Library Talks

Author: The New York Public Library

Join The New York Public Library and your favorite writers, artists, and thinkers for smart talks and provocative conversations from the nation's cultural capital.
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Language: en

Genres: Education, News

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Fintan O'Toole: The Idiocy of Greatness
Wednesday, 22 April, 2026

In this episode of Library Talks, the acclaimed Irish writer, Fintan O'Toole, delivers the annual Robert B. Silvers lecture. The idea of greatness has infused politics across much of the globe in the last decade, from Brexit to Donald Trump's MAGA movement. In this lecture, Fintan O'Toole suggests why greatness is, after all, not so great: it is in thrall to an imagined past, it generates a constant state of disappointment, and it drains energy away from the achievement of ordinary decency.