totalitarianism today

6 asides concerning Hannah Arendt: How to bide the time between now and the next shoot-out or bombing.

Like Hannah Arendt, my liberalism gets edgier with each provocation, those of past week being a case in point.

1
A postcard from Walter Benjamin to "Hannah Stern" (above)
(Bard Collection) 

2
"The Spiritual Quest of Modern Man: The Answer of the Existentialists,"
a lecture given by Hannah at the New School for Social Research in New York City circa 1952
(The Hannah Arendt Papers at the Library of Congress)

3
Arendt's marginalia
(Bard Collection) 

4
"The Hidden Principles of Totalitarianism: Logos and Nihilism",
a two-part audio lecture in which Hans Bluecher argues that bringing science into human relations is "the mistake of totalitarian politics"

Part 1

Part 2

(The Bluecher Archive at Bard) 

5
"Arendt's Diagnosis of the Crisis of European Bourgeois Class Society",
a lecture by John Grumley 
(My Arendt)

6 
Futurlogical Brickbracks Anthology,
a fascinating yet remotely Arendt-engaging creation by Dale Carrico
(Amor Mundi) 

Bob Higgs to lecture on the warfare state.

Dr. Robert Higgs will be giving a talk on "The Rise of the Warfare State" at the University of Alabama this evening. His lecture, the second in the Liberty and Power Lecture Series, will explore the growth of government during times of war at the cost of civil and economic liberties. 

The Rise of the Warfare State from Carly Palmour on Vimeo.

For those who would like to view the lecture from the comfort of their own armchair, ITunes University offers a podcast of these lectures to which the curious can subscribe.