Image - Arthur Goldwag and detail from his book cover
Live Stream

Arthur Goldwag: The Politics of Fear

Buy Tickets

If you are not a member yet, now is the time to join our community and receive the great benefits of membership. We are a group of people seeking truth, insight and wisdom about the issues we face as individuals and as a society. Please join! You can become a monthly sustaining member for just $10 a month.

Some of the conspiracy theories now gripping American politics contend that Joe Biden was executed and replaced by a clone and that John F. Kennedy, Jr., faked his death and will one day return to slay Trump’s enemies. But who is susceptible to them, and what makes them so politically potent?

Investigating the historical roots of our peculiar brand of political paranoia, Arthur Goldwag joins us for a special online-only program to make sense of the senseless and, in so doing, uncover three uncomfortable truths: that it is older than Trumpism and will outlast it; that theocratic authoritarianism is as hardwired in our American heritage as the principles of the Enlightenment; and that the fear that our system is “rigged” is not altogether unfounded. He explored these matters in his surprising and critical examination of America’s paranoid style in his book The Politics of Fear, which sheds new light on the age-old question: What exactly are we so afraid of?

Don’t miss this exploration of the bizarre and dangerous conspiracies that have roiled America over the past decade and captured the minds of so many Americans.

Notes

This program is online only. Please pre-register to receive a link to the live-stream video.

The Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming.

Goldwag photo by Grace Lile.

All ticket sales are final and nonrefundable.

Thu, Jul 11 / 3:00 PM PDT

The Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California
United States

Speakers
Image - Arthur Goldwag

Arthur Goldwag

Author, The Politics of Fear: The Peculiar Persistence of American Paranoia

Image - Quentin Hardy

In Conversation with Quentin Hardy

Journalist

Format

3 p.m program
(all times Pacific Time)

COST

Online
Free for members
$10 nonmembers
$20 members with a book
$30 nonmembers with a book