Stephen Fry on Trump, the monarchy and Canada

I think it's time for this toxic binary zero-sum madness to stop before we destroy ourselves that was British comedian Stephen Fry in Toronto on Friday night speaking against political correctness in the high-profile Munk debate alongside Canada's polarizing professor Jordan Peterson some people may be surprised that a self-described liberal like Frey would take that position but he has his reasons and he gave them to our Susan ormiston in a conversation that covered a lot of ground Donald Trump the monarchy and why he's been working in Canada take a look Stephen Fry comedian and actor TV host podcaster we are working together advocate playwright all of that and more from Blackadder do things have laughs in my face I'm too old too crusty - host of Qi from West End - Broadway plays - documentaries Stephen Fry has carved out a unique place in British culture and increasingly in America but for the next two months he's taken up residence here in Canada at the Agora on the lake at the Shaw Festival he's taken his latest book and turned it into a trilogy of one-man shows exploring Greek mythology he visited us recently in Toronto to expound on the world according to Stephen Fry so greek mythology from your book mythos you're doing a world premiere here in canada at the SHA what are you hoping to draw out of the Greek myths and put on stage well first and foremost story I mean they are the most wonderful stories that I've ever heard and they are primal in their absolute their juice their excitement the fact that they're about people and they answer questions about why and how we are but always with the use of a story which i think is they don't lecture you they're not moral tales they don't say and this teaches you this although you can draw a moral from it if you want stephen fry fry doesn't preach from a moral high ground he has a healthy disdain for Autzen shoulds and political correctness I don't care what you call me it's how we treated that matters if the monk debates in Toronto he argued passionately with U of T professor Jordan Peterson that PC culture has gone too far political correctness resist fight if you have a point of view in the proper manner using democracies it should be not channels of education not language so what is it about PC that you don't like sanctimonious self-righteousness preach eNOS holier-than-thou earnest piety these are all things I've always hated when I was growing up you could argue that political correctness was not offending someone's religion by making a joke about it I'm not saying a particular word on television because it was considered rude and now it's a different set of things that is assumed to be viewed great but it's the same idea going all the way back to what is heresy and what isn't and I like to think that I'm an ordinary sort of person a contrarian if you like and that if I'd been brave enough in the 15th 16th century in Spain I I would have been a heretic just because I beheaded and yes of course the price of heresy was much higher than it is now price is heresy now is to be de platform door to to suffer a Twitter storm or something but my objection is simply that if you want to advance the causes that I would like to advance in terms of inclusion and diversity and equality for everyone in the nice fluffy gorgeous liberal way that I think about these things the wrong way to do it is to alienate those who are a little bit on the edge' not quite sure by telling them they're speaking wrong they're using the wrong language they can't talk like that you mustn't you can't damn you I will talk how I want to talk don't tell me how to talk don't censor me don't be a you know you can't be questioned you're not saying oh she knows you big that's why I'm on the same side in the debates or someone with whom I probably share very little to ask about Jordan Peterson very controversial yes his side what in what way do you align with you I didn't as far as I know with his views I'm simply approaching the debate according to its its proposition and the proposition is that the other side so you might say are saying political correctness is just a phrase meaning progress and I don't think that's right and what do you think about the price for some of those perhaps to some heretical comments Twitter storm is real for lots of people and you've been always an early adopter of technology you love the iPhone you said you'd never met a smartphone that you didn't but there's a big price these days what do you think of this whole community of social media and what it does to the fabric of our society and what it does to our capacity to think it's a really good series of questions there then that takes a bit of unpacking one of the ways I approach fun enough to come back to Greek myths when social media happened and began and I rushed on board very excited I thought you know this is it's all gifted this is the all gifted world in which connection information education art you know this is going to melt down barriers between people there'll be no more tribalism never not none of this sort of racist lady free on-site and in the Greek myths that the gods punish man by sending an all gifted woman and the Greek for gifted his Pandora and she came down with this jar that was she was told not to open but she couldn't resist and she opened the jar and out flu illness manslaughter murder disease want hardship and from having it been a paradise it seemed to become impossible but that's the world we live in a world full of ghastly problems and the same happened with the internet from having thought this is going to solve all our problems everyone could communicate with each other there'll be no misunderstandings everything will be wonderful suddenly one became aware that it was a Pandora's box that had opened them out flew trollers and all kinds of nasty been terrible grooming and all the horrors that have come out of it and one then things oh maybe it's just all worse now maybe it's terrible I think it's settling down and I don't think people are thinking less or have less cognitive skills or less ability to relate than they did 10 years ago 20 years ago 30 years ago I didn't get but you've said it's settling down it's settling down in America with the first real twitter president who uses that as personal tool you've talked a lot about Trump how do you see America today well it's terribly unfortunate but I do believe in the wheel of fortune I do things I think things turn it wasn't that long ago when it was built Clinton in America and Tony Blair and Britain and they were at the top of the wheel of fortune the Rocha for two knives the Romans calls it and now they're right at the bottom and in 10 years time I mean it sounds as if I'm not caring about the misery and the absurdity the vulgarity the gangster the gangster criminality and corruption of the Trump regime and all of that is unquestionable we all know it's true and people who don't are just being blind and foolish but it's also true that he is achieving what he set out to achieve and that the American economy is probably going to prosper enough for him to win the next election whether we like to hear it or not but isn't it your view that you think that the media for example and many others are giving him exactly what he needed of course they're I remember saying to someone's you know they used to say of Hitler that he was the most photographed man in history and I would say Trump is the most talked about man in history every single restaurant table every single bar room every single coffee shop conversation you could just hear the word tum tum tum tum tum well I said he's like he's the Trump below he's like a dr. Seuss character the more you say his name the bigger he gets all you have to do to defeat him is never mention his name just don't talk about of course because he makes money because he's clickbait because you see Trump says and you immediately press the click because you want to know what Trump said and that's our fault not his and particularly the fault of if I helped myself as a vaguely leftist which I do I don't see the rise of Trump or the rise of brexit in Britain I don't see them as a transfer to the right I see them as a failure of the left and that's about one of the reasons I think blue Christmas has some part to play in that Frye is fiercely British he admires the British monarchy and he's close to the royal family he considers Prince Charles a friend and it's reciprocated I think that probably Stephen I may be entirely wrong is really a writer who was added in in a rather you know rather like a Renaissance man the marriage of Megan and Harry he says reinforces the key to success of the Monarchs one of the remarkable things about the British royal family is its adaptability its ability to survive and on all variants preposterous it works terribly well now if if you imagine that Trump every week had to go up Capitol Hill to a sort of white colonial building in which Uncle Sam lived who was the embodiment of America and Trump had to bow to him so Tom wasn't the most important person in America this embodiment Uncle Sam meant more than he did it would just show him that he was the servant of his country and that's what a British Prime Minister has to do every week they have to go to the Queen and it just keeps the politicians in place because they've got this image this this personification of the entire country in its history a living flag if you like who goes around in a coach and it's kind of preposterous kind of yeah many would say it's completely old-school and well they're you know that's like that's like political correctness should there are notions I think if it works it's very foolish to get rid of it even if it's unreasonable Stephen it's no wonder Prince Charles thinks that you're in I know I'm fully aware of how preposterous disease and you're quite right it is but it works it works for us it it adds to the gaiety of nation and just make and bring an interesting dimension I mean it's also reflection on changes you know it's not just like oh I suppose we better allow it it's kind of everyone is thrilled for an injection of new blood just in the sense of a new attitude a new generation or a new new way of looking at things and I think that is what I meant about the adaptability of the earth I mean it just somehow always seemed to catch and it's in Italy always the women I mean our best monarchs have been Queen Elizabeth first and queen victoria and queen elizabeth ii by far it's clearly maybe we should only have a queen rather than king

Channel: CBC News: The National

Views: 1,920,224

Keywords: Stephen Fry, Trump, the monarchy, Canada, British comedian, Donald Trump, British monarchy, working in Canada, CBC, Susan Ormiston, The National

Id: rJOMYEXK6cs

Length: 11min 35sec (695 seconds)

Published: Mon May 21 2018