RETRO TAKES ON TECHNO - A SIGN OF OUR TIMES

Globally the battle is between the past and the future.

In the Middle East and Asia, some Islamic values are at loggerheads with modernity. By the same token some traditional Anglicans find the idea of a female bishop bizarre. Someone said apparently:

“You might as well ordain a pork pie as ordain a woman bishop”

I rather like pork pies. But they are a little old fashioned and reminiscent of summers past.
As is the UKIP argument that the EU is sucking us dry, that immigrants are a drain on the economy and that fings aint wot they used to be.

Yet UKIP is doing well and we need to understand what their problem really is (not as some do hope it’ll go away). All traditionalists of whatever persuasion are saying in slightly different tones of voice “can’t we go back to things as they were?”

The trouble is that “the way things were” wasn’t really as good as it is today. Nonetheless stick with that nostalgic urge and try to empathise with it.

Jerusalem, green and pleasant lands, steam trains, pipe smoking, bosses and workers, Nottingham Forest, flat caps, Bill Hailey, Hancock, ‘O’ levels, Aberdeen Angus Steakhouses, Max Bygraves,  capital punishment, Watney’s Red, Jensen Interceptors, Woolworth, corner shops…..

The struggle between past and future is playing out in the marketing arena too. This is not just Farage v the Westminster Bubble. This is the High Street fighting back against the monolith out-of-town warehouses. Small shops trumping Tesco; big companies being attacked vociferously for being bad citizens; Jamie Oliver’s “Comfort Food” suggesting a retro-trend in diet (like the resurgence of pies); the revival of the fountain pen; an old fashioned, Midnight Mass, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen-type Christmas; the return of the epic story….has anyone reflected on the resemblance the long form TV series has to Victorian novels (which were also serialised, cliff hangers and all). This is Brave New World v Nostalgia.

There is nothing new with retro-marketing but there’s an increasing groundswell of opposition to new-fangled technology and, of course, Indian Call Centres and the “press 1 for accounts, 2 for complaints, 3 for other services” style of customer service. We increasingly call for personable, well- brought-up human beings not remote call centres.

Just as the UKIP, Tea Party, and Golden Dawn factions of this world tend to be vociferous minorities so too the retro-entrepreneurs are unlikely to usurp the Goliaths of the retail, energy, financial or fmcg communities. But they’ll bite their ankles very nastily and make them take notice.

This is a world where the entrance price for a troublemaking new brand is low. A website, a storytelling champion, a bit of news, a cacophony of tweets does it.  And one of the marketing strategies working well right now is based on authenticity and nostalgia.

So yes, the past, it seems, is alive and surprisingly well.

Technology moves on but traditionalism has a powerful voice too.

LETTER FROM JOHN SCOTT IN JORDAN

It’s now August 2012 and too early to make sense of what started in early 2011 and what has come to be known as the Arab Spring.

Having only lived in the Middle East since early 2012, my observations are initial and tentative:

• For the moment, nobody really knows why it all kicked off and why it spread so quickly or, at the same time, why it has taken so long to kick off
• Nobody knows where it will lead 
• The peculiarities of e.g. culture, history and religion are evident in each country where the Arab Spring has had an impact so drawing general conclusions about the region is unwise
• After 30-40 years of being bottled up, the  jinn is out of the bottle and will never return, in a part of the world where the jinn are influential
• It has been thrilling to watch the events in Tahrir Square and in Libya; deeply worrying as the events in Syria unfold with the international community either unwilling or unable to intercede; and uplifting to see democracy advance, if only in fits and starts and with results which are not always welcome
• People are endlessly optimistic but realise that the apparatus of state control and influence will not disappear overnight and may return at any stage
• The explosion of people power has been felt in the workplace, in schools and universities – it has touched any number of institutions
• Young people are now more willing to express their views and in general people are less deferential
• Technology has played an important part in enabling the Arab Spring but also in controlling it and smothering its consequences
• Normal life appears to continue as huge waves of change take place around us, although the Arab Spring has shaped what people read, what they discuss, where they go on holiday etc
• It’s not over, even in countries where it has yet to start

My favourite story – a friend is an academic and lecturer; he tells me he had to rewrite his curricula on a daily basis as events unfolded around him; his students are more demanding and more willing to challenge him and the material which is presented to them; but the biggest change is in his family where his position is not as strong as it was and where his children do not afford him complete respect solely because he is their father and head of the house.

The most challenging member of the family is his youngest daughter.

www.colourfulthinkers.com

ALL THINGS MUST PASS

This was George Harrison’s song, quoted wistfully by Phil Redmond at a recent conference, “The State of the Arts”, as his lament for the cuts in arts’ funding by the government. Ed Vaizey, Minister for the Arts, tried the brazenly stoic “we are where we are…let’s move on” approach which from the prime culprit is a great try-on… use it yourself when arrested for drunk driving….”let’s move on Officer.”

“All things must pass”. Do you feel as though you were living in truly seminal times when the demolition of all we knew is changing? Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Yemen – hallo tube…hallo toothpaste. Yes, just you try getting it back in.

And it’s not just the Middle East. It’s that naked King. Suddenly like Hans Christian Andersen’s little boy we realise that “he’s in the altogether – as naked as the day that he was born.” And it applies to everything.

Lying and calling it diplomacy, selling arms and praising it as  our export drive, supporting dictatorships, placing expediency over principal, pretending command and control works…all stark naked nonsense.

And this applies to our jobs too. The employee and consumer will no longer simply be told what to do. They are beginning to realise they actually are much more in charge than they thought and that the big corporations are scared stiff or should be….not of the Unions or Which magazine but of…people.

It’s time to tell it like it is.

Gavin Stride Director of that interesting creative centre Farnham Maltings, said at the Arts Conference I mentioned, and to general dismay:

“I don’t believe in partnerships…they are generally between people who don’t like or trust each other just to get something out of someone else…in the Arts it’s usually money out of the government. But I do believe in friendships.”

He also said:

“Under the previous government Arts Organisations were stabbing each other in the back. Now under this government they are stabbing each other in the front.”

At least the front feels more open and honest. At least it’s a change. You still die but you know who killed you.

All things must pass. All things must pass away. Don’t be sad or nostalgic. Be excited – we are entering new times and new times mean new opportunities.