USA: Hysteria and Reason – Georg Diez interviews Lora Anne Viola
{{ time.start_TS | TS2dateFormat('MMM') }}
{{ time.start_TS | TS2dateFormat('YYYY') }}
| free of charge |
| Please book your ticket in advance online or at the box office in the Foyer. |
| 14 years and older |
| German |
| Humboldt Lab, 1st floor |
| Part of: SCRIPTS Short Talks |
| Belongs to: After Nature |
Democracy is the political form of rationality – is that true? What happens when irrationality gains the upper hand? Is it then enough to pit reason against hysteria? In times of hyper-nervousness, democracy must reinvent itself. We look back at the US election and at the historical and current contradictions of American democracy – as a pars pro toto of democratic theory and lived practice.
In an interview with journalist Georg Diez, US political scientist Lora Anne Viola answers questions about the fine line between political reason and hysteria using the USA as a case study.
How much nervousness can democracy tolerate? Where do these tensions come from? How is our concept of democracy currently changing? Which forms of democracy do we need to preserve, which do we need to unlearn and relearn? And where will we be in five years’ time?
The journalist and author Georg Diez will be talking to SCRIPTS researchers on three evenings about the state and future of ‘nervous democracy’: about the transformation shock of democracy after 1989, about the tension between hysteria and reason using the example of the USA and about the politics of unrest, protest and revolt as essential elements of a living democracy.
Lora Anne Viola
Lora Anne Viola is a U.S. Political scientist and Professor for North American Foreign Policy at the John F. Kennedy Institute at Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focuses on international Institutions, global order and the U.S. as hegemonial power. Her 2021 book The Closure of the International System has received multiple awards. As a Principal Investigator at the Excellence Cluster Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS), she conducts research on topics including multilateralism and racism.
Georg Diez
Georg Diez is an author, journalist, and curator who has worked as a cultural critic and political editor for prominent German media outlets, including Spiegel Online, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. His books tackle the societal tensions and the shift to the right, technology and opportunities for democracy. Diez was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, served as editor-in-chief at The New Institute, and curated the exhibition Survival on the 21st Century. He is currently a fellow at ProjectTogether and the Max Planck Society, where he focuses on issues of democratic innovation.
Partner
An event in cooperation with the Cluster of Excellence Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS)
