On Trump, McConnell, Pelosi and Company This essay was originally posted on July 31 2019. “I believe the single most pressing challenge facing American society today is widespread public cynicism.” With these words, I opened my book The Cynical Society, published in 1991. I was deeply concerned by the interaction between the cynicism of politicians, on the one hand, and the cynicism of the media and commentators, including social …
Tyrannies always collapse, but whether Hungarians will escape with their sanity and sufficient clarity for a new start remains to be seen This is an abridgment of an essay published in Social Research, Vol. 86, No. 1, Spring 2019. As the Bible (Exodus) teaches and, more recently, Hannah Arendt warns, liberation is not yet liberty. The institutions of liberty must first be constituted, and people need to learn how to …
Only we can save ourselves “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”– William Faulkner Donald Trump has decided to make this year’s July Fourth his own, complete with a nationally televised address in front of the Lincoln Memorial backed by a display of military force. As the Washington Post reports, “plans by President Trump to reshape Washington’s Independence Day celebration now include an area in front …
On the 2020 Election / Against Ideology This essay, the third in a series against ideology (for earlier ones see here and here), considers the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination in the U.S.. In it, I reflect upon the prospects for the continuing struggle for democracy in America, for American democracy as an incomplete project, as Habermas might put it. I hope Elizabeth Warren will be the next President of the United …
Brazilians are fighting to maintain their public universities Brazil’s democracy is on the edge of an abyss. Its new far-right government has begun an attack, first against humanities, sociology, and philosophy, and then on Brazil’s Public Universities. First it was said that Philosophy and Sociology Programs should be defunded. Then, the government announced a 30% cut in the budget of three Universities, mine included, citing ideological bias. Eventually, …
Lessons from Poland on the role of elections Thirty years ago on June 4th, 1989, Communism ended in Poland. In this post, Jim Bjork (KCL) argues that what made the end of authoritarian rule in Poland a success story was not an expression of unitary national will but rather an ability to navigate conflicts and accommodate different interests over time. Reflection on the power and the limits of plebiscitary approaches …
The US will quickly become a different society — one resembling communist-era Romania Across the United States, Republican-controlled legislatures are outlawing abortion, with the hope of bringing the issue before a sympathetic Supreme Court. If they succeed in revoking women’s reproductive rights, the US will quickly become a different society — one resembling communist-era Romania. “It was a horrible time,” recounts one Romanian gynecologist, referring to the period between 1966 …
Defeating Trump Politically Part 8 Note: The piece below is a critical response to a recent piece published in Jacobin, the widely-read publication that bills itself as “a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture. The print magazine is released quarterly and reaches over 30,000 subscribers, in addition to a web audience of 1,00,000 a month.” I hoped to publish it …
Goodbye Gray Friday, joining Democracy Seminar 2.0 Ideology undermines democracy. It was the cultural foundation of the horrors of the 20th century, as Hannah Arendt highlighted in the final chapter of The Origins in Totalitarianism, “Ideology and Terror.” I believe, this pernicious form of political culture continues to damage our public life. Yet, I have had a hard time convincing most of you: readers, colleagues, students and friends, especially those …
The Orbán regime is clearly not democratic This essay was originally published on March 5 2019. There is no democracy in Hungary anymore. If you have a hegemonic party that has gained a constitution-making majority in the parliament three times in a row, in increasingly rigged elections, one does not have a democracy. If the power of all major independent institutions is curtailed, or they are led by …
