0412, 2014

Sex and Politics: Humor and Politics Meeting – December 4, 2014

Shaun King/ December 4, 2014/ Humor & Politics/ 0 comments

Our last meeting of 2014 was on the topic of “Sex and Politics” (suggested by one of our members) and we discussed Barry Levinson’s film Wag the Dog and Kurt Vonnegut’s short story Welcome to the Monkey House, with additional readings from Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents. We looked at the role of sex scandals in American politics and whether the excessive attention to the private life of politicians is justified. We considered Freud’s theory about civilization and its basis in sexual repression and rechanneling of libido into more productive uses

2210, 2014

Humor and War: Humor and Politics Meeting – October 22, 2014

Shaun King/ October 22, 2014/ Humor & Politics

Our theme in October was “Humor and War” and to that end we discussed Stanley Kubrick’s film Dr. Strangelove: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb along with an excerpt from David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (the Eschaton) and short theoretical readings from Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil and Montaigne’s That We Laugh and Cry at the Same Thing. We discussed the role of humor on the brink of total annihilation, comparing Nietzsche’s golden laughter that prides itself on the ability to stare into the abyss and

1809, 2014

Enduring Jokes: Humor and Politics Meeting – September 18, 2014

Shaun King/ September 18, 2014/ Humor & Politics

For our first meeting, we discussed Joss Whedon’s 2012 adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing, the Aristophanes play The Assembly of Women, and short selections from Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Poetics and Hobbes’ Leviathan. We asked whether certain aspects of humor are funny regardless of time or culture and found that some ancient Greek jokes still make us laugh. We discussed Hobbes’ theory that we laugh at the foibles of others to feel better about ourselves and Aristotle’s distinction between tragedies, where people appear better than

0312, 2010

Speakers in the AVI Lecture Series

Shaun King/ December 3, 2010/ Uncategorized

AVI Speakers Charles Bobrinskoy, Ariel Capital Management Christopher DeMuth, Hudson Institute Scott Dikkers, founding editor of The Onion Senator Elizabeth Dole Professor Jonathan Haidt, New York University Kay Hymowitz, Manhattan Institute Eileen Jerrett, filmmaker Ambassador Robert Krueger Kerry Howley, contributing editor, Reason Magazine Heather Mac Donald, Manhattan Institute Judith Martin, Miss Manners columnist Robert McDowell, Hudson Institute Michael Novak, American Enterprise Institute Mark Oaten, Member of Parliament Deborah Owens, UN Peacekeeping Jonathan Perelman, Google Inc. Blair Shepherd, Dean of