Wiener Festwochen 2017: Against Hate

Wiener Festwochen 2017
Against Hate
Carolin Emcke
Akademie des Verlernens / Lecture

Location: HALLE E

In her 2016 essay Against Hate, Carolin Emcke comments on the great themes of our time: racism, fanaticism, anti-democracy. In an increasingly polarized public, the dominant mode of thinking is scepticism of other people’s positions, but not of one’s own. Because, in all its aggressive and despicable vehemence, hatred is imprecise and inexact, and works in generalities. Other people are not perceived as individuals, but as members of a group that must be rejected: the foreigners, the refugees, the Muslims, the Jews, the disbelievers, the homosexuals, the media, the politicians. In opposition to this dogmatic thinking of hate, which does not take into account any shades of grey, Caroline Emcke praises the multiplicity of voices, praises the "unclean" – because in that way, the freedom of the individual can be protected, as can dissent. Because the freedom of others guarantees one’s own freedom. Against hate, according to Emcke, ultimately the only thing that works is precisely what haters lack: acute observation, an unflagging ability to make precise distinctions, self-doubt, and the desire to endure plurality. A lecture for those who are looking for convincing arguments and ideas to defend an open society.

Carolin Emcke, born in 1967, studied philosophy in London, Frankfurt am Main, and Harvard. From 1998 to 2013, she travelled around the world to crisis regions and reported on them. She is a freelance journalist and is always involved with artistic projects and interventions. She has received several awards for her work, including the Theodor Wolff Prize and the Otto Brenner Prize for Critical Journalism. In 2016, she was awarded with the Peace Prize of the German book trade for Against Hate.

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