On Monday, June 13 at 7:30 pm in the Gathering Room, Peter B. Kaufman will present a talk on “Changing Minds: Technology, the Sociology of Knowledge, and Russian Literature
Kaufman is Senior Program Officer for Resource Development and Strategic Initiatives at MIT Open Learning.
A Russianist educated at Cornell and Columbia, he has studied structures of totalitarian thought control and is the author of The New Enlightenment and the Fight to Free Knowledge (2021).
Kaufman will speak about the ways minds can change now, at a time of craziness and incipient violence around our country. He will describe our strife-torn republic – with misguided beliefs about vaccines being poison, elections being stolen, and violence being seen as a legitimate part of political discourse. He will also discuss the warnings of the great World War II philosophers and sociologists and describe some of things universities, libraries, museums, archives – and everyday citizens - can do to try to heal some of our divisions.
As background, he recommends reading: Karen Yourish et al., “Inside the Apocalyptic Worldview of ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight,’” New York Times, April 30, 2022, online at: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/30/us/tucker-carlson-tonight.html
Barbara F. Walter, “We Are Living in the Age of Civil War,” The New Republic, April 14, 2022, online at: https://newrepublic.com/article/165959/global-age-civil-war.
All residents are invited to this timely and interesting presentation.