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Get Back to Laboring

Roger Berkowitz
Governments and businesses are telling people to get back to work. Lyndsey Stonebridge notes that what what they really are saying is to get back to the business of laboring. The distinction between work and labor is central to Hannah Arendt’s thinking about the human condition.

Communities of Trust

Roger Berkowitz
In a Senate hearing this week, Senator Rand Paul called for humility and warned that Dr. Anthony Fauci was not the “end all” in predicting the course of the Coronavirus. In response, Dr. Fauci reminded Senator Paul—who is also a doctor—that he had never made himself to be an “end all.” “I am a scientist, a physician, and a public health official. I give advice according to the best scientific evidence...

Loneliness and the Loss of the Common World

Roger Berkowitz
Until recently, I had not left my apartment for 33 days. I did not touch another human being—not even the members of my family with whom I live—for  even longer. The virus has been mild in my case. It is nearly gone. Physically, I am fine. I am one of the lucky ones; I never had to make a decision whether to go to a hospital, alone, not knowing whether I would see family and friends ever again.

Listen to the Experts?

Roger Berkowitz
Over and again we hear the refrain: “Listen to the experts.” Amidst a crisis that has witnessed a disastrous response from President Trump and  the federal government and from many states and cities—Mayor Bill DeBlasio has been particularly inept causing untold misery for New Yorkers like myself—there is a desire to have the experts guide us. 

Solidarity

Roger Berkowitz
When Li Wenliang saw the danger posed by the Corona Virus and tried to sound the alarm, he was forced to remain silent by the Chinese police. Dr. Li died from Covid 19, alongside thousands of others in Wuhan. During this time as the world learned of the ravages of the virus first in China and then in Italy, the United States refused to act to protect its citizens. With no national plan, no national testing strategy, no effort to acquire supplies, and no leadership...

The Triumph of Cynicism

Roger Berkowitz
Jane Mayer’s profile of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offers essential political insight into our times. One of the mysteries of the phenomenon that is Donald Trump is his capacity to lead a successful mass political movement without any obvious political beliefs or ideology. President Trump seems to have loyalty to few causes outside of himself and his own interests. What President Trump cares about, above all, is winning...

The Threat to the Republic

By Roger Berkowitz
In March, 2017, I published an essay “Why Arendt Matters” about the newly inaugurated President Trump. I wrote that, “Common sense insists that we not abandon reality and imagine that the United States is experiencing totalitarianism.” I argued that while the President was leading a mass movement, and that while mass movements are at the core of totalitarian domination, it is also the case that not all mass movements are totalitarian.

In Memoriam: Dora Amelan

We at the Hannah Arendt Center mourn the death of Dora Amelan (1920-2020). Dora was a remarkable French Jewish woman who worked with the Children’s Aid Society in the French internment camps during WWII, saving many children and adults. Dora was the mother of Bjorn Amelan and mother-in-law to his partner Bill T. Jones, who has long collaborated with the Hannah Arendt Center and Bard College. Dora passed away this week in Paris, from complications associated with Covid-19. 

The Erosion of the Common World

Roger Berkowitz
It has become common sense that President Trump lies. Once again there are countless articles and Twitter feeds and video compilations showing that the President has lied, stated falsehoods, and denied having said what he said. And yet through it all, the President’s popularity rating is soaring.