These are uneasy times. As the LIP#1 goes to print, we cannot help but wonder if our leaders are deciding we ought rather to go to war. Nothing concentrates the mind quite like the threat of intra-planetary conflict. Those of us who take a global-minded approach to current affairs – and whom of our generation would admit otherwise? – find little cause for optimism in today’s climate of geopolitics.
The Level Information Project was conceived to provide a defiantly pro-multicultural platform for students across the country and beyond, to engage in an ongoing debate on what it means to live in an increasingly ‘globalised’ world. As always, the cutting edge of student writing is presented alongside contributions from more established writers and cultural critics. The result is an inspirational cacophony of voices and perspectives – often contradictory, always contentious.
You will find our pages filled with comment and criticism from the world of art, and the world of politics. It is our firm contention that cultures are both formed and informed by a web of artistic and political influences, and that any serious attempt at their extrication is dishonest at worst, futile at best.
If support for multiculturalism is to mean more than travelling abroad or listening to rap records, it is vital we do not flinch from addressing the difficult questions that arise in our contemporary context. The overwhelming number of submissions we received ahead of this, our launch issue, suggests we are supported by a great reservoir of like-minded others.
If multiculturalism is, as Hanif Kureishi suggests, ‘the idea that one might be changed by other ideas’ then the application of this project is infinite. We are only just beginning.