Last weekend a plucky band of debating Futerrans frolicked at the lovely Shambala Festival in deepest darkest Northamptonshire. Taking centre stage in the festival’s real ale bar ‘The Wonky Cock’ Futerra’s ‘Team Human’ was opposing the motion ‘This House believes that humans are not fit for purpose…’. Staying ruthlessly impartial and objective I was chairing the session and the motion’s proponents were ‘The Pirate Technics’ - worth looking out for as they specialise in blowing stuff up in spectacular fashion for a living (best not to cross them I reckon).

Taking place as it did on the Sunday lunchtime of a rather lively festival experience, both teams did brilliantly stringing coherent sentences together let alone elucidating complex, well structured debates built around numerous salient and cumulative points! A well-timed rain shower filled the Wonky Cock appropriately and the debate began (see a great ‘fish-eye’ picture here)…framing the event I posed the questions ‘Are we a beacon of consciousness, warmth and light in an otherwise dark, cold and empty universe? Or are we just a virus with shoes?’ (with thanks to Bill Hicks)

The Pirates opened on the front foot, disparaging humanity as fundamentally flawed and like ‘ants’, if we were ‘fit for purpose’ we would be better designed, where for example was our third arm for carrying multiple pints of festival ale? We were effectively failing the direction of evolution by circumnavigating the survival of the fittest and it would be best if we just self-sacrificed ourselves. Their killer conclusion? Purpose should not be conflated with personal goals – an individual desire to achieve is not the same as purpose in itself…

Team Human came back strongly, we are caring and biologically hard-wired to be empathic – as demonstrated by the power of mirror neurons that enable us to feel and share the emotions of others. We are innovative, mindful and resourceful with an innate capacity for creativity, but most of all we genuinely are a conscious, reflective force for good in an otherwise meaningless existence…

So, after some lucid and brilliant comments from the crowd (which I foolishly failed to write down – but trust me they were good!) we put it to the roar of the vote. The result? The motion was defeated and Team Human were victorious! Huge thanks to the great guys from the Pirate Technics and Sid from Shamabala who invited us along to make it all happen.

In the absence of Glastonbury next year and no scheduled outing for the ‘Earthly Sins Confessional Booth’ I know which festival is going to be top of my list! The small but perfectly formed Shambala…