Rufus Pollock and Sylvie Barbier: Politics of Being Talk at Untitled Festival
As part of the Untitled Festival, held on 17th and 18th September 2020 online, we gave our Politics of Being talk.
This talk explored the idea that any social or political envisioning is constrained by an invisible frame: by the implicit values and views on which it is created, most importantly its view of the nature of human beings. It is by making this explicit and visible that we can transcend it.
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Abstract
We need to go back to basics if we are to rediscover our imagination and create possibility for ourselves and our societies.
Any social or political envisioning is constrained by an invisible frame: by the implicit values and views on which it is created, most importantly its view of the nature of human beings.
For example, much of modern economic and political thought rests on the assumption that you or I know what we want – markets and democracy only make sense on this assumption.
However, most wisdom traditions teach us that knowing what we truly want is in fact very hard and takes deep practice and reflection.
In this double session we will enquire into the nature of Being for human beings and how this would translate into a big vision for humanity and a new framework for progress. We will use a mixture of play, embodiment and reason.
Watch the talks
Below you can watch the discussions from day 1 and day 2, and view the slides.
