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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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The Story of Reconciliation
Arie Amaya-Akkermans explores the sources of Arendt's indebtedness to storytelling.07-21-2014
When The Hell That Is War Loses Its Power
Roger Berkowitz discusses the Hell the Middle East is fast becoming and wonders, in a world where war has lost its power as a tool of statecraft, what new tools might ultimately be able to solve interstate disputes.07-19-2014
Video Archives - Free Speech Lecture Delivered by Zephyr Teachout (2012)
We recall a lecture delivered by Zephyr Teachout in 2012 in which she offers a historically and philosophically rooted critique of the practice of lobbying and the connection between the legal concepts of money, power, and speech in the American political system.07-17-2014
Amor Mundi 7/13/14
This week, we recognize the value of life projects such as filmmaker Richard Linklater's "Boyhood," wonder about the meaning of public art, and celebrate education as an introduction to wonder for young people.07-14-2014
Irony and Theodicy: Laughing out Loud about the Gravest of Moral Disorders
Scholar Michael Weinman discusses Arendt's use of the term "irony" in her report on the banality of evil.07-14-2014
The Unknown Within Ourselves
In this week's Weekend Read, we realize that our privacy is being lost not because technology can take it from us, but because we have forgotten why it is important in the first place.07-12-2014
Video Archives - Lunchtime Talk with Robert Pogue Harrison (2011)
In this week's Video Archive, we look back at our 2011 Lunchtime Talk with Professor Robert Pogue Harrison on the surprising pervasiveness of thought in our lives.07-10-2014
José Ortega y Gasset on Thinking
José Ortega y Gasset discusses the relationship between thought and survival in this week's Thoughts on Thinking.07-09-2014