Festival of Dangerous Ideas: 2018 line-up announced

The controversial Festival of Dangerous Ideas promises to take aim at political correctness as it announces this year’s line-up.

Greer was rejected from the Brisbane Writers’ Festival for being too “controversial”.

The controversial Festival of Dangerous Ideas has promised to take aim at political correctness as it announces this year’s line up which includes Stephen Fry, Germaine Greer and Tim Soutphommasane.

This year’s festival will focus on unpacking the themes of a “post-truth world” covering themes of digital disruption, censorship, colonial histories, sexuality, drugs and the rising influence of online communities.

The Australian’s Judith Sloan will feature on a panel discussing the pros and cons of inequality.

Festival Director Danielle Harvey said the festival intended to cut through political correctness and expose attendees to ideas that may cause them discomfort.

“In an age of hyper-political correctness and fake news, there’s no better time to reflect on our evolving understandings of truth and trust to encourage audiences to listen to ideas they may not agree with and facilitate engagement in the art of disagreement,” she said.

Stephen Fry will deliver an homage to the art of disagreement in honour of his friend Christopher Hitchens.

Provocateur Germaine Greer will discuss outrage culture and former Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane will discuss what can we expect next from rising nationalism. Greer was rejected from the Brisbane Writers’ Festival for being “too controversial”.

Festival co-director Ann Mossop, who is also the director of UNSW Centre for Ideas, said the festival was the “perfect fit” to university learning.

“In 2018, when we are talking about dangerous ideas, qualities like critical thinking and credibility that universities exemplify are vitally important.” she said.

The festival will take place at Cockatoo Island and Sydney Town Hall on 3 and 4 November.

FULL LINE-UP

Niall Ferguson on the populist backlash against globalisation.

Pankaj Mishra charts the inevitability of nationalism and extremism

Ex Westboro Baptist Church member Megan Phelps-Roper argues that listening is not agreeing nor a betrayal to one’s cause.

Zeynup Tufekci and Seth Stephens-Davidowitz dissect the pros of big data sharing for society.

Former public defender and law professor Ayelet Waldman shares the benefits of LSD microdosing.

The author of Kill All Normies, Angela Nagle, takes a provocative look at who is really being served by the culture wars between the all-right and a complacent left.

Pop culture critic Chuck Klosterman reminds us of the important role revisionism plays in cultural writing.

Toby Walsh looks at the end of politics, equality and perhaps the West with the rise of the machines.

Evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks, sexologist Dr Nikki Goldstein and criminologist Xanthe Mallet discuss sex robots

Rebecca Huntley and Darren Goodsir examine the Australian media on a panel called Cancer on Democracy

Mick Dodson on the European colonial project

Lawyer Rosalind Dixon and economists Richard Holden and Judith Sloan lead a conversation that asks whether inequality is always bad

China Matters CEO Linda Jakobson discusses Australia’s relationship with the communist giant

Local artist Betty Grumble presents Sex Clown Saves the World;

FODI hosts a Counterstrike LAN party which centres around US artist Riley Harmon’s electronic sculpture that shoots blood at gamers as they make a ‘kill’;

Local artist Garth Knight creates installations and performances out of rope which examine the tensions between submission and strength;

The Australian premiere of the Royal Court’s MANWATCHING

Philosophers Matt Beard, Susan Dodds, Simon Longstaff and Jeremy Moss will run workshops on the ethics of our everyday lives