As Sydney starts another round of lockdown, we are pleased to say we will still be able to produce the weekly On Liberty — fitting, considering it is the reason we started the show in the first place!
We ask, if liberalism falls will that usher in a ‘new dark age’? If so, what, exactly, will go dark? Freedom of speech and the press, democratic elections, and independent judiciaries are the foundation of the contemporary civilization, not only of the West but of the whole world. But they are threatened by identity politics, which sees little of value in our post-Enlightenment civilization, to the point of disputing whether such a civilization even exists.
We talked to Peter Baldwin about his new online magazine: Politics & Civilization. An outgrowth of the Blackheath Philosophy Forum, Politics & Civilization publishes articles and videos that address long-term developments that are reshaping Western societies and transforming their politics. We’ll be asking Peter what the suppression of speech means for the future of civilization — and what we can do to preserve the future from the depredations of the past.
Peter Baldwin is the former federal member for Sydney. He has served as the minister for higher education and the minister for social security. After leaving politics, he developed the DebateGraph policy visualization tool. His latest social venture is the online magazine Politics & Civilization.