Not to be confused with the Shill Gambit or Occam’s Razor, I’d rather call this the principle of Izzard’s Thimble.

In a stand-up sketch many moons ago, Suzy Eddie Izzard outlined the problems of buying a thimble in her own inimitably surreal style.

Put simply, it was about being seen to be different. In context, the skit centred on the fact that few people really sewed or played hunt the thimble anymore. In a real sense, sewing had become counter-culture. She visualised a poor soul being spotted at the supermarket checkout by a group of NIMBYs and their ringleader shouting, “Look he’s got a thimble – let’s kill him.”

The point here being that there was no overt challenge to society and the status quo; being counter-culture is so ironically mainstream these days – there’s basically a uniform for every rebellion you can think of.

And therein lies the inadvertent challenge. Apparently, It’s laid down by all those who go about their own business just wanting to do it their way. Without even knowing they are doing it.

Universally Challenge

Being covered head to toe in tattoos (are these tête-tous?) is so common-place, the only statement being made is “I’m in this crew; I belong”. It’s no longer the mark of the rugged individual – it’s actually become the mark of a conformist.

No, if you really want to get a hard time from mainstream society you just have to be doing something ever-so-slightly off beat. You’ll be happy enough doing that by yourself or with your family but apparently, it’s an affront to decency and conformity. Less about making a statement yourself but more about other people’s need to put you in one of their boxes.

If you don’t fit the box watch out! It will mean you are inadvertently challenging the fabric of THEIR society.

Sneak Beeview

There’s a lot of it about; Matthew and Charis Watkinson run a smashing little place in the Pembroke Hills called Beeview Farm. Ben Fogle has visited them a number of times in his ‘New Lives in the Wild’ series, charting their sustainable activities as they progress from simply living off grid, self-sufficiency (as far as possible) through to the Holy Grail of One Planet Development conformity/compliance.  

So it could be as simple as giving your Biodigester a bad name…

One Planet Development

However, they are compliantly living under the aegis of the One Planet Development Policy which, by definition, means they are actually doing no-one any harm. Or the planet. In fact almost like the Hippocratic oath, doing no harm is a sine qua non.

This seems to be a massive problem for some of their neighbours though. Issues are sub judice but in essence, some of the locals have issued legal challenges to restrict access for this great couple (and their children) – effectively in an attempt to drive them and their low-impact lifestyle off their own land.  

Ward of Cheap

And there you have it; the irony (did I mentioned irony?) of sheep-like followers of the herd citing ancient sheep grazing bye-laws to disenable their zero-impact neighbours from accessing their own land. You couldn’t make it up.

The neighbours almost had to make it up in fact. In a sense they want to ‘get’ Beeview Farm on a pseudo-legal technicality. Why? To what end?  To destroy them and a legitimate ideal? The Watkinson’s have learned how to survive on the land and they will continue to thrive there with massive amounts of support being shown for the legal fighting fund set up on their gofundme page.

They have also been ‘charged’ with being an eye sore. Have these neighbours even walked down a street in Anytown, UK? Permitted Developments are everywhere – monstrously incongruous additions and outbuildings abound in any residential area, all within the bounds of developments that need no planning applications. Some people fill their overgrown front gardens with dead fridges and settees – because they can.

Anyhow, try and recall the last time you saw a ‘tidy’ working farm? An actual farm – not a tourist Farm Shop. The reality of Charis and Matthew’s approach is actually to make the farm buildings merge into nature – literally disappear among natural overgrowth and crops they are planting and harvesting on land where (they are consistently told) “nothing will grow”. Already the structures are not actually visible from beyond the boundaries of the land – not visible to those who are complaining about them.

So what’s the deal?

Morally Pembroke

This is not about tidiness; it’s about the inadvertent assault on society that anyone makes when they dare step outside the cant and hypocrisy of ‘normal’ life. Presumably the Watkinson’s neighbours either don’t have mirrors or don’t look in them very long or very hard.

Far from being uniquely a ‘Beeview Farm Syndrome’ this potentially affects all those who suddenly find themselves having an alternative lifestyle (whatever that actually means).

In the world of work, particularly in the large Corporates, this was nicely encapsulated in a cartoon I once saw on some lost soul’s desk. The scene was 6 people around a desk and one on his feet, reaching inside his jacket, saying, “That’s a really great idea John, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to shoot you.”

Polar Unbareable

It is as simple as the polarisation of thought to the extent that one end of the spectrum can’t apparently bare the very existence of the polar opposite. Yet we are reminded often enough that we humans come in all shapes, sizes and variants.

In the meantime, way up on Castle Hill they are at heart, people of science. They aren’t living in a squat or thieving to fuel addictions. They are experimenting like all good scientists will.

Experiments pose questions, generate results and lead to conclusions. Often those conclusions are that a different question needs to be asked in order to obtain a valid answer.

They say a great scientist never rests, as a complete answer is never found – if you look hard enough at your results. Just more questions. It’s the nature of nature and ironically the nature of science. You just need to keep looking rather than applying Occam’s Razor.

Insolvent Abuse

Crucially those who experiment with life – and are by definition passionate about it – are often mistaken for being somehow psychotically evangelical about what they are doing when that’s not actually the case.

Again, putting it simply, those who glue themselves to roads, bridges and fuel pumps clearly have a point to make but they are doing it in a very antagonistic way – and basically just saying ‘STOP’ loudly – rather than creating sound solutions.

The quiet experimenters such as Matthew and Charis continue to ask and answer valid, real questions such as ‘can I generate my own source of combustible gas here, on site, without pollution, to heat water and cook food?’. Answer yes. Step 2. If you too, want to know how, get in touch and we’ll show you for a small fee to cover costs. This year they’ll try this, next year they’ll try that. There isn’t really an end game, why should there be?

Ioan Who’s Prepper Army?

Over the years this family, like others around the globe, will find new ways of living – as scientists do – without proposing in any way that we go back to being hunter gatherers or simply living as ‘Preppers’ for the sake of it. If humans had behaved that way we’d still be in caves and we clearly aren’t.

What they are also not doing, is telling anyone else how they should live. Especially not the clone army driving black SUVs who cannot wait to trade up to the latest Farben Khyber Nuclear Powered Electric Thing so they can plug it in where the neighbours can see it.

It’s truly wonderful that the National Press have latched on to the fact that Beeview Farm looks untidy. All those dang plants everywhere. Presumably, if it was a square house on a street where houses get sold and completely gutted every few years, they’d be fine. If that house was freshly rendered white with environmentally awful silica, given anthracite grey windows and a feature wall of ash cladding, they’d be left alone? Now that would be an interesting experiment. How many skips can we send to landfill lads?

They live deliberately. They are talking to those who wish to listen that’s all. They experiment, they innovate, they teach.

We could all try that. It hurts no-one.  

So we can see that the Inadvertent Challenge is like University Challenge – just without the thinking.  

Interact Inadvertantly

Through tours of the farm and running courses on the sustainability techniques they have developed and mastered, Charis and Matthew will happily spread the word of ‘course’ – why not book up now? 

Catch up with them on the socials… Beeview Farm

Thinking about living off grid for real? Then grab Beeview’s own book on how to navigate the local council paper trail…

(Thimble Picture courtesy of William Gee)