thymos
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There’s a classic Unitarian Universalist way of talking about nonconformity and resistance to social pressure. You probably know where I’m going. We lift up Henry David Thoreau–living at Walden Pond, refusing to pay his poll tax because he would not support a government that upheld slavery and waged war on Mexico. We remember his jail…
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Dueling Authoritarianisms: When the Liberal Church is Stuck in the Middle
a politics of grace, all-or-nothing thinking, Animal Farm, authoritarianism, black-or-white mentality, Cas Mudde, Democracy, echo chamber, Edict of Torda, Emily Chamlee-Wright, George Orwell, human fallibility, hypocrisy, illiberalism, Left-wing authoritarianism, liberal religion, liberal society, liberalism, Maurice Mitchell, maximalism, megalothymia, Plato, politics, power, Right-wing authoritarianism, Sarah McBride, social media, thymos, Tolerance, utopia, white savior complex
Sermon delivered July 27, 2025 at the Chautauqua Institution The topic of authoritarianism gathers us together for Week Six of the Chautauqua Institution, and we do well to invoke the wisdom of one of authoritarianism’s sharpest observers and critics: George Orwell. His novel 1984 is masterful, and then there is Animal Farm, in which the…
Spiritflow 