Professor Joseph Camilleri OAM returns to St Michael’s to deliver three exciting lectures offering a new perspective on how we are travelling in the 21st Century. The presentations will combine interviews with guests and conversation across the generations to help us probe the present and re-imagine the future.
There is no suggestion here that the nightmarish vision of the future Aldous Huxley paints in his Brave New World is upon us. Yet, his reading of the future has a too close- for-comfort feel about it: the conditioning of people to think in certain ways, economic and political dogmas that go virtually unquestioned, the media-shaped narratives of reality, the habit of reducing human beings to consumers, use of language and images that purposely confuse and mislead.
To make sense of current trends in Australia and the West more generally this series focuses on our public institutions, how truthful and trustworthy they are, what we the public think of them, how well equipped we are to handle, individually and collectively, the challenges of life in ‘our brave new world’.
Part 1: Life in The Post-Truth World. Are lies, fake news and cover-ups the new normal?
Truth is a human quality, not unlike beauty and wisdom. In public life, trust, reliability, judgment and solidarity all depend upon truth. In today’s world – Australia included – truth telling seems on the wane. This session explores:
What is happening to truth-telling in Australian public life? How much does our society value well informed, truthful communication?
What are the dangers of the ‘post-truth’ world? What damage are lies, secrecy and fake news doing to our parliaments and political parties, media, banks, educational and religious institutions?
Are the populist slogans sweeping Australia and much of the Western world here to stay? What lies behind them?
Part 2 Is Social Trust in Decline? Tuesday 18 September
What does this mean for Politics, Business, Banking, the Media, Religion?
Part 3 Redeeming Truth and Trust in Public Life: What will it take? Tuesday 25 September
When: Tuesdays 11, 18 and 25 September 2018, from 6pm
Where: St Michael’s Uniting Church, 120 Collins st Melbourne
Tickets $20 per Seminar or $45 for all 3
Bookings via: https://www.trybooking.com/XKLK or call the Office on 03 9654 5120
