'Politeness constrains us': Massey lecturer Ian Williams on developing our own opinions amid cancel culture

Since 1961, the Massey Lectures have invited distinguished writers, thinkers and scholars to present their ideas in a five-part lecture series across Canada. Past lecturers have included the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Noam Chomsky and Margaret Atwood.

This year's Massey lecturer is the award-winning Canadian writer and professor Ian Williams, who has chosen to focus on the topic of conversations — more specifically, our inability to have them in an age of increasing polarization, cancel culture and emerging forms of online communication.

WATCH | Ian Williams's conversation with Q's Tom Power:

"We're living in a point now where we can barely talk to each other," Williams says in an interview with Q's Tom Power. "It seems really timely that we kind of step back and say, 'Why can't we talk to each other? How can we talk to each other? What do we need to talk about right now in 2024?'"

Williams's scholarly interest in conversations evolved naturally from his fascination with tone and voice, which he began studying two decades ago while earning his doctorate degree in English literature at the University of Toronto.

Since then, he's published several acclaimed books. His debut novel, Reproduction, won the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize (Canada's richest literary award for fiction) and in 2021 he published a collection of essays called Disorientation: Being Black in the World, which opens with a quote by the American writer and professor Audre Lorde.

The quote reads: "I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood."

Williams explains that he believes it's important to discuss taboo subjects, such as race or sexuality, even at the risk of offending people or saying the wrong thing.

The positions that we hold right now are not courageous positions — they're popular liberal positions.- Ian Williams

"What Audre Lorde is suggesting here is that even if people misunderstand you, even if you're going to get cancelled, even if you are saying the wrong thing, it's worth taking the risk to say it," says Williams.

"Typically, we think about courage as the act to say something, especially if that's something unpopular and to power. But I think, in fact, a number of the positions that we hold right now are not courageous positions — they're popular liberal positions and we have a whole army of supporters already at our back. They're positions that we could just step into without forming … and I wish that more of us would actually come to a point where we develop our opinions."

Courageous listening

While Willams stresses the importance of developing our own opinions, he says we shouldn't ignore or underestimate the power of listening. One of the necessary paradigm shifts he implores us to think about has to do with what he calls "courageous listening and courageous silence."

"I think we ought to realize that one half of our conversations is, in fact, listening," he says. "Is it courageous to speak or is it courageous to hold your peace … and not rush in to contradict them and prove your point, but to just listen graciously, to let it settle, to offer no comment or whatever and just let it be?"

From Williams's perspective, one of the threats to courageous listening is our inability to approach difficult conversations without an agenda. "[We need more] conversations without the intent to persuade and to convert," Williams says. "Just conversations for the sake of relating one human being to another."

The writer and professor adds that these conversations need to be happening on both a national level and domestically in our homes. 

"I think politeness constrains us and at the same time, without that politeness, we see what chaos breaks loose on social media," Williams says. "So what is the appropriate amount of social policing that we need to be decent and civil to each other?"

The full interview with Ian Williams is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Every year, the five Massey lectures are recorded on a cross-Canada tour. Details about the 2024 tour, including cities and ticket prices, will be available soon. Ian Williams's lectures will be published in book form by House of Anansi, available in early fall. As always, IDEAS will air the CBC Massey Lectures on CBC Radio One and as a podcast in November.

Interview with Ian Williams produced by Kaitlyn Swan.