From ancient Athens to 21st-century America, the rhetoric is the same. When "the dogs of war" are set loose, there is a cascade of jingoistic platitudes and cliches. We want peace. When we fight a war, it is just. We are good. The enemy is evil. We are victims seeking justice. We are making the world safe for democracy. And if they were honest, they'd add, We are making the world safe for lexical and moral hypocrisy. Erasmus, the great 16th-century philosopher monk, said of war, "There is nothing more wicked, more disastrous, more widely destructive, more loathsome." He then added that war was useful to a government, for it enabled it to extend its power over citizens. Erasmus warned that "Once war has been declared, then all the affairs of the State are at the mercy of the appetites of a few."

Many people, when they hear the word propaganda, immediately associate it with Nazi Germany and torchlight parades or Putin reviewing the troops in Red Square. But propaganda has Roman Catholic church origins going as far back as 1622, when Pope Gregory issued a proclamation using the term to exhort the faithful to propagate the faith. Today, propaganda is disseminated far and wide through the internet. It is used by autocrats to shield themselves and their policies from public view. Bots are at work. Malicious actors spread fake news. Deceptive techniques are so sophisticated that it is sometimes difficult to separate fact from fiction. Misinformation is eroding public trust in institutions and stressing and straining democracy. Stories are planted, rumors are spread, lies are told, and narratives are laundered.

Political activist Abbie Hoffman, speaking at the Jack Kerouac Festival in 1982, said that the social movements of the 1960s would not have happened without the cultural revolution of the 1950s. Poet Allen Ginsberg was the spokesman for the Beat Generation literary movement, and a powerful voice for civil rights, free speech, and the peace movement, his entire life. Ginsberg and Kagyu Tibetan lineage holder, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, founded Naropa Institute – now University in Boulder, Colorado. Allen’s Buddhist meditation practice and poetics entailed keen observations of the ordinary. We’ve gone into the AR Archive, and recordings from a few musical performances in celebration of his one-hundredth birthday.

AI, artificial intelligence, is rapidly expanding along with its promises and dangers. On the promises side, tech bros like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, thanks to AI, “We will see diseases get cured at an unprecedented rate.” AI critics such as Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel Prize winner who has been called the “Godfather of AI,” warns of the technology’s “profound risks to society and humanity.” He adds, “People haven't understood what's coming.” He likened AI to “a very fast car with no steering wheel.” Unregulated AI will likely trigger a global economic crisis with its projection of massive layoffs. AI can speed up production, thus making corporations richer, but many workers will be laid off, e.g., Meta is cutting thousands of jobs. Amazon and Microsoft will follow. How will the capitalist economic system deal with AI?

What is fascism? Michael Parenti, author and historian, says, “Fascism historically has been used to secure the interests of large capitalist interests against the demands of popular democracy. Then and now, fascism has made irrational mass appeals in order to secure the rational ends of class domination.”  Fascism flourishes in times of economic insecurity and cultural backlash. Opportunistic politicians offer up a platter of racism, xenophobia and hyper-nationalism. They stoke fear and resentment using simplistic slogans such as “Drain the Swamp” and “Build the Wall.” In the U.S. today, there is a whiff of fascism in the air. Witness the march of white supremacists with torches held high in Charlottesville, chanting “Blood and Soil,” an old Nazi slogan and “Jews Will Not Replace Us.” The president called them “very fine people.” Recorded at Trent University.

On February 28th, Israel attacked Iran. Almost immediately, the U.S. joined the fray. The claims against Iran are eerily similar to those made against Iraq in 2003. Remember back then, Baghdad supposedly was a great danger. Today, it is Iran we are to fear. It’s an “imminent” threat we are told. No evidence is given. None is needed. The master has spoken. The U.S. must take military action. To paraphrase an old song, “propaganda runs deep, into your brains it will seep.” Washington has never forgiven Iran for ousting the Shah. If the U.S. didn't destroy democracy in Iran in the 1953 coup, things would have turned out differently. The geopolitical and economic consequences of this war will be felt not just in the U.S. but around the world for years to come. Recorded at Princeton University.

A new world order is emerging that is dangerously more wicked and destructive. Led by the United States, it is marked by savagery at home and abroad. The old order has collapsed, buried under the weight of its contradictions, mendacities and hypocrisies. The so-called rules-based international system was never what it was designed to be but it had some merit, such as the United Nations and its agencies. Today, that framework is shattered. The U.S. is the imperial hegemon, the global robocop. Rules, laws, treaties, and agreements are all gone. Washington, with its trillion-dollar military budget, commands the waves and the skies. Law, UN resolutions, and judgments from the International Court of Justice are for designated enemies. The master and his servants are exempt. Our media, with few exceptions, are stenographers to power.

The post-WW1 Weimar Republic in Germany was the height of European civilization. Its scientists and scholars led the world. Its Bauhaus architecture was the rage. Its arts featured such luminaries as Fritz Lang, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Thomas Mann. Yet, out of this modern democracy sprang Nazism, German fascism, and one of the most barbaric regimes ever. How did Hitler happen? It is one of the most important questions of history. What happened in Germany has disturbing resonances for our own time. Fascist-like regimes are taking power in many countries. We ignore disturbing signs at our peril from torchlight parades in Charlottesville with crowds chanting, “Jews Will Not Replace Us” to a synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh to the murder of African-Americans in a church in Charleston. What can we learn from the past to ensure it doesn’t happen again? Recorded at Hunter College. Interviewed by David Barsamian

U.S. foreign policy objectives often conflict with its professed values. On the one hand, Washington affirms its dedication to democracy and human rights, and on the other, it supports dictators and repressive regimes. Do the interests of large U.S.-based multinational corporations factor into the formulation of foreign policy? What role does the world’s most powerful military play? Is there an intersection between the sword and the dollar? Recorded at Washington State University.

The movie Nuremberg is about the trial of Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering. One of the characters asks rhetorically about the German atrocities: “You wanna know why it happened here?” He answers his own question: “Cause people let it happen. Cause they didn’t stand up until it was too late.” No historical situation is identical, yet we can draw some parallels and inferences from the past to shine light on the present and predict the future. What is the relationship between Trump and the notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein? And how does Putin of Russia factor in? Trump seemingly bends over backwards to accommodate the Kremlin leader. A close examination reveals connections. The New York Times reviewed the so far publicly available Epstein files and found that “Trump, his properties, his associates and related terms were referred to more than 38,000 times.” Crucial files remain unreleased or redacted. Key files are missing. Sheldon Whitehouse calls it “a cover up.”