Before turning my attention to Mr Singer I would just like to remark that I had my second encounter with the hurly-burly of festival life.
After the delightful Indira Naidoo completed her session I thought I would grab a drink and have toilet break and generally just mill about filling in the 10-minutes or so before his eminent braininess took to the stage. That was until I opened stage door right and discovered vast hordes of crazy eyed folk looking to burst into the arena. (These dudes made the school kids from this morning look positively subdued...)
I scurried back to my seat - treading on an elderly woman's foot on the way - sorry! - she said that's ok but looked at me as if to say fuck you - I felt rather rotten about it but I was frantic to once more reach the safety of my seat - hey - I thought - Peter Singer has generated some considerable interest here in Benders on this chilly Friday afternoon in August.
Singer took to the stage with much less flamboyance and joi de vivre than the fabulous Indira 'Garden Guru' Naidoo. However, after plopping himself down onto the throne Singer took on a strangely serene countenance. It was the sort of calm that I thought only somebody like Yoda would be capable of. In fact Singer seemed so content sitting there with a goofy little beatific smile that I started to wonder if perhaps he may have carked it...
Nope not dead yet and the talk got under way. Hosted by Anna Goldsworthy, a musician and - in the words of her website - an "acclaimed memoirist, essayist, playwright, librettist, and festival director" (man I find successful and clever people nauseating) the talk set about rattling along in a sing-song voice at a cracking pace.
The most significant question would of course be "How much of this will I actually understand?"
Surprisingly - given my usual state of gormlessness - it was actually quite easy to follow. In fact I sort of felt a bit cheated. There were no great insights but more of a casual sort of shrug that worked itself into the underwhelming assertion of just doing "The Most Good That You Can Do". Well la-dee-da! Thanks for unraveling the profound mysteries of life. I come here looking for enlightenment and receive a Pollyanna-motherhood-statement instead.
It was some time around discovering that Bill and Melinda Gates had written an endorsement for the book that I started to feel slightly unsettled in the tummy. Nothing against Bill and Melinda - I just don't trust them.
And as much as I like the idea of effective altruism - how can we use our resources to help others the most? - I can't see us overthrowing capitalism - or other means of hierarchy dependent on domination-submission - with this. In fact my gut feeling is it would probably only strengthen it. People are left with a warm afterglow of having positively - in their subjective reckoning at least - contributed something good of themselves all the while the structural and systemic corruption that gives rise to so much suffering and inequality remains intact.
Having said all of that I probably really should read the book before sounding off about it.
(Perhaps effective altruism really does reframe the relationship between consumerism and materialism?)
In more general observations I found Singer pleasant to listen to. I mean his voice was actually quite disarming and reassuring. He could probably have a successful career as a cult leader if he wanted one.
And I did find myself mulling over some things he said with regards to personal choice. The question "How best to go through the world?" does resonate with me.
What is the best way for a person to spend their time so that not only are they getting what is most useful out of themselves for themselves, but also to ensuring that they are contributing what is most useful of themselves to the world around them for the benefit of others.
They are questions that do have rational explanations that can be stepped out by thinking through things in a logical and ethical way.
I made a note in the aftermath of Peter Singer's talk that was headed "The questions I found myself asking of myself."
How to spend your time most resourcefully?
What are the best things you could be committing your time to?
On the surface they are simple questions yet if addressed with openness and unflinching honesty could well have the power to be utterly trans-formative to a person's life.
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