Ideas Matter

From the series ‘The elite: old and new’, theme of the boi charity’s event The Academy, held online in November 2021.

The term ‘professional managerial class’ was coined in 1977. Thinkers on both left and right have drawn attention to the rise (and rise) of a seemingly new group in society who neither labour in traditional occupations nor own significant amounts of capital. This group of salaried professionals – in the civil service, education, management, public relations, public health etc. – not only increasingly manage the key institutions of society. They are also said to exert a social and ideological influence, promoting ‘progressive’ campaigns around gender, sexual, racial, and other identity causes. But who are this group? Can it really be said to be a ‘class’, and how do they differ from more familiar elites?

Lecture by Catherine Liu, professor of film and media studies, University of California Irvine, and the author of ‘Virtue Hoarders: the case against the professional managerial class’

THE ACADEMY ONLINE IV: The elite: old and new To view the full programme and some suggested background reading to the talks, please visit  https://theboi.co.uk/academy-online-iv  

ASSOCIATED READING

For this lecture you may wish to read:-

• READ: Barbara and John Ehrenreich, The Professional Managerial Class in Radical America, Vol 11, No. 2, 1977 (pdf) https://library.brown.edu/pdfs/1125403552886481.pdf
• READ: Catherine Liu, Virtue Hoarders: the case against the professional managerial class, 2021 https://amzn.to/3ehMCDS   

THE ACADEMY In the context of today’s instrumental approaches to knowledge, The Academy summer school is a modest attempt to demonstrate the value of scholarship, and of the worth of the university as a place of free enquiry dedicated to the pursuit of truth.

DONATING TO THE BOI CHARITY The BOI charity is committed to continuing to host discussion and debates throughout this period when society is restricted by measures to tackle coronavirus. In order to help us realise events such as the Academy Online, please consider a donation, small or large. Visit: https://theboi.co.uk/donate

IDEAS MATTER PODCAST Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today.

You can subscribe and listen to Ideas Matter on iTunes, Podbean, Spotify or SoundCloud. For full details of all episodes, visit the podcast page on our website

Keep up-to-date with Ideas Matter and all the initiatives organised by the Battle of Ideas charity by following us on Twitter (@theboi_uk) and on Facebook (battleofideas).

From the series ‘The elite: old and new’, theme of the boi charity’s event The Academy, held online in November 2021.

Published in the weeks after VE day in 1945, just as British voters swept a Labour Government into power, Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited was a surprise bestseller in both the UK and America, and captured the imagination of generations of readers. The story follows the life of Captain Charles Ryder and his fateful obsession with the aristocratic Flyte family as they slowly fall from grace and fortune during the interwar years. So how does Waugh make sense of the decline of the British establishment? Is the destruction of the old order, as one character has it, ‘all on account of the war’? What drove Waugh’s attacks on modernism? And what can the decline of the old elite tell us about the elite of today?

Lecture by Helen Searls, chief operating officer, Feature Story News (FSN); founder, Washington Hyenas’ Book Club

THE ACADEMY ONLINE IV: The elite: old and new To view the full programme and some suggested background reading to the talks, please visit  https://theboi.co.uk/academy-online-iv  

ASSOCIATED READING

For this lecture you may wish to read:-

• READ: Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited, 1945 https://amzn.to/3pjY4VY  
• READ: Frank Furedi, First World War: Still No End in Sight, 2013 https://amzn.to/3JaMqV9  

THE ACADEMY In the context of today’s instrumental approaches to knowledge, The Academy summer school is a modest attempt to demonstrate the value of scholarship, and of the worth of the university as a place of free enquiry dedicated to the pursuit of truth.

DONATING TO THE BOI CHARITY The BOI charity is committed to continuing to host discussion and debates throughout this period when society is restricted by measures to tackle coronavirus. In order to help us realise events such as the Academy Online, please consider a donation, small or large. Visit: https://theboi.co.uk/donate

IDEAS MATTER PODCAST Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today.

You can subscribe and listen to Ideas Matter on iTunes, Podbean, Spotify or SoundCloud. For full details of all episodes, visit the podcast page on our website

Keep up-to-date with Ideas Matter and all the initiatives organised by the Battle of Ideas charity by following us on Twitter (@theboi_uk) and on Facebook (battleofideas).

From the series ‘The elite: old and new’, theme of the boi charity’s event The Academy, held online in November 2021.

In recent years, populist movements have thrived on a sense of anger at global elites who have distanced themselves from political control by their own national populations. The coronavirus pandemic has further served to suggest that the global system is extremely fragile. Yet, as betrayed by the likes of COP26 conference on climate change, the appetite for supranational decision-making is as strong as ever. This lecture examines the ‘globalist’ elite and their political culture of supranationalism, and asks what are its prospects are in a post-populist and post-pandemic world.

Lecture by Bruno Waterfield, Brussels correspondent, The Times

THE ACADEMY ONLINE IV: The elite: old and new To view the full programme and some suggested background reading to the talks, please visit  https://theboi.co.uk/academy-online-iv  

ASSOCIATED READING / LISTENING

For this lecture you may wish to read:-

• READ: Phil Mullan, Beyond Confrontation: Globalists, Nationalists and Their Discontents https://amzn.to/3dCspbF
• READ: Hannah Arendt, Truth and Politics, The New Yorker, 1967 https://bit.ly/3GADGpd

THE ACADEMY In the context of today’s instrumental approaches to knowledge, The Academy summer school is a modest attempt to demonstrate the value of scholarship, and of the worth of the university as a place of free enquiry dedicated to the pursuit of truth.

DONATING TO THE BOI CHARITY The BOI charity is committed to continuing to host discussion and debates throughout this period when society is restricted by measures to tackle coronavirus. In order to help us realise events such as the Academy Online, please consider a donation, small or large. Visit: https://theboi.co.uk/donate

IDEAS MATTER PODCAST Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today.

You can subscribe and listen to Ideas Matter on iTunes, Podbean, Spotify or SoundCloud. For full details of all episodes, visit the podcast page on our website

Keep up-to-date with Ideas Matter and all the initiatives organised by the Battle of Ideas charity by following us on Twitter (@theboi_uk) and on Facebook (battleofideas).

From the series ‘The elite: old and new’, theme of the boi charity’s event The Academy, held online in November 2021.

From arguments in museums about the status of colonial-era collections to the proliferation of ever more expansive diversity policies in public service organisations, major institutions are at the forefront of the culture wars. What can controversies such as Stonewall’s involvement at the BBC, and the new elite activism of organisations such as the National Trust and Civil Service tell us about the changing face of major institutions and how power operates today?

Lecture by Claire Fox, director, Academy of Ideas; independent peer, House of Lords

THE ACADEMY ONLINE IV: The elite: old and new To view the full programme and some suggested background reading to the talks, please visit  https://theboi.co.uk/academy-online-iv  

ASSOCIATED READING / LISTENING

• READ: Christopher Lasch, The Revolt of the Elite and the Betrayal of the Democracy https://amzn.to/3otpVmk
• LISTEN: Nolan Investigates: Stonewall – BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09yjp0d  

THE ACADEMY In the context of today’s instrumental approaches to knowledge, The Academy summer school is a modest attempt to demonstrate the value of scholarship, and of the worth of the university as a place of free enquiry dedicated to the pursuit of truth.

DONATING TO THE BOI CHARITY The BOI charity is committed to continuing to host discussion and debates throughout this period when society is restricted by measures to tackle coronavirus. In order to help us realise events such as the Academy Online, please consider a donation, small or large. Visit: https://theboi.co.uk/donate

IDEAS MATTER PODCAST Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today.

You can subscribe and listen to Ideas Matter on iTunes, Podbean, Spotify or SoundCloud. For full details of all episodes, visit the podcast page on our website

Keep up-to-date with Ideas Matter and all the initiatives organised by the Battle of Ideas charity by following us on Twitter (@theboi_uk) and on Facebook (battleofideas).

From the series ‘The elite: old and new’, theme of the boi charity’s event The Academy, held online in November 2021.

Political discourse revolves around questions of power relations. Yet defining who really has power over society seems harder than ever. How do we understand the ‘elite’ and what gives them power? Has the elite changed its character, and if so how, and from when? This lecture examines the role of culture in elite self-understanding and self-definition and looks at how culture became a key battleground in challenges to their authority.

Lecture by Professor Frank Furedi, sociologist and social commentator; author, 100 Years of Identity Crisis: culture war over socialisation

THE ACADEMY ONLINE IV: The elite: old and new To view the full programme and some suggested background reading to the talks, please visit  https://theboi.co.uk/academy-online-iv  

ASSOCIATED READING

For this lecture you may wish to read:-

• ‘The Power Elite’ by C. Wright Mills, 1956 https://amzn.to/2ZpC1TB
• ‘100 years of the culture war’, Frank Furedi, spiked, 17 September 2021 https://bit.ly/3E0Tscg

THE ACADEMY In the context of today’s instrumental approaches to knowledge, The Academy summer school is a modest attempt to demonstrate the value of scholarship, and of the worth of the university as a place of free enquiry dedicated to the pursuit of truth.

DONATING TO THE BOI CHARITY The BOI charity is committed to continuing to host discussion and debates throughout this period when society is restricted by measures to tackle coronavirus. In order to help us realise events such as the Academy Online, please consider a donation, small or large. Visit: https://theboi.co.uk/donate

IDEAS MATTER PODCAST Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today.

You can subscribe and listen to Ideas Matter on iTunes, Podbean, Spotify or SoundCloud. For full details of all episodes, visit the podcast page on our website

Keep up-to-date with Ideas Matter and all the initiatives organised by the Battle of Ideas charity by following us on Twitter (@theboi_uk) and on Facebook (battleofideas).

Introduction to the series ‘The elite: old and new’, theme of the boi charity’s event The Academy, held online in November 2021.

Politics has always been inseparable from the question: who has power? In previous eras, the answer to that question was to examine the issue of social class. Today, it is harder to offer such easy answers. Many speak of multiple ‘elites’ including business, educational, cultural and media. If traditional elites are in retreat, or anxious to broadcast their support for a new set of ‘progressive’ values around race, sex and gender, does this mean that they no longer play such a central role in the management of society? Or is this simply an age-old cycle of elites seeking to mystify their social position?

Introduction by Jacob Reynolds, external affairs manager, boi; author, Letters on Liberty: Beyond the Culture Wars

THE ACADEMY ONLINE IV: The elite: old and new To view the full programme and some suggested background reading to the talks, please visit  https://theboi.co.uk/academy-online-iv  

ASSOCIATED READING

For this lecture you may wish to read:-

• Hannah Arendt, Truth and Politics, in Between Past and Future, https://amzn.to/3rbtbV2
• Peter Mair, Ruling the Void: The hollowing of Western democracy, https://amzn.to/2Zs4SXr

THE ACADEMY In the context of today’s instrumental approaches to knowledge, The Academy summer school is a modest attempt to demonstrate the value of scholarship, and of the worth of the university as a place of free enquiry dedicated to the pursuit of truth.

DONATING TO THE BOI CHARITY The BOI charity is committed to continuing to host discussion and debates throughout this period when society is restricted by measures to tackle coronavirus. If you can, then please consider a donation, small or large. Visit: https://theboi.co.uk/donate

IDEAS MATTER PODCAST Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today.

You can subscribe and listen to Ideas Matter on iTunes, Podbean, Spotify or SoundCloud. For full details of all episodes, visit the podcast page on our website

Keep up-to-date with Ideas Matter and all the initiatives organised by the Battle of Ideas charity by following us on Twitter (@theboi_uk) and on Facebook (battleofideas).

Fifth podcast in the series ‘The use and abuse of history’, theme of the boi charity’s event The Academy, held online in April 2021. 

The founding ideals of the United States of America are increasingly called into question. Rather than an experiment in democratic self-government and throwing off the shackles of British imperialism, America is seen as a racist creation devoted to the institution of slavery. This episode assesses the contrast between the lofty ideals of the American founding fathers and the ‘original sin’ of slavery. Was its foundation marked by a distinctive attempt to take control of history? And what are the consequences of today’s impulse to tar the past as irredeemably corrupt? 

Lecturers: Dr Cheryl Hudson, lecturer in US Political History, University of Liverpool and Professor Francis Buckley, Foundation Professor, George Mason University; political commentator; author, The Way Back: Restoring the Promise of America

THE ACADEMY ONLINE II: THE USE AND ABUSE OF HISTORY A half day online event via zoom that took place in April 2021.   To view the full programme and some suggested background reading to the talks, please visit  https://theboi.co.uk/academyonline3  

ASSOCIATED READING  For this lecture you may wish to read:-  • ‘American Slavery, American Freedom’ by Edmund S. Morgan (2003) https://tinyurl.com/up4hmf69  • ‘American Secession: The Looming Threat of a National Breakup’ by F.H. Buckley (2020) https://tinyurl.com/5buevvtm  

THE ACADEMY In the context of today’s instrumental approaches to knowledge, The Academy summer school is a modest attempt to demonstrate the value of scholarship, and of the worth of the university as a place of free enquiry dedicated to the pursuit of truth.

DONATING TO THE BOI CHARITY The BOI charity is committed to continuing to host discussion and debates throughout this period when society is restricted by measures to tackle coronavirus. In order to realise events such as the Academy Online, none of our staff are furloughed and instead remain working. If you can, then please consider a donation, small or large. Visit: https://theboi.co.uk/donate 

IDEAS MATTER PODCAST Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today.

You can subscribe and listen to Ideas Matter on iTunes, Podbean, Spotify or SoundCloud. For full details of all episodes, visit the podcast page on our website

Keep up-to-date with Ideas Matter and all the initiatives organised by the Battle of Ideas charity by following us on Twitter (@theboi_uk) and on Facebook (battleofideas).

From the series ‘The use and abuse of history’, theme of the boi charity’s event The Academy, held online in April 2021.

The most common historical comparison in contemporary debates is to fascism. From the pro-trump riot at the Capitol to laws requiring the wearing of masks, every political event is compared to the fascism of Nazi Germany. Undoubtedly, and for good reason, the horrors of the early 20th Century loom large over the political imagination of the West. But by comparing every contemporary event to fascism, many are left unable to explain the real causes and consequences of contemporary debates. This episode places fascism in its historical context, and ask what, if anything, can be learnt from it today.

Lecture by Professor Aristotle Kallis, University of Keele

THE ACADEMY ONLINE II: THE USE AND ABUSE OF HISTORY A half day online event via zoom that took place in April 2021. 

To view the full programme and some suggested background reading to the talks, please visit  https://theboi.co.uk/academyonline3  

ASSOCIATED READING

For this lecture you may wish to read:-

• ‘Fascist Ideology: Territory and Expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922-1945’ by Aristotle Kallis https://tinyurl.com/32v73e9d
• ‘Fascism: What it is and how to fight it’ by Leon Trotsky (1944) https://tinyurl.com/x533ukzj

THE ACADEMY In the context of today’s instrumental approaches to knowledge, The Academy summer school is a modest attempt to demonstrate the value of scholarship, and of the worth of the university as a place of free enquiry dedicated to the pursuit of truth.

DONATING TO THE BOI CHARITY The BOI charity is committed to continuing to host discussion and debates throughout this period when society is restricted by measures to tackle coronavirus. In order to realise events such as the Academy Online, none of our staff are furloughed and instead remain working. If you can, then please consider a donation, small or large. Visit: https://theboi.co.uk/donate

IDEAS MATTER PODCAST Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today.

You can subscribe and listen to Ideas Matter on iTunes, Podbean, Spotify or SoundCloud. For full details of all episodes, visit the podcast page on our website

Keep up-to-date with Ideas Matter and all the initiatives organised by the Battle of Ideas charity by following us on Twitter (@theboi_uk) and on Facebook (battleofideas).

From the series ‘The use and abuse of history’, theme of the boi charity’s event The Academy, held online in April 2021.

The term ‘cultural Marxism’ has long proved controversial. Some insist that it helps explain a shift in left-wing thought from a materialist focus on economic transformation to a concern for cultural issues and identity politics. Others dismiss it as an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory with its origins in Nazi attacks on ‘cultural Bolshevism’.  Nevertheless, many accept that the Frankfurt School – the term given to the group of mainly German émigré intellectuals including the likes of Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse – did indeed launch a distinctive critique of post-war capitalism that put cultural issues front and centre.  This talk assesses the emergence and the legacy of those critiques. 

Lecture by Dr Tim Black, books and essays editor at Spiked

THE ACADEMY ONLINE II: THE USE AND ABUSE OF HISTORY A half day online event via zoom that took place in April 2021. 

To view the full programme and some suggested background reading to the talks, please visit  https://theboi.co.uk/academyonline3  

ASSOCIATED READING

For this lecture you may wish to read:-

• Dialectic of Enlightenment, Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, 1947 https://amzn.to/3vDk3qL  
• ‘Who’s afraid of Cultural Marxism?’, Tim Black, spiked, 1 April 2019 https://bit.ly/3q4QnBU

THE ACADEMY In the context of today’s instrumental approaches to knowledge, The Academy summer school is a modest attempt to demonstrate the value of scholarship, and of the worth of the university as a place of free enquiry dedicated to the pursuit of truth.

DONATING TO THE BOI CHARITY The BOI charity is committed to continuing to host discussion and debates throughout this period when society is restricted by measures to tackle coronavirus. In order to realise events such as the Academy Online, none of our staff are furloughed and instead remain working. If you can, then please consider a donation, small or large. Visit: https://theboi.co.uk/donate

IDEAS MATTER PODCAST Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today.

You can subscribe and listen to Ideas Matter on iTunes, Podbean, Spotify or SoundCloud. For full details of all episodes, visit the podcast page on our website

Keep up-to-date with Ideas Matter and all the initiatives organised by the Battle of Ideas charity by following us on Twitter (@theboi_uk) and on Facebook (battleofideas).

From the series ‘The use and abuse of history’, theme of the boi charity’s event The Academy, held online in April 2021.

From discussions about reparations to the descendants of slaves to the battles over public monuments, the legacy of the past is bitterly contested in today’s culture wars. Many insist that contemporary societies need to do much more to come to terms with, and atone for, the evils committed in the past. If the past actions of a country – such as military victories, the collection of vast treasures or the foundation or independence of a country – were once the source of national pride, today they are widely seen as a source of shame. How did our relationship to the past become so fraught? What are the consequences of this widespread estrangement from the past? If it is no longer possible to see the past as a reservoir of achievements and positive values, by what is the present to be guided? Is there a barely-concealed war on the past, or are societies merely finally facing up to their history?

Lecture by Professor Frank Furedi, sociologist; public intellectual; author, ‘Why Borders Matter’

THE ACADEMY ONLINE II: THE USE AND ABUSE OF HISTORY A half day online event via zoom that took place in April 2021. 

To view the full programme and some suggested background reading to the talks, please visit  https://theboi.co.uk/academyonline3  

ASSOCIATED READING

For this lecture you may wish to read:-

• ‘The Death of the Past’ by JH Plumb, 1969 https://amzn.to/3i2UqNb
• ‘The culture war against the past’, Frank Furedi, spiked, 30 July 2020 https://bit.ly/3fovXQl

THE ACADEMY In the context of today’s instrumental approaches to knowledge, The Academy summer school is a modest attempt to demonstrate the value of scholarship, and of the worth of the university as a place of free enquiry dedicated to the pursuit of truth.

DONATING TO THE BOI CHARITY The BOI charity is committed to continuing to host discussion and debates throughout this period when society is restricted by measures to tackle coronavirus. In order to realise events such as the Academy Online, none of our staff are furloughed and instead remain working. If you can, then please consider a donation, small or large. Visit: https://theboi.co.uk/donate

IDEAS MATTER PODCAST Ideas Matter is a podcast that takes the most important issues of our times and explores the ideas and intellectual trends that have shaped where we are today.

You can subscribe and listen to Ideas Matter on iTunes, Podbean, Spotify or SoundCloud. For full details of all episodes, visit the podcast page on our website

Keep up-to-date with Ideas Matter and all the initiatives organised by the Battle of Ideas charity by following us on Twitter (@theboi_uk) and on Facebook (battleofideas).