Geek pride – a celebration of intelligence

I’m a geek and I’m proud of it. I’m passionate about things and I celebrate intelligence and inquiry. I take joy in asking why and finding out why not.

Unfortunately that seems to be a position and opinion under threat in the current post fact culture. An era when science is downplayed and expertise is criticised.

With that in mind I was pleasantly surprised to be invited to an event on Facebook called Geek Pride Day – I hadn’t heard of it before but I seems to be a growing event celebrating geek culture.

I see this as an incredible opportunity to speak to geeks, nerds, smart kids and basically everyone to say it’s ok to be a geek, it’s ok to be different and yourself. It’s ok to celebrate the why and challenge everything.

After all “the geek will inherit the earth”.

According to Wikipedia “n 2008, Geek Pride Day was officially celebrated in the U.S., where it was heralded by numerous bloggers, coalescing around the launch of the Geek Pride Day website.”

I genuinely love the idea of geek parades around the world of people celebrating their love of knowledge and geek culture.

I live in Jersey Channel Islands and would love to see a costume parade through King Street finishing in Howard Davis Park with an outdoor screening of a scifi film followed by an overnight hackathon at the digital jersey hub.

It could include talks at the library, exhibitions and more. An anti bullying awareness message throughout and a call to be yourself.

There are still teenagers and adults facing bullying and abuse for being different, for being smart or being themselves – geek pride can call out the bully’s and show it’s normal to he different.

I’ll be the one wearing a dressing gown and holding a towel.