{"id":5722,"date":"2017-04-07T09:25:43","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T09:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.battleofideas.org.uk\/2023\/battle-of-ideas-2016-why-the-battle-of-ideas-2016\/"},"modified":"2023-10-27T09:02:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T09:02:44","slug":"why-battle-ideas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/archives.battleofideas.org.uk\/2023\/why-battle-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Battle of Ideas festival 2023?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shaping the future through public debate.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Crisis seems to be the word of the year – energy crisis, climate crisis, housing crisis and global economy crisis. There\u2019s a feeling that much of British society seems to be falling apart, from scrapping high-speed rail to NHS waiting lists. Every public service claims to be in crisis. Crisis today, however, is not defined simply by a sense of economic stagnation or social inertia. Rather it comes at a time of increasing culture wars divisions, and a toxic atmosphere of \u2018you can\u2019t say that\u2019 censorship.<\/p>\n

Geo-political fragmentation also seems the order of the day. The shock of the invasion of Ukraine – and the prospect of never-ending war in Europe – has now been usurped by the horrific scenes of barbarism in Israel. The visceral images of radical Islamism and its nihilistic terror have led to worries this may fuel not only a brutal war in the region, but a new civilisational conflict that spreads well beyond the Middle East. In London, and throughout the Western world, political disorientation and regressive trends have led some so-called progressives to justify, even celebrate, the Hamas pogroms. Clearly, the crisis of politics in the twenty-first century presents profound new challenges to us all.<\/p>\n

BEYOND THE \u2018WESTMINSTER VILLAGE\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is YOUR chance to discuss developments beyond the narrow set of ideas that is common currency in Westminster, social media and mainstream news outlets. From the \u2018debanking\u2019 phenomenon and the strange reorientation of business around environmental, social and corporate governance to concerns over shoplifters, screenagers, online sleuths, transgenderism and conversion therapy, the festival will take a widescreen look at recent developments.<\/p>\n

We need to address difficult questions around the huge societal trends we are living through. Why is social conservatism making such a comeback \u2013 particularly among a younger generation keen to spurn sexual freedom? Will artificial intelligence spark a huge shakeup in our very understanding of what it means to be human? The death of impartiality – whether in the media, education or civil service – prompts the question: is it really impossible to keep politics and activism out of ordinary life? From the morality of surrogacy to why Andrew Tate has undue influence over young men, have your say.<\/p>\n

This is also a chance to assess the future. With polls predicting a Labour government, how worried should we be about \u2018progressive\u2019 politics? With politicians focused on trying to stop us doing things \u2013 like smoking, or expressing opinions, online and off, dubbed as harmful and hateful \u2013 how do we start to create the economic growth that could make our lives more comfortable?<\/p>\n

THE FREE-SPEECH FESTIVAL \u2013 JOIN THE DEBATE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Battle of Ideas festival is where we hope new ideas \u2013 and even a new politics \u2013 can take shape. Key to this will be to embrace the festival slogans Free Speech Allowed and Free Thinkers Welcome. As we\u2019ll explore in debates on dissent and the politics of hate, this means being prepared to reject conformism and go beyond orthodoxies. But it also requires serious effort to make political exchange less toxic and more productive.<\/p>\n

Indeed, in the wider world, the festival motto of \u2018shaping the future through debate\u2019 may already be having an impact. From net zero to the war on motorists, issues previously thought settled are now being contested. With the issue of Britain\u2019s borders refusing to subside, debate on membership of the European Convention on Human Rights is becoming the property of the public. The festival offers an opportunity to ensure that these and other contentious issues – such as women\u2019s rights and racial equality – are properly debated, despite culture wars divisions.<\/p>\n

This is why we encourage everyone to come along with an open mind \u2013 accepting the possibility that those on the \u2018other side\u2019 of the debate might have a point. We aim to dig beneath the headlines, soundbites and memes. This is not an invitation to listen passively to the \u2018experts\u2019. For us, the audience IS the festival. Every session will have plenty of time to ask questions and put your views across.<\/p>\n

TOWARDS A NEW ENLIGHTENMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n

Faced with crisis, it would be all too easy to want to switch off and tune out. But this is certainly no time to give ground in the face of twenty-first-century fatalism. Just as the motto \u2018Dare to know\u2019 was the battle cry of the Age of Enlightenment in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, so we need to take up the challenge of breathing rationality and reason into a world today that too often succumbs to nihilism.<\/p>\n

If you are up for that challenge, then alongside our array of experts, critics and commentators, let\u2019s explore and debate all aspects of our emerging world.<\/p>\n

Join us in London on the 28 & 29 October, but also at our one-day festival in Buxton on 25 November, and satellite events around the UK and Europe, too.<\/p>\n

Let Battle commence.<\/p>\n

Alastair Donald and Ella Whelan<\/strong>
\nco-convenors, Battle of Ideas festival<\/p>\n\"\"\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shaping the future through public debate. Crisis seems to be the word of the year – energy crisis, climate crisis, housing crisis and global economy crisis. There\u2019s a feeling that much of British society seems to be falling apart, from scrapping high-speed rail to NHS waiting lists. Every public service claims to be in crisis. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-5722","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.battleofideas.org.uk\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.battleofideas.org.uk\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.battleofideas.org.uk\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.battleofideas.org.uk\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.battleofideas.org.uk\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5722"}],"version-history":[{"count":73,"href":"https:\/\/archives.battleofideas.org.uk\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14837,"href":"https:\/\/archives.battleofideas.org.uk\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5722\/revisions\/14837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.battleofideas.org.uk\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}