Serious spaces?

From economics to politics, from unequal access of basic services to a complete lack of accountability, from climate change to corruption, from intolerance to racism, and from migrants leaving the country on high risk boats to an ever-widening gap between haves and have-nots, we have a long list of important issues that we ought to discuss. What I have above is a small sample of what we must think about. These questions are unlikely to have easy or straightforward answers, and are almost certainly going to lead to recognising uncomfortable truths about ourselves. Yet, these are also the questions that we must own, and seek answers from within our own society. Just as these questions are important and perhaps existential, so is the related issue of where can we have honest, open and frank discussions? Where is the space to debate, learn and engage?

The universities and academic institutions would be the first place that should come to our minds. But from our warped sense of what can and cannot be said on campus to our fixation on dress codes for women, and from an anxiety about whether a topic may touch a raw nerve among the powerful to our fidelity to state-approved truths, discussions within and outside the classroom have become increasingly difficult. People are scared to teach certain topics in history, worried about discussing important ideas of our time, and anxious that a discussion in their class may cause them serious physical harm. HEC — our latest “guardian” in the long list of custodians of boxed thinking — has made it clear that campuses are going to be anything but vibrant spaces for thinking and reflection.

Beyond the universities, there are few public spaces that allow for serious questions and reflections. Under the watchful eye of the state and its institutions, honest discourse can lead to public shaming, threats or worse. Literature festivals can add a breath of fresh air, but they rarely do. The festivals are mostly not about literature or nuanced ideas. Unfortunately, many of our literature festivals have become the space to have a stale discussion by the same people, regurgitating the same ideas that we have heard before. The people who often speak at these festivals are the same faces who appear on television night after night, and who have little sense of literature or serious scholarship. Instead of fostering and supporting creativity, or talking about important new ideas, these events tend to focus on the latest bit of news that provides no sense of perspective or reflection. There are no real questions that are asked by the attendees and if some questions are asked, the answers are not particularly worth remembering. In these events, few people represent the communities that are most at risk, or have been systematically disenfranchised. Even fewer want to talk about why the excluded remain excluded.

In the light of these vanishing spaces, some have said that social media is the new space for discussion. Unfortunately, while it may be a place to vent or gossip, it is not the place for debate, reflection and solutions. Quite the contrary, in fact. It is the space where problematic ideas are hardened in the fire of hatred, meanness and taunts. It is a space that rewards cruelty, indecency and unkindness. It is not the space to discuss and analyse, or reflect. It is not a substitute for a space for serious discussion.

The questions we must ask of ourselves require multiple perspectives, including from those who we may not like, or whose ideas we may strongly disagree with. But there is no question that no one group has a monopoly on good ideas or solutions. We must not just talk, but also listen. And for us to listen, we must create and reclaim the spaces where people can speak without the fear of becoming a missing person.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2023.

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