Sunday, January 24, 2021

American Democracy: The Task Before Us

A free online event on Wednesday 5-6 pm, Jan 27. Register here, and please share your impressions in a post on our site so we can discuss it next week in class.

A conversation on the controversies and flashpoints that will shape the future course of our democratic experiment.

About this Event

The past year has been a historic stress test for American democracy. Where do we stand now? What can our tradition of political writings tell us about what lies ahead?

New Yorker writer and Columbia University Professor of Journalism Nicholas Lemann, editor of Library of America’s new anthology American Democracy: 21 Historic Answers to 5 Urgent Questions, leads a conversation on the controversies and flashpoints that will shape the future course of our democratic experiment. Featuring Patrick Deneen, author of Why Liberalism Failed and Professor of Political Science and Chair of Constitutional Studies at Notre Dame University; Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne; and Michele Moody-Adams, Professor of Political Philosophy and Legal Theory at Columbia University.

Registration is required to attend this event. After registering on Eventbrite, you will receive a confirmation email from Zoom with instructions on how to join the presentation. We ask that you download the Zoom app in advance for the best user experience.

This event is co-presented by the Center for American Studies at Columbia University.

Register here

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/american-democracy-the-task-before-us-registration-136290997041?utm-medium=discovery&utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-source=strongmail&utm-term=listing

7 comments:

  1. I attended the webinar "American Democracy: The Task Before Us" last night and found it very interesting. Admittedly, I was not consciously aware of the deep connection between philosphy and politics so my eyes are just now being opened to that attachment. I have often thought that education is the key to overcoming a lot of the social inequities that exist in our country and around the world. Not so much formal education, per se, but simply the desire to learn more and know more about things that are different to you. The seminar's quote from John Dewey, "Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife," was a dumbstruck moment for me. I felt validated! I sort of pride myself on being a lifelong learner. Even when I have not been participating in formal education, I have consistently pursued leaning for personal growth in such things as money management, photography, Feng Shui, cross stitch, etc. As Enstein once said: "Once you stop learning, you start dying." That quote has always stuck with me. In terms of democracy, I view learning (education) as a move toward equality. The more people learn, the stronger our democracy becomes. I guess that was my main takeaway from the webinar. Maybe only because it reinforced one of my core beliefs, but even so, that topic really resonated with me. My personal philosophy is based on a Maya Angelou quote: "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." Sounds simple, yet we as Americans excessively struggle with this concept. Additionally, I have had private conversations with my husband and the concept of a political self correction. I was somewhat shocked to find that topic also discussed in the webinar. While I have often related that idea to a "universal self correction" in the sense that I believe the Earth and the Universe has the unique capacity to correct itself when it goes too far off course. Over the last year, as I have watched things play out politically and with the pandemic, I have told my husband that, as horrible as 2020 was, it was necessary for the Universe to self correct. And I believed then and continue to believe that is the case. So, now I feel as if I'm rambling off in the weeds to so I will stop here. But thank you, Dr. Oliver, for encouraging us to attend the webinar. I found it very interesting, informative, and oddly optimistic.

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