For many, anarchism may conjure scenes of disarray and chaos, or perhaps even riotous punk rock shows in dingy basement venues. But in this video, the historian Sophie Scott-Brown, a self-described anarchist, reframes anarchism as a movement that can be practically applied to, and even strengthen, contemporary liberal democracies. In a wide-ranging interview, Scott-Brown discusses the form of anarchy she ascribes to – pacifist, centred on direct democracy, and not inherently opposed to all forms of leadership structures – as well as the thinkers and personal experiences that influenced her.
Video by the Institute of Arts and Ideas
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Virtues and vices
Why Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith were divided on the virtues of vanity
5 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
15 minutes
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Beauty and aesthetics
In art, the sublime is a feedback loop, evolving with whatever’s next to threaten us
9 minutes
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History
From Afghanistan to Virginia – the Muslims who fought in the American Civil War
22 minutes
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Family life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
10 minutes
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Fairness and equality
Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches
14 minutes
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War and peace
A frontline soldier’s moving account of the fabled ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914
12 minutes
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Bioethics
What a 1970 experiment reveals about the possibility and perils of ‘head transplants’
6 minutes
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History of technology
Replicating Shakespearean-era printing brings its own dramas and comedy
19 minutes