released 6/7/2024

From back issues of the Mars Hill Tapes, two interviews about disturbing social/political phenomena. First, from 1996 (Volume 19), Daniel Chirot talks about his 1994 book Modern Tyrants: The Power and Prevalence of Evil in Our Age (The Free Press). Then we hear an interview from Volume 32 (1998) with Daniel Pipes about Conspiracy: How The Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where It Comes From (The Free Press, 1997).

31 minutes

PREVIEW

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Related reading and listening

  1. When language is weaponized —
    FROM VOL. 52
    Jeffrey Meyers explains George Orwell‘s understanding of how language can be used as a weapon in totalitarian movements and regimes. (10 minutes)
  2. Confronting the supremacy of science — Augusto Del Noce on the belief that science is the only true form of knowledge
  3. The roots of American disorder — In this reading of an article from 2021 by Michael Hanby, the critique of Marxism in Augusto del Noce’s work is compared with texts from the American Founders. (79 minutes)
  4. When is civil disobedience necessary? — Douglas Farrow examines the relation between “the kings of the earth” and the law of Christ, particularly when governmental law is exercised without reference to natural or divine law. (49 minutes)
  5. A vortex of illusion and superstition — Daniel Pipes examines the roots of “conspiricism” in the fears generated by the French Revolution.
  6. The negation of transcendence — Michael Hanby argues that our current civilizational crisis can be understood as a “new totalitarianism” that negates or disallows every form of transcendence. (32 minutes)
  7. The Christian humanism of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn — One of the main themes emphasized by these three guests is that Solzhenitsyn was not principally concerned with politics, but with human nature and purpose, understood in light of the Christian account of reality. (39 minutes)
  8. The purpose of government and God’s eternal purpose — Philip Turner on understanding the state in light of the eschatological reality of the Church
  9. Conventional “charismatic” speech, in service of the Zeitgeist — Richard Stivers on how the rhetoric of democracy invites tyranny
  10. Totalitarianism in a new mode — John Milbank on how liberalism has a marked tendency to become illiberal
  11. Liberalism’s totalitarian logic — Antonio López on the logic of liberalism’s totalitarian tendencies
  12. The problem of a degenerate electorate — Aquinas, Augustine, and Aristotle on good government, as summarized by Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
  13. Skepticism and totalitarian drift — John Paul II on how a loss of confidence in the reality of truth accentuates the will to power
  14. Roger Kimball: “Leszek Kolakowski and the Anatomy of Totalitarianism” — Roger Kimball summarizes the diagnosis of modernity’s ailments offered by philosopher Leszek Kolakowski. (35 minutes)
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