SPEAKER'S CORNER
Speaker's Corner Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park
is one of the best places to let off steam in London . It is one of the most
famous locations symbolizing democratic rights in the world.
Historical Background
Amongst those who
have attended meetings there, are the some of the most influential figures in
world history like Karl Marx, Fredrick Engels and Lenin. Even Cromwell's corpse
was hung up here in a cage for public display, after he had died as a warning
to others who might wish to abolish the Monarchy. This was of course in the
days before Speaker's Corner when at the same location was "Tyburn",
one of the "hanging fields" of London. Other's whose ghosts haunt
this corner include William Morris, George
Orwell, the Pankhursts,
CLR. James, Benn Tillet, Marcus Garvey, and a star spangled cast of millions
more who shall remain unmentioned, excepting the immovable Lord Soper, still
speaking at 94. Speaker's Corner has had a more powerful influence than any
"university" in the world, because here there are no entry
requirements, no rules of intellectual formality and above all no class
restrictions. It is as Leslie James the Hyde Park pamphleteer wrote a fitting
location to represent "the century of the common man."
Tourists or visitors
to such official places of "learning" as Cambridge or Oxford
University are not allowed to attend any lecture they like, come and go when
they choose, and take part in debate and discussion. It is precisely these
characteristics that mark out Speaker's Corner as a strange and exciting place,
a place where mankind meets itself in a generally pleasurable atmosphere.
Tens of thousands of
people come to Speaker's Corner once or twice a year, thousands more who come
5-10 times a year, and hundreds who come virtually through hell or high water.
When you consider that there is nothing to buy here, there is no music, just
human interaction without the mediation of machines and without any protection
from the weather you begin to get a small glimpse of the significance of this
place. Consider for a moment the so called Opinion Polls that the mass media
constantly pump out, they take a survey of random samples of certain social
groups and claim an accuracy rate, extrapolated from this to the entire
country, of + or - 3-4%. But Opinion Polls are static phenomena a snap shot
seeking out for example a yes, no, or maybe, answer. The human brain is however
not static but undergoing constant change, a person may think one thing, and
yet internally have doubts. Speaker's Corner may be seen as a dynamic refection
of mass psychology in that you have here people from every walk of life, every
class, and almost every country.
There is of course a
widespread belief that Speaker's Corner is some kind of "nuthouse",
where "cranks" and tourists go. Lenin once related the story of
a man who was wildly shaking, seated, his arms were swinging around, the
observer thought it was a madman, but upon closer inspection he discovered it
was a man sharpening a knife.
Speaker's Corner is
perhaps the most dynamic mirror of human consciousness in the world.
