Talk: “Counterrevolutionary Subordination in Trump’s America”
The speaker will reflect on how the Trump Administration’s current crackdowns on voices of dissent in the United States reflect an approach to politics that is “counterrevolutionary” in nature. To do so, he will draw on the political thought and writings of former United Nations Diplomat and Irish Statesman, Conor Cruise O’Brien (1917-2008), a critic of similar forms of censorship in his time. He will suggest that Trump’s attacks on higher education and protestors might have more in common with Maoism – and other forms of subversive revolutionary practice – than they do with any coherent tradition of conservative political thought. (Certainly, any kind that can seriously be traced back to Edmund Burke, the fiercest critique of the French Revolution, from whom the conservative tradition apparently evolves.) Trump’s actions are, in fact, anti-conservative in a way that illuminates the current state of de-definition under which the Trump Administration labours to the contradiction of American liberalism; construed, as it can be, as being about restraints on arbitrary power.
Speaker biography:
Jack Jacobs is pursuing DPhil in Intellectual History, generously supported by a Ramsay Postgraduate World Scholarship from Australia. His research examines why and how Western intellectuals engaged with the possibilities (and limitations) of Gandhian non-violence before the rise of totalitarianism as the world-problem of the 1930s.
Beyond academic life, Jack hosts “In Conversation with Jack Jacobs,” exploring the intersection of intellectual history and contemporary politics. Previous guests include: David Bromwich, John Dunn, Linda Colley, Sylvana Tomaselli, Michael Ignatieff, Iain McGilchrist, Richard Bourke, and Uday Mehta.
Jack is a writer and contributes to literary and political magazines worldwide. He regularly shares his ongoing work—including his podcast interviews and essays—on his Substack.
The talk will be in the Mawby room, Kellogg College in person. If you are unable to attend, please email events@kellogg.ox.ac.uk
If you have any questions please email the MCR Diversity and Inclusion Officer sharvi.maheshwari@theology.ox.ac.uk
