In our turbulent times, people urgently need to be able to look beneath the surface of events, and find insights, themes, and organizing principles that can help them make sense of it all.  If principled intellectuals and artists don't address people’s needs in this regard, there are only too many charlatans and self-serving manipulators waiting to fill the void.

The experience of the Germans with Hitler should be a cautionary tale to us all.

Hitler was able to rise to power largely because he provided a vision of the world that Germans were eager to latch onto, at a time when the bulk of their country’s serious artists and intellectuals had immersed themselves in bleak post-World War I arcanities that most people found impossible to fathom or relate to.

Has the world seen its last Hitler?