The Festival of Dangerous Ideas (FODI) is an Australian cultural and political festival which facilitates spaces that allow for controversial opinions, inconclusive discussions, and conversations that may otherwise never happen.
I attended The Last Supper presented at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2024, which brought together a group of veritable strangers pushing them to discuss difficult and contentious questions, all while sharing a meal.
We take our seats and settle in with drinks while our hosts prepare. Speakers from other panels across FODI are seated amongst us, each holding a black envelope containing a question that aims to push us to the limits of our beliefs and our tolerance. Will we accept varying opinions to ours, or struggle to maintain the balance between cordiality and contention?
While we discuss, Kitchen by Mike serves a series of delicious meals designed to be shared. Attendees were forced to pass down meals and share serving spoons even as they argued against each other’s most deeply held beliefs.
With a total of twelve ‘provocations’, questions ranged from political (Should we try to appease Putin by allowing Russia to take control of Ukraine?), to those regarding pressing social issues (Does multi-culturalism have drawbacks?).
Some questions were achingly simple, drawing an easy and conclusive agreement from all members of the table (Is what the patriarchy thinks of menopause irrelevant?). This question received a resounding yes from everyone at the table. Others required drawing from arguments from sociology, philosophy, and the deep-rooted beliefs of the individual’s idea of morality (Is altruism real?).
Conversations would occasionally rise to contention between different opinions, but rarely would they become argumentative. There remained a shared understanding that each was entitled to their own opinions and all on the table may have different perspectives, but they came from a place of empathy and intellect. Small talk between questions reinforced this. The comfortable conversation pushing people to come from a place of understanding rather than inelasticity when contentious questions are asked. Though this made the event lacking in regard to the promised level of argumentation and discomfort, it did showcase a more important fact. That people ultimately care more about caring for their fellow person, even a stranger, than their own conceptual differences in political or conceptual opinion.
As the night continued conversation slowed. By dessert most had returned to comfortable small talk, perhaps lacking the zeal or energy for any more contentious conversations.
However, if unique conversations and good meals were what this event aimed to offer attendees, then it was successful. Walking home with an intimate understanding of a handful of strangers most closely held beliefs, and a new set of questions about my own beliefs, I realised The Last Supper champions what FODI is most about: encouraging the exchange of ideas to birth new and dangerous ones.
The Festival of Dangerous Ideas was presented by The Ethics Centre in August 2024, supported by Principal Partner UNSW Sydney. Catch up on talks from over 12 years’ of FODI at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas podcast https://festivalofdangerousideas.com/.