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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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Arendt in Russia
Roger BerkowitzAfter Donald Trump was elected in 2016, sale of Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism skyrocketed. Now, in Russia, both The Origins and Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem, are in high demand yet only available in private classifieds.
06-05-2022
What we are listening to:
The Invention of Citizens' Juries with Ned Crosby and Pat Benn
Philip LindsayNed Crosby, American inventor of the "Citizens' Jury" process, passed away this past week. On her podcast Facilitating Public Deliberations, Professor Lyn Carson interviewed Crosby and Pat Benn on the contemporary history and philosophy behind the concept. Curiously, the process of bringing together randomly selected citizens to deliberate policy emerged in the U.S. and Germany almost simultaneously. Both of the American organizations which will be leading workshops at the Hannah Arendt Center's July Workshop on Citizens' Assemblies have their roots in Crosby's work.
06-05-2022
The Sanctimonious Hypocrites
Roger BerkowitzI wrote about the free-speech case against Princeton Professor Joshua Katz two weeks ago. Now Katz has been fired from his tenure-track position not for his criticisms of colleagues, but for not cooperating with an investigation into a consensual relationship he had with a student nearly two decades ago. Katz’s wife Solveig Lucia Gold writes about her husband and how she has lost all faith in Princeton and Universities.
05-29-2022
The Fountain of Eternal Youth
Roger BerkowitzWilliam Deresiewicz argues that the “young progressive elite” has traded independence and critical thinking for an immaturity that submits to authorities. The result, he argues, is a stunted development for many of the best and brightest young people in the country.
05-29-2022
Russian Fascism
Roger BerkowitzTimothy Snyder explains how Russia is a fascist state today and why that matters.
05-29-2022
Jerry Kohn, Doctor of Humane Letters
Roger BerkowitzI was fortunate enough to be gifted the opportunity to award Jerry Kohn an honorary degree in Humane Letters yesterday at the 2022 Bard College Commencement. There is no one more deserving of a degree in humanity and letters than is Jerry and it was a special day. Here is the commendation I wrote.
05-29-2022
The Ukrainian Twitter Wars in Africa
Roger BerkowitzThere is a certain overconfidence in the circles I frequent that the world is against Russia and for Ukraine and Nato. But more than half the world is tacitly or explicitly supporting Russia in its war with Ukraine. The Economist looks at the Russian propaganda campaign aimed at non-western countries in Africa and Asia.
05-22-2022
Making Distinctions in Thinking About Racism
Roger BerkowitzHannah Arendt is a thinker who insists that we make distinctions. One of Arendt’s most controversial distinctions is that between racism and what she alternatively will call “race thinking” in The Origins of Totalitarianism, and then "prejudice" in many of her later essays. In the wake of the shooting in Buffalo last week, John McWhorter made his own distinctions while trying to understand the place of racism in U.S. society. McWhorter argues that we use the word racism today to mean too many things. He states that we need to distinguish between different aspects of what we call racism in order to think more clearly about the problems and prevent such tragedies as the shooting in Buffalo.
05-22-2022
Academic Freedom vs. Free Speech
Roger BerkowitzWendy Brown is interviewed by David Marchese about the politics of speech codes, wokeness, and academic freedom on college campuses.
05-15-2022