Amor Mundi

The Dawn of Freedom

Roger Berkowitz
David Graeber’s books have become an increasingly important part of my intellectual life. His searching and restless exploration of what it means to live in freedom is at the forefront of his last and posthumously published book The Dawn of Everything, co-written with David Wengrow. Review by William Deresiewicz.

Thinking Less

Roger Berkowitz
In writing about one of the many recent efforts to de-platform a speaker because of that speaker’s political views, John McWhorter rightly emphasizes the anti-intellectual and simplistic arguments of those who justify such acts. 

 

What we are watching: The Closer

Roger Berkowitz
This week I screened Dave Chappelle’s The Closer for some of my students. It was optional. But I was heartened that they were eager to see the Netflix special that has generated so much controversy.

What we will be watching: Speer Goes to Hollywood

Join us for a live screening of the documentary Speer Goes to Hollywood, on Friday, October 29th at 7 pm. Roger Berkowitz will be leading a Q&A session with Vanessa Lapa and Tomer Eliav about the documentary about "Hitler's Architect" 

Revitalizing American Democracy

Roger Berkowitz
On Hannah Arendt’s 115th birthday on October 14th, the Hannah Arendt Center convened its Annual Fall Conference, Revitalizing Democracy: Sortition, Citizen Power, and Spaces of Freedom. The effort was to explore the movement for citizen assemblies from a wide plurality of perspectives from activists, artists, public intellectuals, business persons, and students. Watch a recording of the webcast here.

On the Removal of Bright Sheng

Roger Berkowitz
Professor Bright Sheng showed a movie of Othello in his music composition class at the University of Michigan. Because Laurence Olivier appears in blackface in the movie, students called for his removal and colleagues denounced him.

Totalitarian Domination Today

Roger Berkowitz
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute has issued a report “The Architecture of Repression: Unpacking Xinjiang's Governance.” What is going on in Xinjiang is the closest thing to a totalitarian movement in power that we see now in the world.

MIT Disinvites a Geophysicist

Roger Berkowitz
As Amor Mundi Readers know, I am a founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance. This week the Alliance sent a letter to MIT protesting the disinvitation of University of Chicago Professor Dorian Abbot. Professor Abbot had been invited to give a prestigious lecture in his specialty field of climate and planetary science.

The Meaning in Supporting Trump

Roger Berkowitz
Thomas B. Edsall looks at three in-depth voter surveys to ask why some people continue to support Donald Trump and still believe he won the last election.