Last time I saw Stonehenge I was in the modern world. Quite glad of the almost permanent slowing of through-traffic, which infuriates the ‘get there yesterday’ people, and gives everyone else the chance to take a look at the stones in passing.
We discussed it a bit, sitting on a picnic bench on the concrete hardstanding outside Greggs at the next service-area break. Over the years, we’d strolled around Avebury, Rollright, Arbor Low, Long Meg, Men an Tol and quite a few other old stone installations – the ones it’s possible to approach on foot, in your own way, in your own time.
I’ve heard Stonehenge called the first modernist stone circle. You could even call it brutalist. It’s very square, very high, and appears to nail a piece of landscape to the ground, rather than being a part of it, in the manner of so many modern developments. It’s fitting that it’s become the internationally famous one, the tourist-trap one, the destination, the generator of controversy and headlines, the place to enact your theatricals…
Stonehenge has always been controversial
I amused myself in the dreamy bit before sleep last night thinking about the carvings on those stones. There has been much debate over which ones are genuine (ancient augmentations) and which fake (modern vandalism) and how old they have to be to be augmentation rather than vandalism. In which year did it become vandalism to do anything to the stones? And are they axes or mushrooms or something else entirely – all this serves to help us decide if we like them or not.
It made me rather hope they’d keep the orange addition — perhaps, like Banksey’s contributions, it would become a part of the global demand of non-corporate voices to be heard but, as it turns out, it was only cornflour with a washable-offable dye in it.
(Darn it, something’s gone wrong with my ability to create links this morning but – pop over to Twitx and check out Just Stop Oil to see the video).
Wouldn’t it be good, I thought, if the axe carvings were both ancient and vandalism – a protest against neolithic war, perhaps.
From LPHQ to the old stones
I loved it when Youth Demand augmented the Labour Party HQ at Southside. I hated that stark, corporate-looking building, where lefty CLP officers like me occasionally went to be patronized, misled, shut down, etc
I was highly entertained when the Daily Mail tried to stoke the rows about it by saying Youth Demand ‘have links to’ Just Stop Oil – wow – some young people are serious about climate crisis action – you amaze me.
It took me a long time to decide whether I approved of Just Stop Oil – not because of the paint-spraying, but because I wasn’t sure whether they were helping or just annoying people. Reading Ministry for the Future and The High House helped…
… but a conversation in my family’s house settled that for me after the Stonehenge action. “A lot of people are angry with them” and “it’s divided the druids.” – note – not ‘it’s infuriated the druids’, or ‘it’s outraged the druids’ – although some are infuriated and outraged, but it’s divided them. A bunch of people who were doing nothing but having (admittedly very good) fancy dress parties, are now embroiled in political debate. In other words, this is working. Some of the headlines…
Now, I think don’t stop Just Stop Oil, stop and think instead. What a tiny, tiny part of the national debate the climate crisis is. What else can we do to get more people thinking? If we don’t get a grip on the climate crisis, our grandchildren’s lives will end in hell, and it will be our fault.
********************
Dear Reader,
Times are hard, and so the articles on this site are freely available but if you are able to support my work by making a donation, I am very grateful.
Cheers,
Kay
********************
Kay Green 