Nick Cave shares his New Year’s Resolution

nme.com:

Nick Cave has shared his New Year’s Resolution for 2024 in a new post on his Red Hand File website.In the new post, Cave answered two questions, one asking if he had a New Year’s Resolution for 2024, and another which asked: “Could you point out three single words that you like the most and explain why?”He responded: “Three of my favourite words, and ones I find myself using more and more these days, are ‘Having said that’.

I am also fond of saying ‘On the other hand’, and Seán O’Hagan tells me that the word I use most in our book, Faith, Hope and Carnage, is ‘However’.“I like all of these phrases because they acknowledge one point of view but also tender another, they preface the presentation of a stabilising counterargument.

This is something not much liked in our contemporary culture, it is unpopular on social media that trades primarily in a currency of performative moral outrage. ‘Having said that’ is the bothersome and deflating enemy of polarisation, self-righteousness, intolerance and hubris.”Cave went on: “But as the world divides into its various factions, these are words that are increasingly important.

Difficult as it can be, I try my best to apply them by questioning my own thoughts – what actually is the argument from the other side?