The Revolution of Compliance

The Gospel of Matthew

“So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” - Christ

I spent four years of my twenties in the glamourous world of data inputting. It was simultaneously much worse and much better than it sounds – and a profound testimony to the power of working alongside people you really like (big shout out to DJ Brock Brock). Anyway, for a year or so, we occupied an office floor with the up-and-coming glorified ticket touts Viagogo – sharing the same ‘break-out’ area with a range of complimentary herbal teas, coffees, and state of the art water cooler.

Now, in all honesty, I think my dislike for Viagogo began before I found out about their business ‘service’ (selling tickets at massively inflated prices to all the beautifully loyal fans of our world). I believe it all started by seeing the young buyers-and-sellers of tickets flaunting their flipflops and foosball tables willy-nilly while I wore my mandatory beige chinos and open collared shirt, working the data hard - inputting business names, addresses, and photos for all of Great Britain’s shop-fronted businesses (perhaps I would have been more forgiving had they just worn sensible footwear, called it Table Football, and I’d had a better job!). Anyway, in those dark days of London living I used to buy a physical copy of The Guardian every morning for my long slow commute from East to West London on the clackety-clackety screechy-screamy Piccadilly Line (a celestial paradise compared to the New York subways – come on guys – invest in public services – everyone’s a winner!). In such times, I even bought a big fat weekend paper on Saturday and a warm copy of The Observer on a Sunday. And I began to suspect that these broadsheets hated Viagogo more than I did. It was during the financial crash and credit crunch era of our existence, and everything was breaking down, except for some hedge-fund managers at Crispin Odey and our friends down the corridor at Viagogo.

‘Ticket touting beats the stock market every time.’ The Observer, May 11^th 2008

In hindsight I was being radicalised by the intellectual liberal metropolitan elite of Islington, with all their facts and figures on our financial failings - and I decided to take action! Proper action. Yes, I was going to bring Viagogo down, through the revolutionary art of the protest poster. Hell yeah!

So, I copied the Viagogo logo onto a Word document and changed their business strapline to making things expensive. I then listed all the complimentary drinks in our shared ‘break-out’ area and added a rather extortionate price tag to each previously free drink:

English Breakfast Tea: £7.39

Earl Grey Tea: £6.99

Lemon & Ginger Tea: £4.49

Water: £9.99

and so on…

I then stuck the poster-price-list next to the drink machines, and very much enjoyed my day of inputting the data, picturing some sort of bubble burst in the endorphin-filled mind of a pumped-up Viagogo ticket tout, once buzzing on the outrageous margins they’re making out of people’s love of music, meaning, and memory-making.

The atmosphere on the office floor began to change. There was less flip, and a lot more flop in the steps of our foosball enthusiasts. And as each poster was taken down, I replaced them with even more absurd price-lists. It got to the point when ‘Viagogo’ were charging £1799 for a watery Green Tea. Such fun.

We shared awkward smiles, and I began to wear my beige chinos and blue collared shirts with a bit more pride. At least I’m not one of you, I beamed. I suspect they read my smiles loud and clear. And then... they didn’t need to...

You see, I decided to branch out of our office floor. Yes, I made some protest posters for the lift - advertising how much it costs to travel between different floors under the Viagogo brand, and their catchy new tagline: making things expensive.

It’s difficult to explain the feeling of a security guard sliding some incriminating full-colour photographs of CCTV footage across a table in a special little CCTV room. It’s just so... well… incriminating! But then I remembered that I had just made some funny posters and relaxed into the interrogation.

‘Is this you?’

‘Yes’

‘Viagogo are not happy about this. They are threatening to take legal action for defamation.’

‘Are they American?’

‘Yes.’

‘Ahhhh - that makes sense!’

I then proceeded to explain what they were all doing up on the seventh floor. I spoke with passion, calmness, and clarity – and won over one more heart-and-mind to our great cause of ending the hyper-inflation of already expensive tickets. But he said he would have to pass on the images to my boss to deal with – and told me I had to stop the protests whilst working in the serviced building. My boss was great – and asked me to write a letter of apology to Viagogo, which I politely declined to do. I think he may have written a letter, ensuring that I have been dealt with, and that no more posters will appear – no more holding up an artistic mirror to what they do, day in, day out, for the world: making things expensive.

But what can we do with the Caesars of our worlds? – in our jobs, businesses, political parties, families, friendship groups, temples, sporting clubs, global agencies, security forces, law courts, banks…

“Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

This speaks to me on many levels. But I think there is something quite Stoic about Christ’s call to selective compliance. It reminds me of a metaphor used by various Stoics to illustrate something at the heart of their philosophy, from Zeno to Seneca to Marcus Aurelius, and it involves a chariot and a dog:

Picture a roman charioteer on his flashy little chariot being pulled by powerful horses. Now, imagine that a dog has been tied to the chariot.

It has two choices: fight or follow.

If the dog fights the forces of the chariot, it will get dragged, battered, and bruised (or worse) – and it will still end up in a place it doesn’t want to go.

If the dog follows, it will be healthier, happier, and with far more room to manoeuvre, moving from side to side with far more freedom.

We are the dog - and the chariot, the charioteer, and the horses, are the very real, uncontrollable, forces in existence which sit outside of our sphere of influence.

If we try and fight these forces too directly, digging our heels into the tremendous tracks of real life forces, we will not only break ourselves, we likely will end up in a place and state far more painful and hopeless than the fate we were supposed to be fighting against in the first place.

In my version of the analogy, the dog that follows the chariot, is actually using his time to plan his next move when the chariot stops. He uses the exercise to build up his strength, skill, and fitness. He uses his speed to test the range of the rope. He sharpens his teeth, ready for the right time to fight. And once the chariot stops, and the forces of fate take a breather, he bites what he needs to bite, and runs for the hills, rivers, and orchards of Tuscany.

Perhaps to the fighting dog, the other dog, who follows, looks like he has sold out to Rome. But maybe from within, the dog who follows knows he is free - and not only free, but ready to fight, run, and revolt when the time is right. Get right, get ready, as Kula Shaker sing.

Christ’s proactive political pronouncement to ‘give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s’ also brings to mind the vast sphere of existence and influence that does not belong to Caesar’s empire: The Kingdom of God – which of course is within us. And I am increasingly thinking that a spiritual, psychological, and philosophical awakening will ultimately determine whether we answer The Lord’s Prayer:

‘Your Kingdom come,

Your will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven’

Perhaps, if we realise who we are, where we are, and with whom we are, we will begin to transform our relationships with ourselves, each other, the trees, the seas, the birds, the beasts, and the least of our brothers and sisters.

Maybe, if we ‘give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s’ we can make, muster, and mend our energy, creativity, and experience for something truly meaningful, beautiful, and true. I think I give more to Caesar than I need to – and it’s time to withdraw my attention, devotion, and imagination – and give it to something true, good, and beautiful – even if it’s tiny, and sometimes seemingly insignificant in the face of wars, laws, and weather warnings.

I am encouraged by the imagery Christ uses in his teachings on The Kingdom of God: yeast, seed, salt! These little elements hold all the power. They are the catalysts. The keys to transformation.

Businesses will fail. Mountains will crumble. Empires will fall. Caesars do die...

These are predictable features of reality. But let us not be dragged along like a well-intentioned dog who digs his heels into the grounds of historical tracks – watching it like it’s some sort of surprising sensational spectacle never seen before on such a scale, in colour, live, 24 Hours a Day. Instead, let us use our time, ties, skills, and limited-lives to sow love, truth, beauty, and wisdom into the doughs, muds, and meats of life - a revolution of yeast, seed, and salt!

Small is powerful

Small is beautiful

And lots of small is all we need!

Don’t over-sweat the big stuff

Consider the birds

Amen

p.s.

After 16 years of much merriment, mirth, and madness in B1-11 (formerly known as J11 and once B17 pictured above) I am moving to fresh woods and pastures green to continue my love of learning, teaching, and meaning-making. It’s a strange business leaving such a job - especially after so long - and not least because the vast majority of students I have worked with over the years have already left - and we’ve said our goodbyes along the way. But I wanted to do something to mark this rite of passage, and I couldn’t think of anything better than to bundle my farewell into a final frolic at JAMNESTY - a night I have run with student artists, bands, speakers and campaigners over the years. We’ve had some great nights with many amazing debut performances from a variety of styles, stages, and sounds. All profits go to Amnesty UK.

I’ve been running Amnesty groups for several years, and one of the things I love about these groups is we don’t all agree on every Amnesty campaign, but we come together to raise awareness and money for Human Rights – helping political prisoners, people on death row, climate justice, legal support, gay rights, and education for girls.

So, it would be so great to see some familiar faces on Friday 11th July The Fulford Arms in York for my Last Jamnesty!

We’ve got an incredible line up with some JAMNESTY legends such as the phenomenal FENDRY, The Apocalypse Disco, and some new bands like The Sparrows, The Fruity Pebbles, & EL & EWAN

Hope to see you there. Get your Tickets in advance to avoid disappointment!