For example, this recent viral video of the response the Free Hug Campaign received after giving out free hugs at both a Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders rallies. Of course, the video is supposed to touch our hearts. We are supposed to see the contrast in environment between what goes on at a Trump rally and what happens at a Sanders rally and feel that everything bad in this country could be fixed if Black folks and White folks would just come together and hug it out.
In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal. What we then witness is the true spirit of humanity come together in what can only be described as awe inspiring. On the surface it is pretty innocuous — with the obvious exception of being accosted by a random stranger for a hug. And you have to admit: the idea that all we need is love is certainly enchanting.
A hug is not going clean the water in Flint — or any other hood and rural area with failing infrastructure. Greene cites research by the psychologist James W Prescott, who claimed in the 60s and 70s that the lack of affectionate contact between mothers and infants could result in permanent brain abnormalities associated with depression, substance abuse, eating disorders and violence.
More recently the evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dunbar found that primates groom each other for longer than they need to in order to cement bonds, make friends and influence fellow primates. Greene says that everyone has their favourite hugging story.
There is a sense that such acts of gentleness are having a necessary comeback after decades of aggressive self-interest and self-promotion. Perhaps it is partly allied to the economic crisis, to a new-found respect for the simpler things in life that do not need to be bought with a credit card.
For years we worshipped at the altar of conspicuous consumption in an age when fame was accorded for marrying a footballer or appearing on reality television, and when friendships were made and lost at the click of a computer mouse.
These days we take more delight in the everyday kindnesses, in the shared experience. That, at least, was the thinking behind the artist Michael Landy's recent project, Acts of Kindness, in which he invited members of the public to submit stories online of kindnesses they had witnessed or been part of while travelling on London Underground. It's partly what you have to do to survive in a city like this, but I was surprised by the response I got. Often we feel that everybody is out for themselves, but that isn't the case at all.
Landy received countless stories: of women crying after the break-up of a relationship and being offered a smile or a reassuring squeeze, of someone making an origami bird and dropping it into the lap of a person who looked lonely, of strangers helping with heavy luggage. Back on Carnaby Street, my efforts to mix my emotions with complete strangers are gathering pace. Some people walk past the Guerrilla Huggers with understandable wariness in their eyes.
Others — and it is disproportionately young women in their 20s — get the idea immediately and hug me without my having to explain. A handful of shop assistants pop out to have a hug in their cigarette break. A Belgian tourist with a camera slung round his neck tells me there should be more of this kind of thing.
I get hugged by a nine-year-old boy, a pensioner and a member of the French Olympic boxing team who explains he is very sad after having lost his match. Every single hug makes me smile. I enjoy it far more than I thought I would. As I'm standing there, handing out hugs to people I've never met before and will probably never meet again, it strikes me that there's an obvious irony in the fact that a movement predicated on free gestures of intimacy should have been riven by in-fighting about money between the two men who made it happen.
But maybe it doesn't matter. Like most of the best ideas, Free Hugs has gathered its own momentum. After all, it was always meant to be bigger than just Juan Mann. On the trail of the Free Hugs founder.
Everybody likes a cuddle, so why has the man who pioneered the global Free Hugs movement gone off in a huff? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites. Jun 2, by RN Jun 4, by Scrubby. I'm not a huge fan of hugging but I think banning the free hugs campaign is ridiculous. November 10, No Comments.
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