The War Against the Past

Sociologist and commentator Frank Furedi’s new book The War on the Past is a powerful and timely analysis of why contemporary Western society has become with attacking and renouncing its own history. From statue-toppling, decolonising the curriculum and the museum, rewriting history to be more ‘inclusive’ of present day identity groups, and even erasing and modifying the words we use, the past is seen as a toxic influence on the present that must be controlled in the name of ‘progressive’ values.

In this episode, Furedi talks with art critic JJ Charlesworth, about how the war on the past has come to affect the arts and culture. They discuss how the orthodoxies of identity politics end up projected onto how the cultural figures of the past are understood, and how developments like ‘colour-blind’ casting reflect the move to affirm today’s identities in narratives about the past.

Frank and JJ discuss the nature of novelty and boundary-breaking in the arts, in a culture which has lost its older commitments to artistic traditions or the idea of the artistic canon. Frank points out that today, much artistic activity poses itself as a transgression of norms and cultural traditions which in reality no longer command cultural authority. Transgression, Frank argues, has become conformism.

They discuss what the future might be for cultural institutions that have become aligned with this new conformist rejection of the past, and whether we should look for a new counterculture that reconnects creatively with the art of the past, experimenting with and developing its artistic legacy.

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