Monthly Archives: August 2018

Survival of the Richest

Futurism - Warnings

Robots revolt in R.U.R., a 1920 play.

Professor and media theorist Douglas Rushkoff recently penned an article that went viral,
“Survival of the Richest.” It outlines how the super-wealthy are preparing for doomsday. Here is a recap followed by a brief commentary.

Rushkoff was recently invited to deliver a speech for an unusually large fee, about half his academic salary, on “the future of technology.” He expected a large audience but, upon arrival, he was ushered into a small room with a table surrounded by five wealthy men. But they weren’t interested in the future of technological innovation. Continue reading Survival of the Richest →

Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

Sexual Ethics

© Darrell Arnold Ph.D.– (Reprinted with permission.)
http://darrellarnold.com/2018/08/14/sexual-abuse-in-the-catholic-church/

For those who hoped that the Catholic church had begun to appropriately handle its systemic sexual abuses from the 1980s and 1990s, the recent Pennsylvania Grand Jury report is deeply disturbing. The report indicates that in the state of Pennsylvania alone, over a period of 70 years, more than 300 priests were accused of the systemic sexual abuse of over 1000 individuals and the systematic cover-up of this abuse. Continue reading Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church →

Review of Richard J. Bernstein’s, Why Read Hannah Arendt Now

Book Reviews - Politics, Politics - General


© Darrell Arnold Ph.D.– (Reprinted with Permission) http://darrellarnold.com/2018/07/08/why-read-hannah-arendt-now/

Freedom—as Hannah Arendt understands it—is only possible in a participatory political life. Such a form of life, which cultivates individuality and spontaneity, can be contrasted with totalitarianism, which ultimately aims at the total domination of the individual. Our responsibility is to ensure our own freedom—that is, to ensure collective, participatory forms of political life under which such freedom is possible. Continue reading Review of Richard J. Bernstein’s, Why Read Hannah Arendt Now →

Review of Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt: “How Democracies Die”

Book Reviews - Politics, Politics - Authoritarianism

© Darrell Arnold Ph.D.– (Reprinted with Permission) http://darrellarnold.com/2018/07/12/how-democracies-die/

We all know of democratic institutions that have ended by revolution or coup. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, two professors of government at Harvard University, highlight another way that they increasingly end — through a slow erosion of institutions by those who were democratically elected to oversee them.

In How Democracies Die the authors apply their knowledge of the collapse of democratic institutions from Europe and Latin America to analyze the erosion of democratic norms in the United States. Continue reading Review of Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt: “How Democracies Die” →