Citizens by Jon Alexander with Ariane Conrad - book review
Jon Alexander is a kindred spirit for All Hands On. We had a stimulating Zoom call with him when CITIZENS was a twinkle in his eye. We make films about citizens exercising their power directly. He’s written a book about it. Helping people to citizen is his profession, and his passion is infectious. There are lots of things to love about his book.
It is based on a vital idea
Victor Hugo said that there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. Recognising and acting on our power as Citizens is an idea whose time has surely arrived. Democracy and the institutions of power are broken. And, as the book’s subtitle says, the key to fixing everything is all of us. That’s a great line. Jon and I share a past in advertising, so I appreciate the craft required to load so much meaning into just a few words.
The vital idea is that citizen is not something you are, it is something you do. Citizen is a verb. To citizen is to reclaim your agency over issues that affect you, rather than outsourcing, delegating, or abdicating power to representatives whose interests are seldom aligned with yours. What Jon demonstrates so clearly in his book is that we are all capable of this. We are all naturally gifted Citizens. And given the right circumstances, to citizen is to realise our potential as humans. The book’s core idea is vital in that it oozes vitality. To citizen is life affirming.
“We stagger from crisis to crisis, struggling to respond from inside a Consumer Story, which pits us against each other, and indeed against ourselves, even as we most need to care and collaborate. Embracing the citizen story not only gives us the chance of a future, the process itself can be joyful, healing and fulfilling.”
The joy of Citizen
Dancing at the end of a citizens’ assembly in Malawi, November 2020.
A still from a work in progress film by All Hands On.
The idea is well framed and well structured
The book is a story of three stories. These stories describe the roles that ordinary people have played in societies past and present, and the role that we need to play henceforth. The Subject Story. The Consumer Story. The Citizen Story. Each story gets a lot of explanation in the book, but they don’t need a lot of explanation here. The clever thing is the story framing. The book explains how deep narratives become embedded in society, or maybe how society becomes embedded in deep narratives. These stories are palpable, in fact the Consumer Story is brazen, and yet they are so omni-present as to be invisible. We don’t think to question them. We need to be jolted out of them. By shining a light on the presence and power of these stories, Jon illustrates the scale of the challenge if we are to shed our Consumer skin and unleash our inner Citizen. But by describing how deep narratives have evolved and been superseded in the past, he demonstrates that this kind of metamorphosis is actually possible. The story framing allows the book to be realistic and optimistic at the same time.
The sources are credible and authentic
Whether he’s talking about individuals, organisations, or institutions, Jon has (mostly, see below) chosen his examples well. We are introduced to a variety of Citizen role models, all of whom have the dirt of direct democracy under their fingernails. Through his work at the New Citizenship Project, Jon knows his stuff and he knows his people.
Jon also pulls off the neat trick of being both suitably detached and suitably involved. It feels entirely appropriate that he features in his book as a protagonist. It was his awakening and his transition from Consumer to Citizen that inspired the book. He’s urging us to follow a path that he has already trodden. And, because of this, Citizens is a well constructed example of Public Narrative. Underpinning the Subject, Consumer, and Citizen stories are a story of self, a story of us, and a story of now. Powerful stuff.
Jon’s passion manifests as a humble form of charisma. His self-awareness and vulnerability sidesteps any danger of zeal or dogma. Hats off to his writing partner, Ariane Conrad, who has done a wonderful job of honing and shaping the language, whilst retaining Jon’s voice.
It would (will?) make a great docuseries
CITIZENS (block capitals) is an emphatic title. It suggests urgency and humanity. It is a promise of great stories. It is a promise of vitality. Flawed protagonists (all anti-heroes) overcoming significant challenges to achieve great things and to find themselves in the process. The pitch to Netflix almost writes itself.
In a strange way, this is what All Hands On has been doing in its own small, not-for-profit way. Our first film was about the Irish Citizens’ Assembly, which receives an honourable mention in the book. We made films for Extinction Rebellion (also mentioned in the book) about the urgent need for a better form of democracy. And our latest film (below), shot in Athens in 2019 against the backdrop of the European Parliament election, is a moving picture demonstration of what happens when ordinary people, the Demos, take power into their own hands.
CITIZENS could be to sociology and anthropology, what Planet Earth was to natural history.
Our film that features the Greek equivalents of Immy, Bianca et al, whose stories are told in CITIZENS
My only gripe
My only gripe is the (qualified) lionisation of Brewdog as an exemplar Citizen Business. I read with interest that the decision to include the Brewdog story was a hotly debated topic for Jon’s editorial team, and the company’s much publicised flaws are openly acknowledged in the book. However, living in Scotland, I’ve been aware of a bad smell coming from Brewdog long before unsavoury behaviour and hypocrisy made the news. I get the appeal, I really do. I was (am) a first wave Equity Punk. They do say that a hero needs to be flawed for a story to work, but the Citizen Story deserves better.
Power to you
The key to fixing everything is all of us. I say again, that is a great line. It’s a bold claim, but Jon’s book lends it credibility. There’s more than a hint of Rob Hopkins in the effect of Jon’s writing. The subtitle to Rob’s book, From What Is to What If, is “unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want”. That’s an excellent description of the uplifting impact of CITIZENS.
