The End of Everything… and the Start of Something New
In Bristol800 we looked back to the past, at the present day and on to the future.
There is much talk that the old certainties have gone and that things have to change: free speech; the middle class; cities for all; the welfare state; Europe. In our March Weekender (Fri 18 – Sat 19 March 2016) we looked at endings and beginnings. Artists, writers, and commentators reflected on what we are losing and what might replace it; looked at how people, societies and organisations can change; and debated the positive things to look forward to.
Ben Rawlence and Gulwali Passarlay discussed refugees and the end of empathy; Kate Pickett talked about the end of inequality; Raymond Tallis gave a personal meditation on life, living and death; and Erwin James shared his experience of redemption. There were panel discussions on The Forgiveness Project with Duncan Morrow, Hanneke Coates, Angela Findlay and Marian Liebmann; the end of old economics and the start of the new with David Boyle, Ann Pettifor, Andrew Simms, Katherine Trebeck; and the end of free speech with Julie Bindel, Sarah Ditum, Maryam Namazie and Sian Norris. A playlist of the audio recordings is on SoundCloud.