Amor Mundi

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

 

Literally Unmentionable 

Roger Berkowitz
Professor David Bleich of the University of Rochester has been suspended from teaching because he spoke aloud the n-word while reading from a short story. 

Thinking is Out of Order

Roger Berkowitz
In her last book The Life of the Mind, Hannah Arendt writes that “thinking is out of order.” Thinking frees us from the world of appearances and allows us to think things beyond our common sense that we share with others. In this way, thinking is not about the pursuit of truth but it is, Arendt argues, about the pursuit of meaning. Thomas Bartscherer meditates on Arendt’s characterization of thinking as out of order.

The Catherine Project

Roger Berkowitz
Scott Samuelson reports on his experience teaching the humanities for free with the Catherine Project, named for “Catherine of Alexandria, the scholar who refuted the crusty academics who’d been hired to refute her—and then suffered an ancient form of cancellation.”