A conference is one of the settings where the market for ideas finds its expression. If a group of Portuguese people were to organize a conference on some topic, say the European Union, their first thought would be to invite the President of the EU Commission or some other high-ranking EU official to preside at the conference. If they were to succeed at this, success of the conference would be granted. Successful conferences in Portugal - as in any other Catholic country -, in the sense of conferences that attract a large number of people are always presided by an authority (prime-minister, President, minister, secretary-of-state, etc).
If, on the other hand, the same people were to organize a conference about the EU or about the most interesting scientific or social topic of the day but were unable to secure the presence of an authority (at least a secretary-of-state) to preside over the conference, nobody would show up and the conference would turn into a fiasco.
It should be rather obvious that this cultural habit of inviting authorities to preside at conferences, and making their presence the pre-requisite of the conferences' success prevents all participants who depart from the current orthodoxy on the conference's topic to affirmatively express their views.
Suppose, indeed, that in a conference on EU policy presided by the President of the European Commission one person rises from the audience and produces a devastating critique on EU policy. This herectic - for, it should be recalled, it is herectics that Catholic societies fear most - would be seen by the rest of the audience, not to mention the speakers and the conference organizers, as a troublemaker and everybody would look down on him and would call him names.
If, on the other hand, the same people were to organize a conference about the EU or about the most interesting scientific or social topic of the day but were unable to secure the presence of an authority (at least a secretary-of-state) to preside over the conference, nobody would show up and the conference would turn into a fiasco.
It should be rather obvious that this cultural habit of inviting authorities to preside at conferences, and making their presence the pre-requisite of the conferences' success prevents all participants who depart from the current orthodoxy on the conference's topic to affirmatively express their views.
Suppose, indeed, that in a conference on EU policy presided by the President of the European Commission one person rises from the audience and produces a devastating critique on EU policy. This herectic - for, it should be recalled, it is herectics that Catholic societies fear most - would be seen by the rest of the audience, not to mention the speakers and the conference organizers, as a troublemaker and everybody would look down on him and would call him names.
.
Thus, in Portugal successful conferences cannot be other than a sequence of speeches on prevailing orthodoxy, immensely dumb events where orthodoxies are reiterated over and over again. They turn up to be mostly social events where people often use the presence of the authority to do some lobbying. It is in this sense that I have already christened Portuguese conferences as being mostly conferências do bacalhau (for the Portuguese hand-shaking) which people attend just to shake hands with important people.
As for the free discussion of ideas, there is nothing of the sort in Portuguese conferences. The free market for ideas does not work in a conference setting. And yet, in Protestant countries it is in this setting that it finds one of its most valuable expressions.
Thus, in Portugal successful conferences cannot be other than a sequence of speeches on prevailing orthodoxy, immensely dumb events where orthodoxies are reiterated over and over again. They turn up to be mostly social events where people often use the presence of the authority to do some lobbying. It is in this sense that I have already christened Portuguese conferences as being mostly conferências do bacalhau (for the Portuguese hand-shaking) which people attend just to shake hands with important people.
As for the free discussion of ideas, there is nothing of the sort in Portuguese conferences. The free market for ideas does not work in a conference setting. And yet, in Protestant countries it is in this setting that it finds one of its most valuable expressions.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário