Skip to content

Verity Burgmann on The Importance of Being Extreme

When

Event Status

Agitators, as Oscar Wilde observed, are essential to progress. Reforms are more likely to be achieved when sections of a social movement behave badly and demand more than reforms. The history of protest suggests that extremism in form and content shifts the spectrum of debate so moderate proponents of the same social movement emerge as the voice of compromise and reason; extremists strengthen the bargaining position of moderates, because authorities accede to moderate demands to weaken extremist challenges; and extremists keep the moderates more honest.

Location

The Wheeler Centre

176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

More details

Stay up to date with our upcoming events and special announcements by subscribing to The Wheeler Centre's mailing list.

Privacy Policy

The Wheeler Centre acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Centre stands. We acknowledge and pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their Elders, past and present, as the custodians of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.