The Shift in Societal Values: Pleasure and Power Taking Over

The two hemispheres hypothesis, championed by Iain McGilchrist, has become well-known. But what light does it cast on modern society and our direction of travel? The nature of overweening bureaucracy, technologies of control, and the narrowing of freedom are explored in this conversation between Iain and Mark Vernon.

They discuss issues from the legacy of the Covid pandemic to the story that modern humanity has come to tell itself about who we are. It turns out that now is a moment to be concerned and to ask again about fundamental matters, from the reality of evil to the meaning of death. To understand more is to find space to respond more imaginatively with a deeper, more expansive awareness of nature, the sacred, and life.

Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist and philosopher, and author of The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World and his new book, The Matter with Things. For more see https://www.channelmcgilchrist.com
 
Mark Vernon is a writer and psychotherapist, whose most recent books are on Dante’s Divine Comedy and the Significance of Christianity. For more see https://www.markvernon.com