Prof. Martin Krygier: From Hanson to Hanson - What a difference 20 years makes

In 1997, law professor Martin Krygier delivered his Boyer lectures, Between Fear and Hope: Hybrid Thoughts on Public Values. Then Professor of Law at UNSW, he finished his sixth lecture with a call for his listeners to enroll in the Conservative-Liberal-Republican-Communitarian-SocialDemocratic International Party (Sydney branch) – a tolerant multi-ideological party that he believed could cope with a turbulent multicultural Australia. Twenty years later membership of that party still hovers around one, but the problems Professor Krygier foresaw then – national narcissism, doctrinal rigidity, populist despotism, ethnic exclusiveness, willed blindness to injustice and humiliation – have indeed come to pass. Chancers and confidence tricksters still hawk simplified and inadequate answers to wicked problems. His remedies – civility, communalism, institutionalised values – are ever and always under threat. Professor Krygier could see back in 1997 where Australia was pointing, and he’s had 20 years to think it over and tweak the model. If you’re looking for an explanation of how we got where we are now, and how we need to respond, this is the place to come.