Vermont Public Philosophy Week 2026

 It's funny how an event that I initially was tricked/dragooned/misdirected into participating in - the Vermont Public Philosophy Week - has become an annual tradition that I really look forward to. Last Saturday I gave a talk on "'Your Hatred Is Evidence of Our Power': What Thucydides Tells Us About the Decline of America" at the Adamant Community Club. It was a success, although I never admit to much of anything being a success. Still, if you can draw a crowd of ten people to a location hidden down on a dirt road on a beautiful spring day then I guess it's a success. Plus, everyone stayed past the allotted time to continue asking questions and making comments. However, how can you screw up a talk based on Thucydides during these turbulent times in America? All the credit really goes to Tyler Doggett, a philosophy professor from UVM who organizes all of it. It's such a great idea: getting the community together to discuss ideas.

It was an enthusiastic crowd, including one hardy soul who drove in all the way from Burlington for the talk (reminding me of the three people who came in from BTV last year to hear my talk on Pessoa).

The talk combined Thucydides's accounts of the Funeral Oration of Pericles and the Melian Dialogue, viewed through the lens of America today and the great lie of American Exceptionalism. It was a lot of fun to give, and it inspired a lot of good questions.