Totalitarian Temptations in Modern Societies

Ryszard Legutko (1949) is a Polish philosopher, politician (member of the European Parliament) and professor of philosophy at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, specializing in ancient philosophy and political theory. He is the co-founder of the Center for Political Thought (Ośrodek Myśli Politycznej) and author of several books. In the book The Demon in Democracy – which he will present in a lecture entitled Totalitarian Temptations in Modern Societies – Legutko explores the common features of the communist regime and liberal democracy and explains how the latter eventually bowed to the same goals as communism, albeit without Soviet-style brutality. Both systems limit human nature to the common man who is convinced that he is free from all the shackles of the past. Both the communist and the liberal democrat refuse to admit that there is anything of value outside the political systems to which they have pledged their allegiance. Likewise, both systems reject any critical examination of their ideological prejudices.