Posts

Reactionism

Andrew Sullivan rightly sees that we are in the grip of reactionism, not conservatism. Reactionism is not simply about hatred or racism. It is illiberal, yes, but an indignant rejection of the status quo. 

An Open Letter Addressing the May 3rd Living Room Conversation, From Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College

An Open Letter Addressing the May 3rd Living Room Conversation, From Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College

You Are Not An Experience

Ulrich Baer argues that the so-called "liberal snowflakes" are actually right, that free speech should be sacrificed in the name of securing the legitimacy of personal experience. He is mistaken, but worth taking seriously. 

To Think What We Have Done

Alex Cocotas worries about the culture of Holocaust memorialization.

The World At Stake

Lacino Hamiltion argues that Black Lives Matter is transforming from a protest movement into a political movement.

Butterflies and Bees

Ralph Benko offers a fascinating metaphor of the Bees and the Butterflies that helps explain the political divide in the United States.

Listening And The Lecture

Miya Tokumitsu offers a defense of the much maligned university lecture. The attack on the lecture—that is passive learning and offers one-size-fits-all education—should not be true.

The Honor System

In an interview with Michael Judge, Garry Kasparov elaborates on his off-the-cuff remark that Donald Trump's press conference resembled a Soviet press conference.

Hannah Arendt on Totalitarianism

Roger Berkowitz has been teaching a semester-long course on Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism for more than a decade. He is currently leading the Hannah Arendt Center's Virtual Reading Group sessions on the book. In a long essay in The Los Angeles Review of Books, Berkowitz argues that Arendt's brilliant insights into totalitarian movements is an essential guide to today's political world.