Let's make this an annual celebration of the achievements of British liberals and conservatives

Dear ,

This email is a reminder of our Emancipation Day breakfast – the day the British Empire forever changed the way human beings were viewed by outlawing slavery. (To book click here).

We think it is important to honour outstanding achievement in the cause of human dignity and progress, so if you haven’t booked yet, please do. It’s at Tattersall’s 7:00 for 7:30 am, with guest-by-video-link Professor Nigel Biggar. The event will be compered by Damian Coory and broadcast on his ADH TV programme, The Other Side Interviews that night.

If you’ve already booked, please think about bringing some friends along. Tables of 10 are at the discounted $60 per head price – the same price AIP members receive. (To book click here).

It’s important that we tell stories of the great achievements on the side of genuine progress and also establish opportunities to celebrate them.

When Bob Tucker, Dan Ryan, Gary Johns and I first came together to form the AIP we realised it wasn’t good enough to win the argument, but you had to win hearts with minds.

That was 9 years ago and that realisation seems to be dawning on other friends and allies.

Later this year I will be attending the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in London. It’s being convened by Jordan Peterson and involves prominent Australians such as John Howard and Tony Abbott.

The express purpose is to establish narratives in each of 6 areas that are aspirational and that we can all agree on.

While I think stories are important, they are not sufficient. They have to be embedded in behaviours and performances, like civic events.

The Christian church has survived and prospered for 2 millennia partly because for most of that time it became part of the rhythm of life. Prayers told the hours of the day, and Sundays and Holy Days the march of the weeks and months.

In this they were merely continuing what their Jewish predecessors and pagan neighbours were doing.

None of us navigates the world through facts and figures and arguments from first principles, we all do it via learned behaviours and rules of thumb which are encoded in stories and memories of experiences.

It’s something that classical liberals and conservatives are not as skilled as their opponents at doing.

In Australia we have the vestiges of the Christian holy days of Christmas and Easter, but our only really national celebration with an ideological or spiritual tinge is Anzac Day (with Remembrance Day a lesser echo).

Australia Day is our other national day of celebration, but the left are trying to delegitimise it by moving it, or rebranding it as Invasion Day, or both.

As Christianity wains (and even defects), and postmodern Marxism advances, we need secular events that can tell us who we are and give us pride in ourselves as a culture and the advances that can only be achieved and maintained through valuing the dignity of individuals, and their inalienable rights.

So it is up to us to fill out the national calendar with significant days celebrating the history of progress, to be complemented by stories and educational material that help to make the principles real and tangible through story and example.

Look forward to celebrating the universal rights of man with you on August 1. To book, click here.

Regards,
GRAHAM YOUNG
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

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