battle of ideas
London
The UK's premier festival of ideas, produced by the Academy of Ideas. Join us at
this year's festival at Church House, London, on Sat 15 & Sun 16 October.From
the cost-of-living crisis to the war in Ukraine, and from culture wars to
institutions in meltdown, this has been a year of enormous challenges. The death
of Queen Elizabeth II marks both the end of an era and of an important
connection with the past. In just a few days in September, we had both a new
prime minister and a new king. Yet our political leaders – only recently in some
turmoil themselves – don’t seem up to the task, and many people feel like their
voices aren’t being heard. We need to get beyond lurching from one emergency to
another and start moving society forward. We must understand how we got here,
with an eye to shaping a better future. The aim of the Battle of Ideas festival
and events is to provide an opportunity to debate the issues in a full and frank
manner, bringing together a wide variety of voices and, most importantly,
creating a space for everyone to have their say. THE STATE WE’RE IN Rising
inflation, falling living standards and eye-watering bills are front and centre
of most people’s minds. And after the pandemic, the already-weak institutions of
government seem incapable of rising to these challenges. If the failure to
prepare for Covid was bad enough, the absence of any meaningful planning on a
wide variety of issues – from energy to healthcare, housing to infrastructure –
has truly been exposed. We seem to find ourselves in a state of permanent crises
– from not being able to get a GP appointment to civil servants revolting
against their ministers. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has thrown into question
our previously held assumptions about international relations and shaking up the
world order. There is a general feeling of instability, with uprisings in Iran –
where women are burning their head scarves in protest against the morality
police – and shock election results in both Italy and Sweden. When the Cold War
ended, we were told we were at the End of History, that there was no more need
for big ideas. There was no alternative to the world envisaged by globalist
thinkers: a free market, managed by technocratic experts moving the whole world
towards some form of liberal democracy. Recent events have challenged such
complacency.
