Dr. Eric Weiner Writes Article for 3 Quarks Daily
“Utopian Promises And Dystopian Futures: Totalitarianism, Counter-Hegemony, And The Limits Of Democratic Education”
Posted in: College News and Events
, Associate Professor in聽, recently was chosen to write monthly essays for the prestigious web site聽. The online magazine posts essays about art, science, literature, politics, and philosophy from some of the top writers, thinkers, and scholars around the world.
His article looks at the broadening聽appeal of Trumpism through the lens of Arendt’s seminal work聽The Origins of Totalitarianism. Trumpism, unlike liberal democracy, promises safety, security, purity, and pride; it represents a viable alternative to a political system that has left his supporters angry, fearful, insecure, guilty, and marginalized. Embracing what Putin calls a politics of 鈥渃ounter-enlightenment,鈥 Trump represents himself and Trumpism as a corrective to what he sees as liberal democracy鈥檚 failure to defend the homeland from socialists, multicultural agitators, globalists, and dissident intellectuals. Like Putin鈥檚 United Russia party, Trumpists view liberal democracy as a 鈥減olitical arrangement that has outlived its purpose.鈥 Does democratic education still matter in such an environment or are the people who still believe in the power of democratic education and the viability of democracy fighting a losing rearguard effort to preserve what little remains of democratic life? Harvard political science professor Daniel Ziblatt points out that this is no longer a fight between conservatives and liberals, occasionally provoked and troubled by the radical ideas of dissident intellectuals: It is now a struggle over the hegemony of opposing ideological formations. Dr. Weiner argues that this struggle marks the beginning of a 鈥渃old鈥 civil war in the United States.