Last Friday saw the high tech community of Cambridge full tilt, big people giving it up for the little people. The BBC Children in Need charity is a worthy cause, and 200+ teams came to the Science Park in its glorious 40th year to show that we care by running for Fun.
The great advantage of running in full costume is that nobody can recognize who you are. We took exploited our anonymity and sang songs like "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf", "How much is that piggy in the window?" and "I don't know but I've been told, piggy wings are made of gold; I don't know but its been said, wolfy wings are made of lead". Now the truth can be told. It was us ;-)
Giddens wrote about ontological security. Ontology is "the branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature of being", and what he observed is that human beings want to be secure, and to know how they fit into society. In some cases, this leads to some pretty wierd behaviour. For example, the US "war on terror" makes people in the United States feel more secure (thanks to Noa Epstein for this brilliant analysis). Soldiers are soldiers by virtue of defending their state from enemies. in 9-11 Al Quaeda really shocked the US because they showed that tens of fanatics armed with box-cutters could burn out an iconic downtown city of a nation whose military budget (2005) is larger than the next 20 biggest spenders combined and six times bigger than China's. Al Quaeda assert a Califate which threatens all nation states, and the United States is all about statehood and having everyone live inside their own state free and secure. And they exploited precisely the liberties that the modern US provides their citizens - easy access to travel over huge distances, private communications through the internet etc - to deliver a message that whatever was happening in the homelands of those fanatics could also happen in downtown Manhattan. That prospects terrifies me too. But the US turned to familiar routines to reestablish a feeling of security. WW1 was "the war to end wars". When that didn't work, they tried a "war on poverty". And then a "war on drugs". And now we have a similarly interminable "war on terror".
Source: Wikipedia. Freedom from Want, Norman Rockwell
Fortunately, human society has also organized some other useful routines for dealing with people you disagree with. Spring cleaning is mirrored by a set of rituals of reconciliation in the major world religions at this time of year. Few of our ancestors can have been confident of making it through the winter. Reconciling yourself with estranged social contacts who you might never see again before winter really set in must have been useful for society. So we have Yom Kippur, Eid ul-Fitr, All Souls, Thanksgiving, Anti-Bullying Week, and the glorious Cambridge Fun Run.
When a wolf wanders into your reception demanding money, what do you do?
Well, if you are Brian Moon you put your hand in your own pocket and donate £500 to honour the 50th anniversary of Cambridge Consultants and the 40th Anniversary of the Cambridge Science Park. What ontological security did Brian gain from doing this? Only he knows the routine he was honouring when, taken completely surprised, in a moment of truth, he put his hand to his company chequebook and made a huge contribution to the welfare of children who could never possibly affect his own bottom line.
Respect, Brian! Now, when a wolf walks into YOUR reception, what are YOU going to do?
And if no wolf walks into your reception, why don't you go to the Cambridge Fun Run website and donate? Because no matter how big you've got, it is time to give it up for the little people. So Cambridge ideas can continue to change the world once you've got done leading technology and innovation and want to hand on the torch to fresh legs and eager hands.
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