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Samir Gandesha: Prophets of Deceit Today

In this talk, political theorist Samir Gandesha will sketch the historical context, main arguments and contemporary relevance of Leo Lowenthals and Norbert Gutermans landmark text of Critical Theory, Prophets of Deceit. He will focus on its typology of political responses to socio-economic crises, its treatment of susceptibility to fascist propaganda as symptomatic of real maladies to which agitators can only provide quack cures, and its influence on Theodor W. Adornos analysis of fascist propaganda. He will conclude by reflecting on the results of the 2024 US Presidential Election.

Samir Gandesha is the director of the Institute of Humanities, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. His most recent volume is Spectres of Fascism: Historical, Theoretical and International Perspectives. He specializes in modern European thought and culture, with a particular emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. His work has appeared in a wide range of journals including Political Theory, New German Critique, Constellations, Logos, Kant Studien, Philosophy and Social Criticism, The European Legacy, The European Journal of Social Theory, Discipline Filosofiche, Estudios Politicos, Zeitschrift für kritische Theorie, Radical Philosophy and Constelaciones: Revista de Teoria Critica. He is co-editor with Colin Campbell and Stefano Marino of Adorno and Popular Music: A Constellation of Perspectives (Mimesis, 2020), with Johan Hartle of Spell of Capital: Reification and Spectacle (University of Amsterdam Press, 2017) and Aesthetic Marx (Bloomsbury Press, 2017) and with Lars Rensmann of Arendt and Adorno: Political and Philosophical Investigations (Stanford, 2012). He regularly contributes to popular publications such as openDemocracy, The LA Review of Books, Canadian Dimension, The Vancouver Sun and The Globe and Mail.