The risk of “pathocracy” is always close. And once entrenched, difficult to dislodge.
Slavery is not so far removed. Anderson and Minerva Edwards met in the 1860s as enslaved laborers in Texas, had 16 children and lived into their 90s in a cabin a few miles from the plantations they once worked. They are photographed here in 1937.
U.S. Library of Congress
Fear is very much a part of humans’ survival. Demagogues and others who want to manipulate have learned that this human trait can be exploited, often with disastrous consequences.
German citizens in Magdeburg the morning after Kristallnacht.
German Federal Archive
The ‘resistance’ to the Trump administration has many forms, from grassroots organizing to making music. But a historian of 20th-century Germany asks whether opposing Trump is a real resistance.
Britain’s opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn – accused of antisemitism – addresses the crowd in Trafalgar Square during protests against the UK visit of US President Donald Trump, July 13, 2018.
Niklas HALLEN / AFP
Simon Dawes, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) – Université Paris-Saclay
Charging the leader of the UK Labour Party with antisemitism is a narrative that went mainstream – but it’s one that omits pertinent information and opposing views.
The horrific incarceration of European Jews during WWII should never be forgotten, particularly when we need to solve contemporary genocide and forced migration issues.
Nazi, fascist, ultra right-wing - these terms seem to be bandied about a lot these days. But what do they really mean?
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon holds a news conference with National Front party leader Marine Le Pen in the northern French city of Lille in March 2018.
(AP Photo)
Fears about the resurgence of fascism might have seemed irrelevant during the past 70 years, when it was discredited. It doesn’t seem irrelevant today with liberal democracy on the defensive.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg departs after testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in April 2018 about the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 presidential election and data privacy.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Knowledge of our selves, quantified in big data and transformed into affective algorithms, is exploited by corporations and political parties to give us our 15 minutes of fame.
Gary Oldman plays Winston Churchill in the 2017 film Darkest Hour.
Jack English/Focus Features
Not just period pieces, the 2017 films “Dunkirk” and “Darkest Hour” shed light on the intense Brexit debate, and raise important questions about Britain’s fundamental identity.
‘Anti-Semitism is treatable’ – a banner at a Warsaw demonstration.
Reuters/ Agencja Gazeta
Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Lecturer on Bioethics & Humanities at SUNY Upstate Medical University; and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine; Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, Psychiatric Times., Tufts University