We live in a world gone mad. Beheadings, genocide, destruction of World Heritage sites, flaunting of international agreements and borders, global corporate domination, environmental holocaust, perhaps the end of days? How can modern society make sense of the mounting horrors of the early 21st century? One approach is through the lens of the past. The study of history is a method through which we may find understanding or meaning to present day atrocities. As human society struggles with the conflict between the promise of a technologically based future and a sectarian pre-modern past, three ideas from the 18th century still persevere. This presentation will focus on the concepts of Nationalism, Liberalism and Anticlericalism and their enduring relevance in a increasingly violent and irrational world.

PRODUCER: Matthew Aldredge

He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher... or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.