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A Bulwark Against the Cult of Power
Amid a backdrop of declining religious affiliation, an unexpected spiritual awakening is taking hold among intellectuals who once upheld rationalism as the ultimate guide. Figures like Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Matthew Crawford are turning to faith, seeking meaning and transcendence in response to the profound fractures of modern society.Articles
The Web of Deception
Last week I wrote about the flight from reality evident in Donald Trump’s lascivious lying and the code of silence and delusion by the President’s inner circle surrounding Joe Biden’s mental health. It is now obvious, as more information comes out, that there has been a conspiracy afoot for nearly a year to conceal the seriousness of Biden’s mental decline from the American people.What we're listening to: Victims, Villians, and Settler Colonialism
Mike Cosper explores why the West requires Israel to play by different rules when it comes to defense and modern warfare."Mafioso Politics"
Roger BerkowitzHannah Arendt insists that we look reality in the face and seek to understand even what is most strange, difficult, and horrific. In a new essay, Timothy Snyder analyzes the context of how Trump is seeking to normalize criminality and violence. Snyder’s essay reminds us of Arendt’s worry in her final essay, that “Public opinion is dangerously inclined to condone not crime in the streets but all political transgressions short of murder.”
Chilling Pro-Palestinian Speech
Eyal Press, has written about my Bard College colleague and collaborator, Ken Stern, who has become a critic of the chilling effect of using the the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (I.H.R.A.) definition of antisemitism to shut down criticism of Israel on college campuses. Stern was one of the original creators of the definition, which was intended to help quantify incidences of antisemitism. But he has always opposed the use of the definition to shut down or regulate speech.The End of The Golden Age
Franklin Foer has an essay arguing that “The Golden Age of American Jews is Ending.” What Foer calls the Golden Age was not only good for Jews; the emergence of Jewish-Americans helped define a new American liberalism, one the shed the assimilationist metaphor of the melting pot for the hyphenated-identity of the mosaic. But that Golden Age is ending. Antisemitism, once relegated to the fringes of American society, is back with a vengeance.A Non-Ideological Thinking
Roger BerkowitzIn a speech at The Federalist Society last week, Bari Weiss points out the many similarities between what happened in Israel on October 7, and what happened in New York City and Washington DC. on September 11, 2001.
Friendship. Politics, and Human Meaningfulness
Roger BerkowitzIn the wake of the Alpine Fellowship on Human Flourishing in Fjallnas, Sweden last week, I’ve been reading Lisa Miller’s book The Awakened Brain. Miller makes what my daughter says is an obvious argument, that mental illness and especially depression and anxiety can be prevented and also helped by having a rich spiritual and inner life. Hannah Arendt isn’t mentioned in Miller’s book, but the fundamental idea underlying Miller’s work is the Arendtian worry about the loss of meaningfulness, the absence of purpose, and the feeling of abandonment that has become widespread in the modern world.
The Power of Past Prejudices
Roger BerkowitzWolfram Eilenberger finds in Hannah Arendt’s encounter with Rahel Varnhagen a paradox between the rational individual and the power of past prejudices.