On June 8th the Byline Times team and a panel of distinguished guests will dive into the slippery notion of hope.

On the one hand, genuine hope is potent. It endowed us with representative democracy, women’s liberation, the welfare state, and even the weekend. Hope gives ordinary people the courage to organise, resist and imagine something better, even in dark or uncertain times. Without it, political progress of any kind becomes impossible.

But on the other hand, false hope has always been ripe for exploitation. Entire political and media industries now trade in nostalgic fantasies and silver-bullet solutions: the promise that complex social problems can be solved by returning to some mythologised past, punishing the right scapegoat, or placing faith in strongmen.

The need for hope itself is profoundly human. But how do we distinguish between hope that liberates and hope that manipulates?

We hope you’ll join us on June 8 at The Cockpit for an interactive, open, and thought-provoking evening – and an opportunity for follow-up chats at the bar afterwards.