Modernity Archives - Public Seminar

History

Why Weimar is an Imperfect Mirror

Its polarized culture reinforced the destructive energy of an increasingly polarized politics

April 8, 2021 • by Helmut W. Smith

"It would be too much to say that the Weimar Republic fell to Nazism because of its bifurcated culture. But the high culture of Weimar was not a supporting pillar of democracy either. Instead, Weimar’s polarized culture reinforced the destructive energy of its increasingly polarized politics. " - Helmut W. ...

Feature

Envisaging the EU’s future with Hannah Arendt: Taking plurality seriously!

Arendt’s concept of humans as relational selves can transform the EU into a promising political object in a globalized era

September 4, 2018 • by Nicole Dewandre

A recent critical metaphor analysis of EU strategic policy documents of the period ranging from 1985 to 2014 has brought to light an oddity in how the European Commission speaks of businesses -- which are functional entities -- as if they were sensitive beings, but of people -- which are sensitive ...

Envisaging the EU’s future with Hannah Arendt: Taking plurality seriously!

Feature

Franco “Bifo” Berardi on the “Possibility of Joy”

An interview

January 30, 2018 • by Clinamen

The following is a transcription of a broadcast aired on the radio program Clinamen, which is co-conducted by Diego Sztulwark, Diego Skliar, and Natalia Genero. It was translated from the Spanish by Ana Vivaldi and Daniel Harper in 2017. Bifo casts his gaze across multiple planes: the personal and the political, the technical ...

Franco “Bifo” Berardi on the “Possibility of Joy”

Uncategorized

Pizza Rat, a Totem of Our Time

Humans, animals, and life in 2015

October 23, 2015 • by Dominic Pettman

For a brief moment in late September, New York City had a new celebrity: Pizza Rat. This furry character -- either endearingly repulsive, or repulsively endearing, depending on your sensibility -- appeared in most of our social media feeds after a quick-fingered commuter snapped ...