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Temptations of Tyranny
Rod Dreher’s conflicted support for President Trump illustrates a broader crisis among intellectual conservatives who fear the "soft totalitarianism" of liberal institutions yet embrace the hard authoritarianism of executive overreach. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s political thought, the essay contends that true freedom is preserved not through charismatic leaders but through the multiplication and decentralization of citizen power. Revitalizing democracy, it argues, requires stubborn, local acts of collective governance rather than the dangerous temptation to concentrate authority in a single figure.04-27-2025
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Democracy Amidst the Loss of Public Trust
This year, a widespread feeling of disempowerment and anger has mobilized mostly right-wing and nationalist populist movements. In addition, there is the coming-of-age of a new and potentially volcanic new technology that has the potential to wreak havoc with the effort to maintain an informed and rational public sphere. As John Ellis writes, the age of video and audio deep fake technology threatens to radically undermine the coherence of a trustworthy public sphere.02-11-2024
The Truth Dies When Journalism Dies
Sebastian Junger, who will be giving the keynote address at the Hannah Arendt Center’s 2024 Conference on Tribalism and Cosmopolitanism, has recently written: “Journalism is important because reality is important, and reality is something that many generals and politicians have a complicated relationship with.” When journalism dies, Junger argues, “The truth dies with it.”02-03-2024
Thinking Everything the Worst
The Hannah Arendt Center’s Virtual Reading Group will be finishing our reading of The Origins of Totalitarianism on February 16th and 24th with discussions of the famous Epilogue to the book, "Ideology and Terror." In this epilogue, Arendt argues that the fundamental ground for the rise of totalitarianism is prepared by a specifically modern form of loneliness. In preparation, it would be good to read Lee Siegel’s reflections on American loneliness.02-03-2024
Thickheaded Evil
Jonathan Cape focuses on how Lyndsey Stonebridge describes the banality of evil, Hannah Arendt’s attempt to understand Adolf Eichmann’s kind of evil, what allowed him to become a key participant in the extermination of six million Jews. The Hannah Arendt Center Virtual Reading Group will begin reading Eichmann in Jerusalem in March. You can view the schedule here.02-03-2024
American Jewish Peace Archive: Simone Zimmerman
In lieu of the ongoing war in Gaza, HAC has decided to publish excerpts from the American Jewish Peace Archive — a project of activist and oral historian, Aliza Becker, that is sponsored by the Center. Today, we are sharing an excerpt from activist Simone Zimmerman, who is one of the founders of the organization, IfNotNow. Zimmerman shares the powerful story of how she shifted from a staunch defender of Israeli policy to one of the leading Jewish advocates for Palestinians.02-03-2024
The Looming Biden-Trump Rematch
"Deep divisions in the United States are not new; indeed, they can be traced back to the Constitutional Convention and the days of John Adams versus Thomas Jefferson. But according to some scholars, they have rarely reached the levels seen today, when Red and Blue Americas are moving farther and farther apart geographically, philosophically, financially, educationally and informationally."01-27-2024
"The Zone Of Interest"/The Banality of Evil
Alissa Wilkinson reviews the new Jonathan Glazer film, The Zone of Interest, which is a full-on exploration of Hannah Arendt’s thinking around the banality of evil. Wilkinson writes, "In The Zone of Interest, characters don’t talk about murder or genocide, [and their] internal distance through the movie’s images and sounds. The result is unsettling in the extreme . . . the nauseating shock packs a stronger punch than any horror movie I’ve seen this year."01-27-2024
Our Crisis of Disempowerment
Phillip K. Howard offers an Arendtian understanding of our current predicament, based on the phenomenon of disempowerment. As Arendt famously wrote, “Bureaucracy is the form of government in which everybody is deprived of political freedom, of the power to act; for the rule of Nobody is not no-rule, and where all are equally powerless we have a tyranny without a tyrant.”01-27-2024
American Jewish Peace Archive: An Interview with Arthur Samuelson
HAC is proud to sponsor The American Jewish Peace Archive, a repository of interviews with U.S. and Israeli Jews who have advocated for self-determination for Jews and Palestinians. Organized by oral historian Aliza Becker, the Archive seeks to explore the diversity of Jewish thought on Israel. Today, we share an excerpt from a conversation with Arthur Samuelson, who served as Assistant Editor for the Israeli peace magazine New Outlook in the mid '70s.01-20-2024