Belief, Hypocrisy and Reason was the theme for our Global festival in September 2020. In the current issue of IAI News we are developing the theme and identifying the most persistent hypocrisies of the current time and asking whether belief and reason can rescue us from the chaos.

Reason has been at the centre of Western thought for centuries; relying on evidence and logic and striving for objectivity. But, in our post-truth age, we collect beliefs on a whim or as part of a tribe. Many are happy to hold contradictory views to suit temporary desires.

Is this a dangerous approach which threatens the coherence of our views and the stability of society as whole? Can we reassert reason to build a better society? Or is the enlightenment at an end, and, with it, a privileged class who defined logic to suit its world-view?

Think of some Western leaders in early 2020, greeting patients and calling on the exceptional character of their nations to defeat Covid-19. This was not exceptionalism, argues Lisa Bortolotti, but simple hypocrisy.

Without reason we can take the moral high ground while acting in immoral ways argues Kishore Mahbubani. Western morality is an industry, he maintains, rolled out in political pledges, university papers and think tank studies, while the USA’s use of torture persists, undermining it all. Reason force us to see realities we would rather ignore: Most Indians happily believe that caste has disappeared but Ashwini Deshpande uncovers a neo-caste system, subsisting in the data.