Festival of Dangerous Ideas

Festival of Dangerous Ideas is an annual event presented by Sydney Opera House and St James Ethics Centre consisting of presentations, conversations and debates of controversial ideas involving thinkers, scientists, and cultural figures. Over one weekend, leading thinkers and culture creators from around the world take to the Sydney Opera House stages to bring contentious ideas to the fore and challenge mainstream thought and option.

In the inaugural 2009 event, festival's opening address was given by atheism advocate Christopher Hitchens on the topic of "Religion Poisons Everything", which was countered by Australian Roman Catholic Cardinal George Pell in a session titled "Without God We Are Nothing".^[1]

In 2010 Geoffrey Robertson and Alan Dershowitz gave the opening address about sexual abuse of children within the Catholic Church in the debate, "The Sins of the Fathers: Should the Pope be held to account?" Christian Lander, author of the satirical blog and book, "Stuff White People Like" discussed the meaning behind his tongue-in-cheek etiquette guide to Caucasian culture. New York newspaper columnist, Lenore Skenazy told how she was labeled "America's Worst Mom" after she let her nine-year-old son ride the subway home and how she fought back in the midst of a media maelstrom, by starting movement for "free range kids".

In 2011, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas featured a host of international and local speakers including: Julian Assange, Jonathan Safran Foer, Alexander McCall Smith, Jon Ronson, Slavoj Žižek, Mona Eltahawy and Philip Nitschke. The topics covered included: "Wikileaks has not gone far enough"; "Footballers are Barbarians not role models"; "Psychopaths Make the World Go Around"; "Ecstasy is No More Dangerous Than Horse-riding"; "All Women are Sluts" and that "Australia is a third-rate country".

In 2012, speakers included: Sam Harris, Germaine Greer, Brian Morris, Tara Moss, Illan Pappe, Jason Silva, Shiv Malik, Ed Howker, Jane Bussmann, Jesse Bering and Tim Harford. Over 50 speakers examined topics including: "The Coming Civil War Between Young & Old", "The Delusion of Free Will", "All Women Hate Each Other", "Israel is an Apartheid State", "The Devil is Real", "Genital Cutting is Normal", "We are all Sexual Perverts", "A Foetus is not a Person" and " You are Being Greenwashed".

In 2013, speakers included: Arlie Hochschild, David Simon, Hanna Rosin, Evgeny Morozov, Vandana Shiva, Dan Savage, John Safran and Peter Hitchens. The topics covered included: "We Have Outsourced Ourselves", "This is not a Conspiracy Theory", "The End of Men", "Some People are More Equal than Others", "A Killer Can Be A Good Neighbour" and "There is No War on Drugs".

Now in its sixth year, the upcoming Festival of Dangerous Ideas (30–31 August 2014) tackles issues that question our view of ourselves and our place in the world, featuring discussions about topics including loneliness, masculinity, narcissism, modern slavery and the return of the class system in Australia. Speakers include: Sir Salman Rushdie, Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alekhina (Pussy Riot), Masha Gessen, Steven Pinker, Elizabeth Kolbert, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Malcolm Fraser, Lydia Cacho, Alissa Nutting, Tim Flannery and Mark Latham. Talks include "Russia is a Penal Colony", "Surrogacy is Child Trafficking", "Freedom to Write", "Stop Trying to Fix Human Nature", "Slavery is Big Business" and "The Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys".

Controversies

The 2014 Festival was criticised due to the links between the St James Ethics Centre and companies that profit from the mandatory indefinite detention of asylum seekers.^[2]

2009 speakers

2010 speakers

2011 speakers

2012 speakers

2013 speakers

2014 speakers

References

SOH 2011 Festival of Dangerous Ideas Sydney Morning Herald 27 September 2011

External links

• Audio Coverage in BBC's The Forum. 11 October 2009.
• Christopher Hitchens and Tony Jones. 6 October 2009 (Video)
• festival program
• Garry Maddox, SMH