Stephanie Convery
Politics is then toxic correct now, why non only opt out completely? When Stephen Fry proposed this approach to Sydney’s packed Town Hall on Sabbatum night, he was greeted amongst a moving ridge of sympathy. “A grand canyon has opened upward inwards our world,” Fry said. On ane side is the novel right, promoting a bizarre mixture of Christianity together with libertarianism; on the other, the “illiberal liberals”, obsessed amongst identity politics together with complaining nearly things similar cultural appropriation. These tiny factions state of war above, spell the balance of us watch, aghast, from the chasm below.
“Is this what is meant past times the fine fine art of disagreement?” Fry asked. “A plague on both their houses.”
The actor, author together with comedian was giving the first Hitch address at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas (FODI), named for his old friend, the slow Christopher Hitchens: journalist, polemicist, controversialist, together with the human being who gave the opening keynote, titled Religion Poisons Everything, at the real outset FODI inwards 2009.
Fry opened amongst an affectionate potted history of the divisive Hitchens’ life, career, together with ideas. Hitchens’ direct, combative style was forged inwards the burn downward of Trotskyism, hard journalism together with unusual correspondence; Fry, past times contrast, characterised his ain vogue to give opinions inwards a to a greater extent than “handwringing, cardigan-y sort of way”. What would Hitchens – whose back upward of George west Bush’s state of war on terror made him a political pariah to many of his old friends – receive got made of Trump, infinitely to a greater extent than careless, arguably stupider, who casts his Republican predecessor inwards such a flattering low-cal that fifty-fifty the liberals who in ane lawsuit parodied him are instantly afflicted past times misguided nostalgia for the man? And how would he receive got interpreted the electrical current political condition quo? Now, to a greater extent than than ever, Fry said, nosotros demand Hitchens’ forthright perspective.
There would receive got undoubtedly been those inwards the audience who baulked at the thought that what nosotros actually demand inwards contemporary politics is to a greater extent than of Christopher Hitchens, but Fry wasn’t lonely inwards his characterisation of the political moment. This year’s FODI was marked past times an analysis of the sectionalisation betwixt a novel sort of correct together with left locked inwards conflict that appears to receive got real piffling inwards mutual amongst what has come upward before, together with past times a full general sense of foreboding nearly where that conflict mightiness lead.
One mightiness hold out forgiven for thinking that there’s naught less unsafe inwards modern Commonwealth of Australia than an arts festival, but it could receive got been otherwise. FODI carve upward final twelvemonth from its founding partner, the Sydney Opera House, together with relocated to Cockatoo Island’s industrial precinct. The Opera House ran its ain ideas festival, Antidote, inwards September, amongst a programme that had a distinctly (implicit, if non explicit) progressive flavour. FODI, past times contrast, is known for courting controversy, from Hitchens’ first keynote to reports inwards July that the festival was trying to secure onetime caput of Breitbart, onetime Trump advisor together with one-time mentor to Milo Yiannopoulos, Steve Bannon, to speak. The programme was eventually launched Bannon-free – maybe to FODI’s benefit, given the (in this correspondent’s view, legitimate) criticisms of the ABC’s approach when giving the human being a platform before this year.
Bannon aside, there’s e'er a certainly amount of what feels similar trolling inwards a programme that is doing its best to hold out edgy. If ane hadn’t had their fill upward of evangelical proto-capitalism listening to Scott “have a larn to larn a go” Morrison, ane could, for instance, caput along to hear a word betwixt pundits similar Nick Cater together with Judith Sloan nearly the supposed benefits of economical inequality. Similarly, if ane were non already aware of what headline magnet Germaine Greer thinks nearly anything, ane could attend her festival panel, titled Too Dangerous, presumably to hear her speak nearly how she’s “too dangerous” to hold out allowed to speak at festivals.
A performer inwards Garth Knight’s “living sculpture” Submission. Photograph: Jodie Barker The talk-fest wasn’t the alone matter on offer. Performance installations, such equally Garth Knight’s full-nudity rope bondage “living sculpture” Submission, attracted crowds during every interval. Two performances of Betty Grumble’s anarchic together with explicit Sex Clown Saves the World were scheduled for Sunday; together with inwards the Sandstone Hall, twice a day, was a functioning of the Royal Court Theatre’s Manwatching, an hour-long monologue written past times an anonymous woman mortal playwright, consisting of a detailed, intimate business concern human relationship of the sexual history together with proclivities of its author.
Perhaps the query nosotros demand to hold out yell for is non 'how create nosotros larn dorsum to the middle?' but 'what is the correct matter to do?'
Manwatching has rules: the performer must hold out a man, together with the performer must non receive got seen the script before they perform it. The outset functioning I saw was past times comedian Tommy Dean. His delivery was a mixture of deadpan together with joshingly jaunty, yet he performed from the centre of the stage, barely moving from the music stand upward that held the paper he read from. The effect was competent but sort of one-note. The adjacent day, Bachelor Commonwealth of Australia franchise host Osher Günsberg picked upward the script together with gave it some dynamism, moving nearly the stage, giving the anecdotes some levels, truly breaking into laughter equally he came across the gags, but also finding the deeper nuances together with truly black places inside it. It is the sort of production that benefits from multiple viewings, as, much similar Nat Randall’s endurance slice The Second Woman, dissimilar men select dissimilar interpretations to the gendered cloth amongst which they’re confronted.
Bachelor Commonwealth of Australia host Osher Gunsberg performs Manwatching, an hour-long monologue written past times an anonymous woman mortal playwright. Photograph: Yaya Stempler
While it’s never quite clear what the primary termination of these festivals is supposed to be, they create tend to serve equally something of a barometer for the preoccupations of the literary class. The conversations over the weekend exposed a genuine frustration amongst the lack of nuance inwards pop debate. Cracks nearly the “musical chairs” (Fry) or “revolving door” (Tim Soutphommasane) of parliament aside, the Australian regime seems to hold out piffling to a greater extent than than a sideshow to what is happening overseas – inwards the United States, inwards Europe, together with increasingly, inwards Brazil. Does Trump stand upward for fascism or populism? Do the opportunities presented past times the majority collection of information past times corporations together with governments outweigh its potential to hold out used against the interests of the public? How are nosotros to sympathise the collision betwixt politics together with social media that seems to characterise this decade?
If ane thought emerged inwards a higher house all others, though, it was the conviction that classical liberalism is dead. Its proponents used to laid the agenda, said Fry inwards his keynote, because they controlled the menstruum of ideas. Now: “we are irrelevant together with outdated bystanders.” On sun morning, inwards the giant, echoing Turbine Hall, British historian Niall Ferguson argued that social commonwealth is crumbling, that the political hereafter volition hold out ane rent past times dissimilar kinds of division: at that topographic point volition hold out no supply to what nosotros currently perceive equally “the middle ground”. Why create nosotros then instinctively lament the loss of a “middle ground” though, I works life myself thinking? Surely there’s no inherent moral value inwards halfway for its ain sake? Perhaps the query nosotros demand to hold out yell for is non “how create nosotros larn dorsum to the middle?” but “what is the correct matter to do?”
I'm expression to expression amongst Ningaloo's living miracles together with it feels holy
Fry’s solution to this novel expression of politics was, ultimately, for all of us to hold out sort to ane another. While he presumably meant well, it felt to a greater extent than than a piffling pat given he’d only expounded on the keen existential threats of our time, including the approaching technological tidal moving ridge together with its far to a greater extent than literal companion inwards rising ocean levels, a destructively warming planet, together with our leaders’ consummate inertia inwards the expression of such threats. Earlier that day, past times contrast, author Angela Nagle had approached the topic of the political condition quo from the perspective of her inquiry into the online subcultures that became the alt-right together with their radical liberal equivalents. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 self-described left-winger of the Bennite labour tradition, Nagle suggested a clearer programme would hold out for the left to reclaim their traditional mission of fighting for the cloth interests of the ordinary person, else nosotros hold out prepared for a political hereafter that encapsulates the worst of both contemporary left together with right.
Permeating the discourse throughout the weekend was a sense that we’re approaching a fourth dimension of crisis. On sun afternoon, Pankaj Mishra argued that ane of the problems amongst throwing or then words similar “fascism” to push clit what’s happening inwards capitalist democracies today is that it prevents us from seeing what’s novel nearly contemporary political currents. It seemed a prescient warning: that what is coming volition non hold out the same equally what has passed, but alone a genuine dialogue amongst history coupled amongst a clear-eyed await at the acquaint tin aid us forge a novel path forward.
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