Matthew's RSA blog

Injustices and waiting lists

This week’s events began with a screening of the BAFTA nominated “Taking Liberties”. The film follows the stories of normal people whose lives have been turned upside down by injustice, while using humour to emphasise its serious message. Set against a striking contemporary soundtrack, the film provoked a fascinating discussion with director and producer Chris Atkins and Jess Search, Chief Executive, BRITDOC.

RSA Thursday examined the question: The Secular State – the best option for British Muslims? Featuring Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, columnist for The Independent and co-founder of a new organisation, British Muslims for Secular Democracy, Inayat Bunglawala, writer on Islam and current affairs, Dr. Usama Hasan, Director of the City Circle and Ed Husain, author of The Islamist and deputy director of the counter-extremism think-tank, The Quilliam Foundation, this spirited debate was clearly too short for the audience! Though time defeated us in the Great Room, after the formalities audience members packed the Vaults to carry on the discussion over drinks. The RSA will continue to provide an independent platform to address these important issues in the coming months, both on and offline, via the Fellows Networks platform and future public events - so the debate is far from over...!

The increasing popularity of our events programme makes it all the more useful to have audio downloads and soon we will also have “Vision” to look forward to. More and more events are fully booked within days of their release and with long waiting lists, it’s great to have an alternative available for those who have missed out.

Mohamed, Osama and Steve

It has been a mammoth week of lectures with some super-stellar names. We continued our partnership with booksellers Blackwell's on Tuesday as we welcomed poet Simon Armitage to the house all the way from the hills in Yorkshire. Simon treated attendees to a reading from his new book, Gig: the life and times of a rock star fantasist as he regaled us with tales of a life intertwined with music, gig-going and poetry.

On Wednesday we saw a totally different crowd of lecture-goers stream into the Great Room as Charlie Leadbeater and Matthew Taylor discussed the ever-changing and collaborative nature of world of the web. This coversation was continued by Jonathan Zittrain on Thursday evening as he pondered the future of the internet. Lucky lecture-goers received a free copy of his new book with the generous support of AOL.

For our weekly RSA Thursday we were delighted to have Steve Coll over from America as he lifted the lid on the Bin Laden family and gave some interesting insights into a family whose power and money have been used to frighteningly varied ends.

We are pleased to also announce a few new additions to our May events programme;

On Tuesday 6 May, at 1pm Ray Tallis will be speaking about the most complicated part of our anatomy, the head.

RSA Screens continue at a gallop as we welcome director, Joshua Dugdale for a screening of his carefully crafted documentary, The Unwinking Gaze in which he followed the Dalai Lama for 3 years chronicling the many challenges that he faces.

And to continue our partnerhsip with Channel 4 we will be screening film-maker and journalist, Jon Ronson's Reverend Death.

We hope to see you all soon at some of the fantastic events that we have coming up over the next few weeks. As always, our events are all available as podcasts so if you missed any of this week's four remarkable and varied speakers you can listen again. 

Peace, love, money and denial…..

..not necessarily in that order.

This week the Events team welcomed Stan Cohen to investigate why human beings cocoon themselves in denial. From the personal to the political, Cohen provided an insight into the nature of denial and how it creates problems such as “passive bystanders” and “compassion fatigue”. The original text, States of Denial, is due to be updated in the autumn and will include Cohen’s views on climate change denial, which helped to set the stage for a lively and controversial debate, ably chaired by Laurie Taylor.

And speaking of keeping your eyes shut, this particular member of the Events team normally spends her Tube journey in just such a fashion, but today she woke up for long enough to notice that several people in the carriage were reading publications that were recently lecture subjects. Feeling the love, she smiled benignly at them, but in denial of the crazy woman beaming on the Tube, they buried their heads in said books and ignored her.

Against a background of City gloom, this week’s Thursday featured Brooke Harrington examining "pop finance" and the massive rise in popular engagement in the US stock market in the 90s through the spread of investment clubs. We were particularly pleased to hear from Brooke, as her work has a range of implications for accepted thinking on social capital, and has real relevance for RSA Networks and our new Tomorrow’s Investor project, which aims to change the way we think about share ownership and encourage civic involvement in socially responsible investing.

We ended the week with Jonathan Powell giving us invaluable insights, personal and professional, into the Northern Ireland peace process. It was a gripping and touching account which fully illustrated the reasons why he sees it as the most worthwhile thing he’s ever done. As well as exploring the process of conflict resolution, Jonathan shared the emotional aspects of dealing with such a role. This was not without humour, as shown by the tale of a mobile phone having an unexpected swim at a key moment, and politicians enjoying spontaneous boogie nights together! You can find out more in his new book, Great Hatred, Little Room.

There’s a bumper week coming up for the team next, with four events covering tales of gig-going, communal creativity, the Bin Ladens and the future of the world wide web. Variety is certainly the spice of events life!

You might think I don't have anything to do

I'm having one of those days where everything seems to connect to everything else.

We have another great week of events here with Brooke Harrington on Pop Finance and my old line manager Jonathan Powell on making peace in Northern Ireland.

But the event I am looking forward to most of all is Stan Cohen on Wednesday.  Stan's book States of Denial is a scholarly and compelling exploration of how it is people deny their responsibility for terrible things happening in the society around them.

Stan's analysis is based on a library of sociological and psychological research but also his own experiences as someone who was brought up in apartheid South Africa and lived for many years in Israel.

Stan sees denial as a necessary human capacity to enable us to cope with suffering in the world. The question is less why deny, but what shakes us out of this state: 'Why people don't shut out is more interesting than why they shut out' he says.      

Re my earlier posting, Stan described four ways in which we deny responsibility; obedience to superiors, conformity with society, necessity and - here's the link to Rita Carter - splitting of the personality. 

Stan's session has a brilliant chair - yes, alright it is my father - so I'm hoping we can explore what light his concept of denial sheds on the challenge of persuading people and nations to tackle climate change.

There are some still some places left for the event (which you can book on the web site) so do join us here on Wednesday.

Speed dating, parking tickets and English pubs

This week Tim Harford entertained and informed a packed Great Room audience by showing how economics form an important part of many of our daily decisions, whether we realise it or not. With some revealing anecdotes from his new book, The Logic of Life, Tim explained the powerful rationalities that affect our choices - whether we're on a speed-date or trying to decide if it's worth risking that parking ticket. Those of you in the audience would have noticed that this event was being filmed; this is for our new exciting events strand, Vision. Along with our new website, we will be launching RSA Vision soon which will give you all the opportunity to watch some of your favourite events again and again.

On Wednesday Polly Toynbee chaired an excellent panel discussion on how we can reverse the worringly persistent correlation between how well-off a family is and the quality of the place they live in. And we rounded off our week with Paul Kingsnorth in conversation with Martin Wright, debating whether the proliferation of chain cafes and the demise of the humble English pub signals a deeper loss of national identity and character. A spirited DSA audience probed and prompted Paul with some great questions as he introduced some of the challenging themes that he writes about in his new book, Real England: Battle against the Bland.

We were delighted to get back some stats from our web team today who not only told us that over 60 people listened online live to Jeremy Deller's recent event but that it has been downloaded as an mp3 file over 1000 times. To listen again to any of our events from this week or before visit the audio pages of our website.

Memoirs of life, love, death and art

We shot into April at the speed of light with a busy week in the lectures team. First up on Monday evening we continued our education series with Edge on developing the potential of every pupil. Geoff Mulgan of the Young Foundation opened the discussion about diversity of provision in the education system, an area of special interest to the RSA as we look ahead to the opening of the RSA Tipton Academy in September. We were delighted to welcome Anders Hultin to the event to speak to us about the Kunskapsskolan in Sweden, an innovative system of preparatory schools which he co-founded.

On Tuesday evening, the novelist Julian Barnes spoke to a packed and attentive Great Room about his memoir of life, love, death and art - Nothing to be Frightened of. This was the first in a new series of collaborations with bookseller Blackwell and we are very much looking forward to welcoming poet, Simon Armitage as our next speaker.

MT has already blogged on our great event on Wednesday with Michael Landy, Neil Boorman and Daniel Miller so I won't elaborate any further than to say that the audio podcast will be available soon for any that missed out on that fascinating discussion.

And to wrap up the week, we welcomed veteran foreign correspondent Robert Fisk to our RSA Thursday stage. After shoe-horning as many people as possible into the Tavern Room, Robert shared memorable moments from his incredible reporting career and caused a great queue of people after the lecture who were eager to question the great man himself.

We slow from a fast gallop to a steady canter next week, and we kick off our week with Tim Harford revealing the hidden logic of life... prepare to be enlightened!

Just how do you get to Australia without stepping foot on a plane?

We returned to the office from a snow-covered Easter to an exciting week of events.

We kicked off on Wednesday with Rt Hon Jack Straw MP who spoke to a heaving Great Room about building community confidence in the criminal justice system. The lecture was a great opportunity to launch the RSA's new Prison Learning Network and we had some excellent questions from the audience, you can listen again here.

Later that evening we screened No End in Sight. Nominated for an academy award for best documentary feature the film was the first of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq's descent into guerilla war, warlord rule and anarchy. Director Charles Ferguson spoke about making his first documentary film and what led him into the gritty world of documentaries from an earlier career in software technology.

Finally we wrapped up with this week's RSA Thursday, by welcoming slow-traveller Ed Gillespie to the RSA to prove that you don't have to get on a 747 to holiday in Australia you just need a lot of time....Read his blog about his 361 days of slow-travel global circumnavigation here.

We draw a quick breath before we launch into the Spring programme. No rest for us as we have just announced our April events, you can see the full list here but highlights include: Julian Barnes, Tim Harford, Jonathan Powell and Charlie Leadbeater.

Hope to see you all at JAS soon

A fond farewell

                            

This week lecture-goers braved wild weather to enjoy two events. First we enjoyed a range of views on Future Radio. A lively debate, the only point on which everyone agreed was that digital radio needs an optional “crackle” button. Manufacturers, take note!

Our Thursday lunchtime debate was no less contentious, as we featured Counterknowledge, Damian Thompson’s fiery polemic against all forms of modern quackery. A packed audience witnessed Damian defying death by aconite (in a practical demonstration of the dubious claims of homeopathic medicine) and were exhorted to sharpen their critical faculties, vigorously defend free speech and renew the public sphere – entertainment and enlightenment in equal measure!

This week’s GDAC (Glossy Drama Appreciation Club) examined the film “The Other Boleyn Girl” – with initially surprising but ultimately satisfying casting of the Boleyn sisters, it’s well worth a look. But can there be a hotter Henry than Jonathan Rhys-Myers of “Tudors” fame? The club is split on this burning issue – but the Chair is definitely voting for Rhys-Myers – sorry Eric!

Also under discussion was BBC4’s “Mad Men” – perhaps too early for judgement but good to be reminded of a time when smokers weren’t confined to shivering outside pubs!

But all this jollity is but a feeble attempt to lighten heavy hearts…. Next week, we are losing our highly respected and much loved head of department. We’ll be looking back at her finest and favourite moments next week, and wishing her well after her dedicated eighteen year service with the RSA.

Brain Food

RSA Screens is going from strength from strength as we started this week with acclaimed British director, Nick Broomfield’s controversial new film, Battle for Haditha. This is a war film about ordinary people in an impossible situation, chronicling a series of of still disputed events which led to a number of tragic killings in Iraq in November 2005. A packed Great Room came to see this special screening and pose a series of challenging questions to the great man himself.   

From matters of life and death to yet more questions about the very fundamentals of human existence. Leading experts in the practice and philosophy of medical science, Adam Zeman and Ray Tallis continued our popular RSA Thursday series with a revealing exploration of the brain, from atom to pysche. Despite ever more astonishing scientific advances, Zeman and Tallis agreed that we still struggle to bridge the explanatory gap between the physical brain and the mind. Food for thought of the very highest order...

Now to highlight two very exciting events coming up in our Spring programme:

We will be welcoming one of culture’s wisest observers and a regular writer on all things to do with the internet Clay Shirky. Clay will be exploring the impact of online social networks on the fast-changing world around us.

Finally to coincide with the launch of the RSA’s new Prison Learning Network, Rt Hon Jack Straw MP will be examining the major issues in prisons policy today.

A lighter blog next week as the Chair of the GDAC (glossy drama appreciation club) returns to fill you in on all the gossip!

International relations

An amazingly busy week for us here in the events team. We started on Tuesday with a joint event with the Equality and Human Rights Commission where David Cameron and Trevor Phillips drew a buzzing crowd to talk about Sharia Law amid the controversial comments that have recently hit the headlines. MT then bumped into DC on his bike outside the Houses of Parliament when DC had only positive things to say about the RSA.

From religion and law to arts as Turner Prize winner, Jeremy Deller spoke about social and environmental challenges with John Wilson of BBC Radio 4’s Front Row in the second of our Arts & Ecology Exchanges. With Wednesday came an international slant on education, as Ray Simon, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education travelled to the UK for the first time to speak on the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. And from America to Russia as our popular RSA Thursday took on the Russian Presidential elections with an expert panel. Speakers included Edward Lucas who has recently published The New Cold War: How the Kremlin menaces both Russia and the West.

Finally we finished off the week with acclaimed director and self-proclaimed master of hype Tony Kaye with an exclusive screening of his epic documentary Lake of Fire. After a massive 15 years in the making this black and white film tackles the ever-dividing issue of abortion head on.

We step into March with an exciting and varied range of events, including a mini-series on Iraq five years on from invasion. We start with a bang as British filmmaker, Nick Broomfield joins us for an exclusive screening of his new film, Battle for Haditha.