Jubilee

The World Turned Upside Down

On the day of The Jubilee, there was dancing in the streets. All debt was forgiven. Forgiven all debtors.

The children, dressed as mermaids, swished and hoiked their twin tails off the ground. Gurning, spinning joyfully, without knowing why.

The adults? They just wept silently.

That they had done this by themselves was really something. No King and Country, neither banks nor oligarchs. Forgiveness birthed below became unstoppable.

Worries about rent and heat, nutrition, existence: all erased.

From here on it would be different. Not always good, but better.

Soon the adults fell to hugging one another, while the children hushed and watched; listened and understood.

Nobody spoke, but in their eyes was Everything and Hope.

It had been done. The World turned upside-down.

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The word ”jubilee” means “the year when the ram's-horn trumpet is blown”, the year when all debt is erased, when records start afresh. Of course, its meaning has been debased. It’s now no longer about us, it’s about monarchs.

I was inspired to write this piece after performing at the 2019 Church of Burn on the same bill as the late David Graeber, who introduced me to this original meaning of “jubilee”.

The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently - David Graeber

And I was inspired to post this today after reading the latest Substack by my friend James Burt, also inspired by Church of Burn.

The World Turned Upside Down is a beautiful song about The Diggers, who tried to remake the world differently.

We need a jubilee.