This conversation about language, truth, lies, and political discourse in contemporary America will take place in the aftermath of a Presidential election in which a leading candidate asserts he will only accept the results if he wins. That candidate continues to deny his defeat in the last election, and, according to the Washington Post, set a blistering record of over 30,000 lies while President. Such lies resulted in a violent riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, that killed five, injured over 100 police officers, and resulted in the arrests of more than 1,400 people.
Big lies, doubts about election integrity, and violent assaults on democratic institutions are characteristics of authoritarian states. To wrestle more thoughtfully with our democracy’s brush with these tendencies, we will hearken back to two writers who made deep studies of classic authoritarianism: Hannah Arendt and George Orwell. A German Jew, Arendt fled Nazi Germany at age 27 and devoted her career to studying how democracies succumb to autocracy; Orwell wrote out of his experience with British colonialism, Soviet Communism, the Spanish Civil War, Nazism, and World War Two about how the political distortion of truth lames societies. What can we learn from these great minds who lived through democratic crises and authoritarian regimes to better understand our own moment? Join us, and find out!
Chris Doyle teaches at Avon Old Farms School. He holds a doctorate in history and has published scholarship on slavery, politics, race, and on the teaching of history. His teaching has been featured in stories in the New York Times and National Public Radio, and he was recently interviewed on Colin McEnroe’s The Wheelhouse on the topic of political violence.
Tuesday, Nov. 12 | 5:30 p.m.–7 p.m. | Wilde Auditorium | $20 for non-fellows
Become a Fellow and the conversation is free (as is parking in any on-campus lot throughout the academic year and full borrowing privileges at Harrison Libraries)!
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