On Monday evening, Mr Russell presented to Sixth Form students on a complex, yet engaging, talk entitled ‘The Woke Wars’. During the talk, he discussed the different ideologies of conservatism and post-modernism and their potential advantages and disadvantages when applied to society.
Conservatism, as presented by Edmund Burke, aims to conserve traditional social institutions and rejects living by abstract ideas. Contrastingly, post-modernists believe that there are no absolute truths, that truth is determined by those with authority at any given time, and they are therefore concerned with asserting political and economic power while improving society through change.
Mr Russell’s choice to look at conservatism and post-modernism allowed the audience to relate the current day ‘woke wars’ to the origins behind both sides of the conversation. The talk went beyond the limits of the school curriculum and hopefully inspired some of the pupils to develop their knowledge of this very current topic. Thank you Mr Russell for the insightful talk.
By Ellie Jordan
