan of George Orwell who said:
’Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper.’
and Malcolm X said:
“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
So what I am trying to say from this is that your message is best spread through this website, word of mouth, and actually being out there with the people. The community is growing all the time it seems. Forget about the media, you can’t control it. That in itself will be a revolution.
I have followed your blog and articles since you left Bristol, and I did feel disappointed that things didn’t work out as intended originally. Its hard to recover from that publicly. I can sense a lot of anger and frustration in your blogs, so instead of writing that for all of us to read just repeat your message and focus on your goal. I have been put off by the latest occurances in both the media and the blogs as its turning into a battle, which isn’t concentrating on peace at all.
Focus on the positive and focus on the good, as we all need a break from the negativity. I don’t like to see it infecting this community.
All the best.
Adam comments ...
I rather think that Ulrich Zwingli has missed the point of this whole exercise (as well as ignoring Saoirse’s responses to the media angle).
The purpose of the site, as I understand it, is to promote the idea of, and to establish, a moneyless community. The walk has helped to draw attention to it. I’d hate to think that people are missing that point and assuming it’s only about the walk.
Freeconomy is also, as far as I understand it, not about wearing silly trousers and expecting the world to feed you. It’s about building the way towards a world without money. Elsewhere on the site, Saoirse has outlined the way that money is the root cause behind so many of the world’s problems. A world without money is a very foreign idea, and of course we wonder whether it could work. It works in anthills, and it does so on the principle of common security - you do your bit for the group, knowing that the efforts of the group as a whole will take care of you. In the same way, Saoirse is not just expecting the world to feed him, he is going around doing stuff for other people.
Personally I would ease into it gradually - the bigger the community becomes, the more skills can be met within the community, and therefore you can spend more time working in the Freeconomy community and less time having to earn normal money in the normal economy. Throwing yourself straight into it is a leap of faith. Yet Saoirse is trying to demonstrate that it can work. That’s why what he is doing is inspiring. For that he should be congratulated. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, but he isn’t starving yet. If you think it’s a stupid idea, you should be pleased that he’s doing it so that he can prove you right.
Of course there will be people out there who think it can’t possibly work, so criticism shouldn’t come as a surprise. There are people out there who aren’t sure it will work but hope it does. As with any radical idea, it will attract lazy mockery from people who haven’t thought it through. It will also attract valid criticism from people who have given it thought and still see problems with it - sensible criticism can give rise to sensible debate.
Nadia comments ...
That last bit really made me laugh! That is, the bit including you being a megalomaniacal monster - I can’t think of anyone less so!
As an act of kindness today I want to pass on a recipe for a tahini based sauce that I was taught last night by 4 Israeli students who couch surfed with me.
You put a few spoons of tahini in a bowl add lots of lemon juice and some chopped or crushed garlic , perhaps a drop of water and mix it all up together.
It is delicious. We had it with rice, veg sauce and salad. It’s also lovely with bread and very good with falafel.
I’m going to try making a variation with tahini, water and honey as a vegan alternative to cream with fruit salad, apple pie etc.
Take Care you guys - brilliant you’re working in schools, N:)
Nadia comments ...
Me Again,
Just read some of the comments.
I think mark has a kind of job as he is helping people who need help because he loves to. He is walking between towns and so being ecologically neutral. In this job he has no guarantee of food or a bed though mostly that has worked out.
Saoirse has inspired me to make acts of kindness in ways that I would not usually think of-this has improved my life and perhaps that of the recipients.
His courage in the face of the unknown is huge. In my view he was very sensible in that he came back when it got dangerous.
I understand the need to keep this site positive. Having said that I am happy for Saoirse to be honest about how he feels -it is not good for us to suppress what we are feeling and this way he gets the support that he needs.
It also shows that he is human which helps people to relate to him.
May we all be true to ourselves,
N :)
May
Pablo comments ...
For all your complaining about the media, Mark Boyle, you would not have been able to get all the publicity you got if it were not for the Press. Furthermore, the Internet, which is almost synonymous with the Press nowadays saved your from hunger in several instances. You cannot run to the Press when you want to and then denounce the same institution that you used to gain publicity for your endeavor.
jess comments ...
The best thing you could do is MODERATE this forum. We are swamped in cynicism - almost everything man made around us is a portent of it. The responsible thing to do is to create at least this one place for something positive and something good. It has a very damaging effect and those negative comments bring the tone completely down, into the world of inertia, inaction, and godlessness, with a capital G. It is not a benign force the negative comments evoke, it is the worst side of us all and we need to nurture and cultivate the extreme opposite of that, i.e the light. Sophie’s comment about the devil was perfect. The secular world supports these guys, it’s just everywhere in the status quo - they don’t need a forum to spread ignorance. I think it’s a case of making a judgment, YES that is being judgmental. Drawing a line between black and white is important and crucial even. The site is increasing in numbers but I wonder what exactly is going on in terms of what is being given, received freely. Maybe there is a way to get people to follow up around those you are visiting, I imagine once you move on - they lose that support completely. Also It would be good to hear about those who have used the site and have either helped or been helped. A separate area on the forum perhaps. Thanks for eveything you have done and continue to do.
j x
Libra comments ...
Jess, you are no different from Hitler; he wanted to ’moderate’ the world by ridding it of Jews, Gypsies & Blacks. You want to ’moderate’ this site & exclude anyone that disagrees with your viewpoint. May I suggest that you go off, get a bit of life experience & grow up. Run along now & cogitate over the difference between cynicism & disagreement. Hey - you might even find you’re related to Bush!
Alex, stop now before you become a serial killer.
Carlyann, you probably already are.
Ulrich? Great name!
Audra comments ...
Hey, good luck to you and your friends! and thanks for bloging. papers and radios and tv are rather oldfashioned stuff, they will disapear in a year or so :) take care.
Jeanet comments ...
Don’t forget...
\"This is the way of peace:
Overcome evil with good,
and falsehood with truth,
and hatred with love.\"
....Peace Pilgrim
Turkey comments ...
Love thy neighbour as thou love thyself. Just remember to love thyself. For you are God unto thine self.
guest comments ...
HAHAHAHAHA, Freeconomy fans talking about censorship!!!!!! This is priceless... Please tell me you are doing this for a spoof documentary, it reeks of Louis Theroux.. come on, it must be a blag!
Nadia comments ...
Hi Would just like to say that I have been giving my services as a Life Coach sometimes for the love of it and sometimes as an exchange.
I think one of the problems is that many people are shy to ask for help. They don’t realise that in aksing for help they give people the chance to give.
Giving is recieving and recieving is giving!
Matt-M comments ...
So you went to France with inadequate knowledge of the language. Admittedly you were only passing through the country so you shouldn’t have needed too much, but a little more research would have been great ... right thats in the past. I wonder how many of those people who scoff and berate are amongst the stereotypical ignorant Brits who have in the past (and will in the future) travel abroad with absolutely no knowledge (or interest) of the destination’s language and proceed to offend the natives...
I’m also amused that had you gone to live/work in France (not just pass through), failed to consider the native customs and ended up in prison, half of the media would have been lobbying and campaigning for your release. Then on your return they would be giving you paid interviews and hyping your profile to help you get a new job. If only you’d taken a teddy bear with you...
I was chatting to a journalist friend and asked her why the difference of coverage. As i suspected its the media wagering on public opinion. Initial reaction to the teacher’s blunder was negative, but the public support prompted a u-turn as many people could sympathise with her (teachers, mothers etc.). In your case you are apparently perceived by the press as a hippy and subsequently as the stereotypical hippy is unlikely to buy a newspaper, positive feeling will be minimal amongst readers.
The moral is; next time you go to France, try to offend the entire nation, to the point where we get an international relation crisis, diplomatic envoys and maybe a few politicians to converse with the authorities.
If the French either don’t know or care, the papers won’t have a story and they’ll have to fill the page somehow.
;)
All the best
Matt
Positivity comments ...
To Nadia:
Just so that you’re aware before you offer your alternative cream to any vegan friends, honey isn’t in fact vegan. This is because bees are used in the process to make honey and therefore an animal is used (in some cases quite intensively) in the process.
Your other recipe sounds really good - similar to houmous without the chick peas - I’ll definitely give it a try sometime!
To everyone:
I would like to nip the negativity on these blogs in the bud by saying there is a big difference between a civilised debate/argument and downright vicious baiting. Personally, I feel that if you get slapped in the face, you turn the other cheek - it’s not worth lowering yourself to some of these comments. The best alternative is to ignore the obvious baiting and focus on the positive and interesting debates whereby moving forward all the time.
Ed comments ...
Full of respect for you: for dreaming up the idea to try this walk, for having the balls to get started on it, and (not least) for dealing the the media brouhaha at the "end" of it so gracefully. I would say "don’t let the buggers get you down", - but I suspect it would never occur to you to let them, anyway.
Walk on,
Ed
clare comments ...
It would seem that some lines are being drawn. There’s room for those people who actually want to contribute something and those who want to talk all day, but we’ll probably exist at opposite sides of the spectrum.
Good.
Community is hard work and it isn’t achieved by dancing for world peace and criticising people who want to contribute something tangible or need something other than cosmic vegan light. In general, people who are cynical and hardbitten have become that way because they’re sensitive and useful. We become cynical because we’ve seen so much time wasted, so many good ideas smothered by nonsense.
If you need something, ask. Don’t offer the services of people who are already contributing, to your friends on the basis that "It’s free!" (Extraordinary bad manners!)
Todays Question: What Is Your Contribution?
If it’s not grounded in the apparent world - dirty, nasty, filled with pain and cynicism as well as all the la - then you’re much better off joining the Ascended Masters Of The Universe in their rarified atmosphere.
If you’ve got something to offer that actually exists then please don’t get upset by the smothering fascism of the New Age. We can build something beautiful that won’t decay as soon as sunlight touches it.
dukeofrochdale comments ...
Whatever anyone thinks, if you read Saroise’s ’spotted’ reports it seems they are genuinely helping people out on their travels.
Whenever a stranger suprisingly and selflessly helps you like this, it makes you feel good and want to help others.
If thats all Saroise’s is doing, that cant be bad can it?
Helga comments ...
Thanks for putting that so succinctly Clare! I wholeheartedly agree with you – community IS hard work and we need to learn to accept the uncomfortable with the comfortable. We need to realise that just because something falls outside our ideals, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
I’ve found with this site that even though I post several suggestions and get them mailed out to all members, people are loathe to actually participate. It’s taken me a while and a particularly sanctimonious email from another member to make me realise that this is not going to change immediately.
People seem to think that as long as the INTENT is there it doesn’t matter how things turn out. Well, this is balderdash as one can INTEND to win the lottery but the reality is very different. Therefore we all need to work harder at this and ask ourselves what it is we really want. Many people seem to have joined this site because it ticks a box in their life that tells them they are a ‘good member of the community’. If being a ‘freeconomist’ entails anything more than writing the occasional email it’s painfully obvious that this is too much and other people cannot move away from their comfort zone (armchair).
Saoirse wanted to walk to India for peace. Not very far into his travels he realised that he could promote the message of peace and the Freeconomy in, what he feels, is a much more effective way back here in the UK. So he opened himself up to unlimited criticism by changing his plan (for whatever reasons) and continued to walk but on safer soil. Out of the 300+ Freeconomists in my area, only a handful have ever managed to reply to any emails I’ve sent out. The link here is that people want to liken themselves to a person as motivated as Saoirse but find it infinitely more difficult to motivate themselves as this means having to put in effort. So instead of carping on about Saoirse’s efforts, how about making some of our own?
Community NEEDS effort.
Sadly, this is where the separation comes in. This is why this world is built on hierarchy and people have power over others. Many people just simply cannot be bothered to do anything so others will come along, take control and move things forward (negatively or positively but at least they get things moving).
SHEEP CANNOT HERD THEMSELVES!
Until we are prepared to invest more energy than only that which is ‘convenient’ for us, we have ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to complain about the state of the world.
And this means doing more than just joining a website.
My contribution towards this is persistence. It is finding people in my community that are willing to work together. It is laying the foundations to build a loving community full of people actually willing to invest some energy. It is about finding those people honest enough to say “I can’t be arsed” and bringing them on board. It is about filtering out the ones that proclaim goodness and virtue through nauseating psychobabble but cannot be true to themselves.
That’s what I’m doing. What are you doing?
clare comments ...
Hello Duke,
What Mark is doing is great. Good for him and Eric for helping put together a studio. He’s got the capacity to recognise that wandering about beaming light and love has fewer applications than being loving *and* offering grounded, practical help in return for food and board. I’ve a great deal of respect for the way in which he’s altered.
And he’s one person in 4000+
Nice weather today, eh?
KarinBarnes35 comments ...
If you are in a not good position and have got no cash to go out from that, you will need to take the loans. Just because it would aid you emphatically. I take commercial loan every year and feel fine because of it.
