Culture is never stationary. It’s changeable, often unpredictable. Beyond the art we make and the shoes we wear, the cultural is also the political. A shared culture is how we understand our place in the world, our history, and our possible futures.
To change politics we must first change culture.
Socially and economically, we have become fragmented. High streets are vacant, employment is sparse and unsociable, many of us spend hours sitting at home tired, lonely, and on our phones. Where towns like Wigan were once bustling cultural hubs to the Northern soul and rave scenes, today we barely find a PopWorld.
It’s not surprising people look backward, picking vague memories from the cultural scraps of yesteryear. Globalisation and the continued privatisation of our built environment has chipped away at our regional idiosyncrasies over the years. Across the country, the globe, people have been deprived of something intangible, something meaningful – the culture has changed.
The culture has been changed, dominated, by the doctrines of private ownership and individualism. This thinking affects every aspect of our lives: how we get from A to B (in petrol-guzzling cages, rather than comfortable trains); how we eat our meals (alone and in bed, via Uber Eats); how much money we spend on rent (too much, and to a parasitic landlord class). This is culture, and it’s a culture we have allowed to be shaped by business and profiteering, against our common goals, against our social lives.
None of this is inevitable, though. We can build a new culture. One where we see each other more often, and in spaces where we can develop shared knowledge, common understanding, clear strategies. We can create a sustainable regional ecosystem of support, pleasure, one where we labour for the things important to us. One where we can critically celebrate our regional history, the traditions, the slang, the folk tales: the things we built and everyone who helped build them. One where we can identify our mistakes and go forward into an exciting new future.
STAT has always been a tool for building this new future. We don’t do this to make money. Our aim is to bring our regional community together, to help define and document the culture happening across the North West today, to get you out of the house and into the lives of new pals.
We’ve got a battle ahead of us, and a lot of hard work to do, but together we can change the world.
LET’S BUILD A NEW CULTURE.