Nick Cave revealed his New Year’s resolution for 2024 in a new post on his “Red Hand File website published. His plan for the year aims to counteract social media culture, which “trades primarily in a currency of performative moral outrage.” He would like to approach this issue with “more openness and understanding for other points of view.”
Question and answer session in the blog
In the new post, Cave answered two user questions. One person wants to know if he had a New Year’s resolution for 2024, and another: “Could you name three single words that you like the most and explain why?”
Cave responds: “Three of my favorite words that I use more and more these days are ‘However’. I also like to say ‘On the other hand’, and Seán O’Hagan (Author) tells me that the word I use most often in our book ‘Faith, Hope and Carnage’ is ‘however’.
“This is something that is not very popular in our culture today”
To explain his choice, he continues: “I like all of these sentences because they acknowledge one point of view but also present another, they introduce the presentation of a stabilizing counter-argument. This is something that is not very popular in our culture today, it is unpopular on social media, which primarily trades in a currency of performative moral outrage. ‘However’ is the annoying and debilitating enemy of polarization, self-righteousness, intolerance and arrogance.”
For the musician, these three words have become increasingly important – and he always tries his “best to apply them by questioning my own thoughts: What is the other side’s argument?”
“And that’s why my resolution for the coming year is, as best I can, to be more open-minded and understanding of other viewpoints.”