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Amidst the raging war between science and the soul, how can we find our place? Co-founder of the Dark Mountain project (with Paul Kingsnorth) Dougald Hine is the author of At Work in the Ruins, a new guide to thriving during a time of crisis for modern civilisation. He joins UnHerd for an evening of conversation and Q&A.
Watch the full interview above.
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SubscribeOne of the best discussions I’ve heard on Unherd for ages. Sadly, Unherd did not provide the complete discussion, including audience questions.
I was sufficiently motivated by Mr. Hine’s remarks that I’ve ordered one of his books from our library.
On a slightly tangential note, I’m not quite sure what’s happening to Unherd. The interviews moderated by Freddie and Flo seem to be less frequent, or we’re given fragments of them. They seem to be drifting away from the formula that made Unherd so successful in its early days. Perhaps it has something to do with the recent acquisition of The Spectator by Unherd’s owner. I suspect those two publications will eventually merge to create an even more bland Spectator.
I agree, on both counts.
It’s very refreshing to hear from someone able to reframe the debates we tend to have time and time again, and much of what he says chimes with my own thoughts on where we go from here.
I was particularly interested in the way his insistence that artists aren’t there to “convey a message” – a message which our societies frame, our activists frame, our scientists frame. No – artists (and it’s worth reading the comments to the Walt Whitman article in this regard) shouldn’t have a didactic purpose in that sense. (I have skin in the game here.)
The main sense that comes across is essentially one of optimism; that despite the pessimism of so many of the debates that are happening – but which fall short of addressing the really important questions about ourselves – there is a way forward. That’s very much how i see our future, in whatever form it takes.
With regard to Unherd i’m guessing there’s been a need to adapt to enable the model to continue. It’s really, really irritating when we have troll-like subscribers who do nothing but criticise Unherd for doing X or not doing Y, when the only way it’ll remain healthy is to provide a viewpoint that positively adds to debates.