Antony Beevor on the dangers of Counter-knowledge, at 5x15

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Antony Beevor on the dangers of Counter-knowledge, at 5x15

14 Jun 2010

Speakers: Antony Beevor

Award winning author Antony Beevor offers a robust defence of evidence-based knowledge against the pervading influence of counter-knowledge and the ‘Wikipedia age’ in which we live. He begins with a discussion of the debate around historical fiction and the potential for historical novels to bring a new, interesting historical slant to the material, giving The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore as an example.

However, Beevor argues that the needs of history and the needs of Hollywood are fundamentally incompatible and that, in our post-literary world, the influence of television and movies on public opinion is a danger to our standards of truth. The small difference between selling fiction as truth in a film, such as the Da Vinci Code, and the lies of ‘counter-knowledge’, such as the 9/11 conspiracy, are in danger of undermining the basis of knowledge.