Amor Mundi

Power to the Politicians

Roger Berkowitz
The voting reform agenda seems dead in Congress. One can argue about the quality of the two bills being proposed. And one can argue about the filibuster. Lawrence Lessig reminds us that the real problem is the untethered pursuit of partisan political power that has taken over our political system. 

The Classics for All

Roger Berkowitz
When Roosevelt Montas immigrated to the Bronx from the Dominican Republic, he found a copy of Plato’s Dialogues in a garbage dump and took it home. It changed his life. Thomas Chatterton Williams writes on the importance of the classics for the underprivileged.

Why A Mugging?

Roger Berkowitz
Adam Shatz, who has taught with me at Bard and spoken at Arendt Center Conferences and events, writes about his being assaulted, beaten up, and mugged in New York last month.

Gullibility and Cynicism

Roger Berkowitz
Rebecca Solnit asks why Republican voters keep believing the lies about the election told by Donald Trump. And to answer that question she turns to Hannah Arendt.

The Multiracial Anti-Woke Candidate

Roger Berkowitz
Simon van Zuylen-Wood has a profile of J.D. Vance that looks beyond the diatribes and tries to understand Vance’s evolution and his popular appeal. He argues that Vance represents an “alienated worldview” that appeals not only to disaffected white voters, but increasingly to multiracial working-class voters. 

American Values

Roger Berkowitz
Sabrina Tavernise does a deep dive into the way the pandemic has intensified a larger fight over what it means to be an American.

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Between Languages

Roger Berkowitz
When asked by Günter Gaus what was irretrievably lost when she had to flee the Nazis and leave Germany and Europe behind, Hannah Arendt answered: “The Europe of the pre-Hitler period? I do not long for that, I can tell you. What remains? The language remains.” In a profile of the writer Lydia Davis, Wyatt Mason dives into this question of how knowing many languages changes and enriches a writer.

The Nature of Totalitarianism

Listen to the great Jean-Luc Godard deliver a monologue from Hannah Arendt’s essay “The Nature of Totalitarianism.” 

Link to video