bigideas

Does “modern” just mean “contemporary” or “recent”, or is it more like a state of mind, a way of life or even a set of ideas? Is it about being a consumer in a liberal democracy? Is the modern world slowly progressing towards a steady state of relative peace, liberty and tolerance? Can we expect the modern world in a century’s time to be very much like it is today, only a bit better? Or are authoritarian regimes and environmental change characteristic of the modern world too? Is being modern, in Ezra Pound’s words, to “make it new”? Big Ideas co-organiser and sometime historian Nathan Charlton will be considering Modernism, industrialisation and technology, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and, erm, ancient Egyptian sculpture. Come along, obtain a beer and talk about what makes us modern, what gives us our identity as modern people, and maybe even who’s not modern, and why.