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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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Amor Mundi 8/31/14
In this week's Amor Mundi, we recognize the anti-totalitarian tones of Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon", ask how we can repair American public discourse, reflect on ways we can seek to understand and learn from history, and much more.09-01-2014
Alienation from the Cartesian Change in the Meaning of Truth
Scholar Richard Barrett discusses the transformation of truth and its beauty as a result of Galileo's invention of the telescope.09-01-2014
The Humanities and Common Sense
Roger Berkowitz observes the unnecessarily specialized nature of humanities scholarship in today's colleges and universities and offers some remarks on how this can be remedied.08-30-2014
Video Archives - "The Destiny of Freedom" Lecture by Philippe Nonet (2012)
In this week's Video Archives, we look back to Philippe Nonet's 2012 lecture at Bard College, "The Destiny of Freedom: From Kant to Heidegger."08-28-2014
The Spirit of Revolution
Roger Berkowitz emphasizes the need to restore spaces and possibilities for the experience of freedom, including in democratic states.08-25-2014
Amor Mundi 8/24/14
In this week's Amor Mundi, we recognize the continuing relevance of humanities in the university system, identify the emptiness and fear that motivates modern-day antisemitism and Islamophobia, reflect on the world that allowed the ISIS militant group to emerge, and much more.08-25-2014
Jacques Ranciere and Hannah Arendt on Democratic Politics
Roger Berkowitz discusses the nature of democracy in the modern world and compares Jacque's Ranciere's conceptualization of this "paradoxical politics" with that of Hannah Arendt.08-23-2014
Video Archives - Lunchtime Talk with Victor Granado Almena (2011)
In this week's Video Archives, we look back on a Lunchtime Talk with Victor Granado Almena on cosmopolitan citizenship in a global age.08-21-2014