Storytellers of the world, unite and take over

Brexit has been a triumph of social division.  The 75% young people who voted to remain can be forgiven for feeling resentment against an older generation whose selfishness has already left them with a enough economic and environmental challenges to cope with.  Let alone whatever rights and relationships they will lose next.  Those in poorer communities, at the sharp end of a diminished stake in society, often voted to leave in the hope of something better.  It is no coincidence that votes to remain tend to map against lower rates of educational attainment and income – Brexit has been fueled by despair. The lack of a logical argument from both sides of the debate has left us with the absurd outcome of people in Cornwall voting to leave, while asking for the government to save them from the 60 million gap that losing EU funding will mean.  There will be plenty of people feeling let down by false promises in the years ahead. Faith in democracy is taking another beating in the corner.

In Australia, they talk about the importance of creating ‘inclusive growth’ – the idea that a healthy society can only exist when all sides are included in its benefits. Brexit is a reminder of what happens when you don’t get that: you vote for anything that brings the establishment down. The shadow of austerity and political neglect has left us in a deepening mire of our own making. But now is not the time to sink into it.  Whatever the outcome of Brexit, the clearest thing of all is that we are living at a time of absent leadership for the values of social justice and equality that should define the future of Britain.  As Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett concludes in her EU referendum opinion in The Guardian, for young people, it is the moment to ‘mobilise, organise, strategise, and above all hope’. 

Perhaps more than ever we need to establish better spaces for co-production and the sharing of power, both generationally but also socially, and across Europe.  From the way we run organisations, to the way we educate, employ and house people, we need a new approach that truly invests in potential.   The truth is, we have not been living in an equal society for all for some time.  Moments such as Brexit should make us more aware of what we too often choose to ignore.  There might be more hipsters in East London, where I live, but you don't have to look very far to see people struggling in the shadows of swanky apartment buildings for the new elite. The system and the way we do things, from where we live to how we work, is ripe for an upgrade.

How do we begin that?  By finding and inspiring a different story.  It’s a simple truth, which Jeanette Winterson was the first to note in the election aftermath.  Stories have an amazing power.   Over recent years, I have seen an increase in the number of youth charities using story telling; but it’s mostly stories to evidence the now and themselves rather than shape a better future of real change.   We keep ‘sleeping out’ with stories of need instead of ‘thinking out’ together to create better worlds.  Inspiration is the first ingredient to build futures, but we seem to be running on empty. Power is clung to too much and used too little for good.

What people really wanted out of this election is actually a story worth telling and working on.  Most people on both sides voted for essential truths that could and should form part of a more positive narrative for inclusion across Europe.  Without a political party or institution fit to shape that story truthfully, it’s time for us to get on with it. Storytellers of the world, unite and take over. 

Looking for a place to begin? Check out  Sounddelivery's Being The Story on 16th September