MembersNEWNew in the Members’ Room: John Ozimek takes up the new Vetting Database; Viv Regan presents a film on youth volunteering; JJ Charlesworth has a piece in Art Monthly on the trouble with art education; James Panton discusses ethical consumerism and child protection on BBC Radio. New on the Vetting Blog: Photography in pre-school; Serving police officer CRBed; Checking once, checking twice; Manifesto Club wins government u-turn; Model flying events cancelled. Read on… |
Future events
The UK Government wants to reclassify cannabis - yet again! - this time upgrading it from a Category C to B drug, in order to 'send a message' that drugs are bad. The reclassification is not to warn us off becoming degenerate hippies and dropouts though - it's for the sake of our mental health. Is this a reasonable argument for greater restrictions, or should we be free to choose our own poison, whatever its ill effects? At our next Club Night, we will interrogate the rights and wrongs of the drugs debate. Are drugs a means to expand our horizons and experiences, or a harmless recreational choice? Should politicians use the law to send a moral message?
The pursuit of Truth has driven intellectual and political work throughout human history – with artists, scientists and political activists using their different methods to attempt to arrive at something ‘true’. Today there appears to be a contradictory attitude towards truth. On the one hand there is a new relativism, with academic establishments holding that there are many ‘stories’ but no truth; but there is also a new epistemological absolutism, with experts relaying what ‘the science says’ in areas from energy policy to family policy. How can we explain this apparent contradiction? This salon will discuss what it means to pursue truth today. Is it possible to uphold a critical attitude in the spirit of the Enlightenment, without indulging the worst excesses of relativism? Can we make the most of the achievements of science without enshrining it as a new unquestionable authority? Is the search for truth merely about resigning ourselves to cold realities, or might it mean understanding the world in order to change it? Manifesto Club members Frank Furedi and Tom Addiscott will introduce the evening's discussion. Manifesto Club salons are for members only (see how to join the Manifesto Club). Time: 6.45-9.30pm |
The Manifesto Club supports:All those who oppose the new Mayor's ban on drinking on the London Tube... 'Enlightenment is humanity's emergence from self-imposed immaturity. Dare to know! Have courage to use your own understanding!' Immanuel Kant 'What characterises man is his extreme abundance of imagination; therefore, that man is a fantastic animal and that universal history is the gigantic, continuous and insistent effort to go, little by little, putting some order into the crazy fantasy.' José Ortega y Gasset |
