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.All Categories
The Danger in a Second Trump Presidency
Trump’s behavior threatens democracy not by outright authoritarianism but by subtly eroding trust and truth, undermining public faith in institutions and factual reality. This destabilizes democratic values from within, fostering a cynicism that weakens accountability and leaves democracy vulnerable to decay.Tribalism & Cosmopolitanism
A talk given by Roger Berkowitz at “Tribalism and Cosmopolitanism: How Can We Imagine a Pluralist Politics.” Sponsored by the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College.Real on Some Deeper Level
Hannah Arendt analyzed racism and antisemitism as secular ideologies that use minorities as scapegoats for societal problems, with antisemitism especially rooted in hatred toward the state. Modern antisemitism, on both the right and left, reflects ideological hatred tied to conspiracy theories, distrust of government, and narratives of state corruption, contributing to rising hostility toward marginalized groups.Get Ready for the Arendt Center Confernce!
Roger Berkowitz, Lyndsey Stonebridge, and Uday Mehta joined WAMC Northeast Public Radio's The Roundtable to discuss some of the topics we’ll be delving into at our 16th annual fall conference on Tribalism and Cosmpolitanism this Thursday and Friday!Another Cosmopolitanism
Roger Berkowitz explores Seyla Benhabib’s critique of Hannah Arendt’s skepticism regarding the idea of an International Criminal Court. Benhabib proposes a vision of cosmopolitan justice that transcends national boundaries, asserting that global norms should apply to individuals within a worldwide civil society. This perspective highlights the ongoing tension between global cosmopolitan ideals and the preservation of local, bounded communities, advocating for a dynamic balance between the two.Intellectuals Running the Institutions
In an interview on the Quillette Podcast, Zoe Booth speaks with Roger Berkowitz about Hannah Arendt's views on the dangers of intellectuals in politics, her skepticism of metaphysical truths, and her belief that political and moral truths emerge through conversation in a shared world rather than being objective.Action and the materiality of story
Arendt notes that the “hero” in the Homeric sense is not the seemingly “heroic,” but the free participant, “about whom a story could be told.” My research is concerned not only with these actions of free beings, but the way in which they have been archived. The production of stories in the movement for housing justice has led to a brilliant mixture of strategies and aesthetic practices for the recording, reworking, and preservation of stories.