NEW YORK ENCOUNTER 2018: "Out of Many, One": Really?

A dialogue on shared bonds and ideals in Today’s American society with Amitai ETZIONI, Professor of Sociology at the George Washington University, and author of Happiness is the Wrong Metric, and Mark LILLA, Professor of Humanities, Columbia University

Presented by New York Encounter and Crossroads Cultural Center

Speakers will offer their views on the current state of American society, how it has gotten there, and where and how it can go forward. - - - The existence of a people requires a bond between persons created by an event that is perceived as decisive for its historical meaning, for their destiny, and for that of the world. An event gives rise to a people by pointing out a stable bond of belonging between persons who were unrelated up to that moment, just as the event of a child completes the beginning of a family. The life of a people is determined by a common ideal, by a value that makes it worthwhile living, struggling, suffering and even dying for, a common ideal that makes everything worthwhile. Second, the life of a people is determined by the identification of the suitable instruments and the methods for attaining the acknowledged ideal, for tackling the needs and challenges that gradually arise from the historical circumstances. Third, it is determined by the mutual fidelity in which one helps the other on the journey towards the realization of the ideal. A people exists where there is the memory of a common history that is accepted as a historic task to be carried out. Therefore, without friendship, that is to say, without gratuitous mutual affirmation of a common destiny, there is no people. The most mysterious thing is that the successful formation of a people inevitably implies the prospect that its own good will be good for the world and for everyone else. This emerges clearly when the people acquire a certain security and dignity, and their ideal mature and is affirmed. This is the origin of every civilization, just as its disappearance marks its decline; a civilization declines when it is no longer able to live up to the ideal that generated it. ~Luigi Giussani, Generating Traces in the History of the World, McGill, 2005 The event is open to the public and free of charge. Click here for New York Encounter's Official Website

About this Event

Date: Saturday, January 13, 2018
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: Metropolitan Pavilion
125 West 18th Street (btw 6th and 7th Ave)
New York, NY 10011
Click here for directions.

About the Speaker

Amitai Etzioni
Professor of Sociology, The George Washington University

Mark Lilla
Professor of Humanities, Columbia University

Invitation

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