Featured Article
A Carnival of Destruction
The elite's complicity in mass movements lies in their thrill at unmasking societal hypocrisy, yet this descent into shamelessness fuels a carnival of destruction that empowers mob rule. Straddling the line between boldness and brazen disregard, figures like Trump and Musk embody the seductive but corrosive allure of totalitarian nihilism.All Categories
Hate
By Roger BerkowitzI am a few years older than Matt Taibbi, but it turns out we both share an encounter with Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman’s Manufacturing Consent as a formative experience in our encounter with worlds of politics and journalism.
Tough Talk: They Mistook a Backlash for a Movement: Black Men and the Doom of Western Civilization
This talk was presented as a part of The Hannah Arendt Center's Tough Talk Lecture Series, organized by Bard student Mark Williams, Jr.. Introductions by Roger Berkowitz, Director and Founder of the Hannah Arendt Center, and Mark Williams, Jr.. Discussion moderated by Bard alum, Dana Miranda '14.Fear of Fascism
By Samantha HillJacob Mikanowski profiles Timothy Snyder for The Chronicle Review. Snyder is a historian of the Holocaust and professor at Yale University. His new work, The Road to Unfreedom, chronicles the rise of authoritarianism today.
The Microbiome
By Roger BerkowitzMatt Richtel and Andrew Jacobs report on one of the greatest threats to our way of life, the rise of bacteria and fungi that are impervious to medications. The culprit, as with so much in our modern health and environmental crises, is the overuse of antibiotics and antifungal medications in farming.
Secrets and Sins
By Roger BerkowitzThe New York Times is running a series of articles on privacy called the Privacy Project. James Martin has an excellent essay on the double way that privacy is addressed in the Bible.
Spotlight on The Campus Plurality Project
“Only in the freedom of our speaking with one another does the world, as that about which we speak, emerge in its objectivity and visibility from all sides.” —Hannah ArendtShould Activists Use Violence to Create Social Change?
By Micah WhiteIn a 1967, Hannah Arendt had a discussion with Noam Chomsky and other prominent antiwar movement intellectuals on “The Legitimacy of Violence as a Political Act?” Their chat was recorded and published in an obscure volume on “Dissent, Power, and Confrontation.”
Courage to Be Student Essay: Livy Marie Donahue on Deogratias Niyizonkiza
By Livy Marie DonahueDeogratias Niyizonkiza visited Bard College on March 4th, as the second speaker of the 2019
Courage to Be lecture series.
No Crisis, But a Danger
By Roger BerkowitzThe folks at PEN ask, is there a crisis of free speech on college campuses. And once again, they answer “no.”