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I, Object!

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Ian Hislop celebrates artefacts that show mankind's enduring desire to dissent.

Ian Hislop celebrates artefacts from the British Museum that show mankind's enduring desire to dissent.

I, Object!: Why Object?

Why Object?

30/08/2018

BBC Radio 4 - I, Object!, Why Object?

The last programme in Ian Hislop's series celebrating great works of sedition and dissent.

Ian Hislop concludes his series in conjunction with the British Museum celebrating sedition through the ages with a search for what motivates and drives dissent and dissenters.

Ian Hislop's series celebrating dissent and dissenters through the ages, made in partnership with the British Museum who are hosting an exhibition on the subject, turns to the question of what drives sedition. Is it a natural human desire to claim a space for ourselves, to be heard? Or is dissent inevitably a crusading desire to see right prevail? He talks to fellow contemporary dissenter Armando Iannucci, author and director of 'The Thick of It' and the recent film 'Death of Stalin' about what makes him continue to kick at authority figures and the systems that support them. They talk about the limited but necessary power of anger which also underpins one of Ian's favourite pieces from his British Museum exhibition, a forged banknote from 1819 by the artist Cruikshank. It pours bitter scorn on the government of the day and their policy of punishing forgery and handling with execution. But there's also gentler frustration that provoked an altogether more gentle dissent from composer Joseph Haydn in the form of his Farewell Symphony, intended to prompt his boss to release his fellow musicians from their protracted summer season. 
But at the heart of it all is the desire to leave a mark, however lowly one might be, and it is epitomised by the name scrawled on a Babylonian brick, placing the builder alongside the other name stamped on the brick, that of his king, Nebuchadnezzar. Ian is joined by Irving Finkel of the BM's Babylonian collection to celebrate the first version of the modern advertising mantra - 'Because I'm [You're] worth it!'.

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