From the Festival of Dangerous Ideas

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3868791.htm Panellists: Peter Hitchens, Journalist and author; Hanna Rosin, Senior editor of The Atlantic; Dan Savage, Sex Advice Author and Gay Activist; and Germaine Greer, Feminist icon and provocateur. Panellists -- Peter Hitchens Peter Hitchens is a British journalist and author. A former Marxist revolutionary, he says that he later became a social conservative and Christian believer “because I grew up.” He has been a newspaper reporter for the last 40 years, most of that time on British national titles. He was a resident correspondent in Moscow during the final years of communism (1990-92) and in Washington during the Clinton era (1993-95). A specialist in politics, labour affairs, education and defence, he has visited nearly 60 countries in the course of his work. He is the author of five books, which he regards as a themed series on the decline and dismantling of the conservative Britain in which he grew up. These include The Abolition of Britain, A Brief History of Crime and The Rage Against God, an explicit riposte to his brother late Christopher’s God is not Great.) His most recent book is The War We Never Fought – the British Establishment’s Surrender to Drugs. Peter Hitchens is married with three children and lives in Oxford, England. He is currently a columnist for London’s Mail on Sunday. -- Hanna Rosin Hanna Rosin is a writer and senior editor of The Atlantic and co-founder of DoubleX, Slate’s site for women. Hanna has covered religion and politics for The Washington Post and contributes to such publications as The New Yorker and New Republic. Her first book, God’s Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America, was originally a New Yorker article. Hanna’s latest book is The End of Men, an ethnographic look at the shifts in gender power in post-industrial societies and the vast cultural consequences of it. It grew out of an Atlantic Monthly article that saw her headline the first TED women’s conference in Washington DC. She has since appeared on shows such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report and The Today Show. Hanna Rosin lives in Washington with her husband David, a daughter and our two sons. -- Dan Savage Dan Savage is a writer, TV personality and activist best known for his political and social commentary, as well as his honest approach to sex, love and relationships. Dan’s sex advice column, Savage Love, is syndicated in newspapers and websites throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. He is the Editorial Director of The Stranger, Seattle’s weekly alternative newspaper, and his writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Rolling Stone, The Onion and on Salon.com. Dan is also the author of several books, including: Savage Love; The Kid: What Happened When My Boyfriend and I Decided to Get Pregnant (PEN West Award for Creative Nonfiction, Lambda Literary Award for Nonfiction); Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America; and The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage and My Family. Dan is a regular contributor to This American Life and a frequent and popular speaker on college campuses across the US and Canada. He is a host on UK Channel 4’s show Sex in a Box, and presenter of the MTV show Savage U. Dan Savage grew up in Chicago and now lives in Seattle with his husband Terry Miller and their son DJ. -- Germaine Greer Germaine Greer is regarded as a pioneer of the 1960s feminist movement that transformed the role of women in western society. The publication of her ground-breaking work The Female Eunuch in 1970 made hers one of the most significant feminist voices of the era. Germaine was born in Australia in 1939. She enrolled at the University of Melbourne in 1956, graduated with a BA and moved to the University of Sydney, where she became involved with the Sydney Push Bohemian social milieu of anarchists, Marxists and libertarians. She obtained an MA and moved to Cambridge University to complete her doctorate, throwing herself into a 60s lifestyle that included satirical theatre with the Cambridge Footlights, writing for Oz magazine, nude photo shoots and a three-week marriage. The publication of The Female Eunuch brought her massive international recognition and during the 70s she became a controversial and iconic figure with enormous media exposure. She established a reputation as an iconoclast and a formidable debater. Since that time she has continued her career as a writer, academic and literary critic. Though now retired, she continues to write and court controversy and is a popular guest on a wide range of television programs. She lives in England though visits Australia frequently. ---- Audience: Sydney Opera House Concert Hall with our biggest studio audience ever COLLAPSE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION Tim Wright asked: Peter Hitchens, you have described yourself as an observer and record keeper of the collapse of Western civilization. To what extent is your resignation to defeat a lament for the passing of a world where moral absolutes still existed, hierarchy and order was respected, and nuclear families were the cultural norm? Is it not desirable that we have moved out of a world of black and white into a world of technicolour? INTERNET HOOK-UPS Boran Izzet asked: With the growing trend of internet hook ups, sexting and the success of combining smart devices which track GPS location and offer the closest potential suitor for a quick cheap and purely hedonistic encounter, we have armed this generation with all the tools and platforms to normalise a culture of “instant gratification”. Is society so driven with personal pleasures that we're eroding the value of human relationships and reality based interactions? HOOK-UP CULTURE EMPOWERING? Brigid Meney asked: Hanna Rosin, you are a strong advocate of the “hook up culture” and suggest that it has been “an engine for female progress”. What authority do you truly feel you have to speak on the optimum sexual lifestyle of all women, of different class, socio-economic levels, and culture, and values? Do you feel your views discredit as “un-empowered” or “weak”, women who exercise their choice to limit their sexual activity to that of a monogamous relationship? END OF MEN? MIND THE GAPS! Erica Nock asked: While women today are extremely competent and successful in achieving high levels of education and increasing workforce participation, as a young woman in my twenties it is apparent that there is still a large gap between the genders in terms of pay, home duties and even the decisions women have to make in relation to family, career and responsibilities. What do you see as the key factors over the next 10 – 20 years that will bring us closer to a point of equality? WOMEN, WORK AND CHILDREN Kimberley Adler asked: Do you think it's possible that the Women’s Liberation movement has gone too far away from the primary role of women, to nurture and raise their children? The current role of mothering is being performed by paid care givers. My observations are showing me that there is a direct correlation between narcissism rising in the population and the early separation of mother and child. The woman who “can do it all” tend to have children with narcissistic traits. We ship our kids off to strangers to raise them and wonder why everyone is tired and depressed. Why are we allowing the narcissists who currently rule our world to tell us how to raise our children? CONSERVATIVES, TORIES & ABBOTT Mitchell Grant asked: Peter Hitchens, you have said that the demise of the UK Conservative Party is inevitable and necessary in order to weed-out "useless Tories." What do you think it will take to revive conservatism in Britain? Are far-right populist parties necessary for this revival? Lastly, does Tony Abbott represent lost conservative values that you support, or is he just an Australian version of the demise of conservatism you see in Britain? CONSERVATIVE GEN NOW Emilia Terzon asked: As an Australian in her mid-20s, I have grown up with iconic images of protest, rebellion, and flower power from the 60s, 70s, and early 80s. Yet I don't feel I've experienced any of this ideology in my lifetime. Most people my age seem more interested in buying the latest iPhone than protesting against unjust foreign wars or the corrupt global financial system. Am I correct to feel that I've been born into a particularly conservative generation? Were we born without the will to question or do we just have things too good to bother fighting? DO WE NEED MARRIAGE? Claire King asked: A few weeks ago, in this very auditorium, Julia Gillard explained that her reluctance to embrace gay marriage was not because of prejudice but because it seems abhorrent to her, that a woman should be given away by her father to her husband. Regardless of gender, is marriage relevant to anyone? EPIPHANIES Anna Christie asked: Peter Hitchens. I am fascinated by his "conversion", from revolutionary to authoritarian. How did such a turn-around in personal convictions occur? Is it an epiphany moment? Or does it occur over time, with doubt upon doubt weighing on you until you realise you were wrong? WHICH DANGEROUS IDEA? Lisa Malouf asked: Which so-called dangerous idea do you each think would have the greatest potential to change the world for the better if it was implemented?