About Me

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Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. My latest books are THE TYRANNY OF OPINION: CONFORMITY AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM (2019) and AT THE DAWN OF A GREAT TRANSITION: THE QUESTION OF RADICAL ENHANCEMENT (2021).

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Big gig coming up!

I'll be speaking in front of about 2000 people at 9 am this morning - which I can assure you is not usual for me - enjoining them to be militant forthright supporters of basic liberal principles such as freedom of speech and separation of church and state. At a time when so much emphasis is placed, correctly, on human rights, these very basic principles are under constant attack from many quarters. At the same time, we see attempts to pervert the meaning of human rights as with attempts to ban "defamation of religions".

Anyway, wish me luck, the assistance of Zeus, and so on.

4 comments:

Ophelia Benson said...

Good luck!

"enjoining them to be [militant] forthright supporters of basic liberal principles"

Hee hee - and there was the Beeb just telling us that one session would be telling people Not To Be Fundamentalist. The Beeb managed to get about four sneers into a very short piece. Creeps.

Anyway, break a leg!

Hazel said...

Best of luck, Dude :)

Lisa said...

Hope it went well (it seems that it's almost 5 PM over there, although on this side of the globe it's not even Saturday yet!). As recent discussions have demonstrated, the subject of your talk is certainly not something that anybody should take for granted.

dipteran said...

Russell,

GOOD LUCK! Geez, I hope you weren't TOO militant and strident. . .