Hard on his own. The Weakness of Fascism. Lecture by Arkadiusz Żychliński

Thoughts of Thought is a series of philosophical lectures and debates on the most important issues shaping our present and shaping our immediate future. During the second meeting, Arkadiusz Żychliński will look at contemporary discussions on the return of fascism and ask where does the desire to firmly defend what we consider “ours” come from? The starting point will be the famous book by the German philosopher Eva von Redecker Dieser Drang nach Härte. Über den neuen Faschismus, analysing the right-wing turn in Germany in recent years. After the lecture, there will be a conversation with the participation of Arkadiusz Żychliński and Michał Herer, which will be led by the curator of the series Rzeczenie Mateusz Falkowski.

For more than a decade now, the so-called Rechtsruck, i.e. a turn to the right, has been increasingly present in the German public and political space. The return of retrotopic desires is accompanied by attempts to understand them conceptually. One of the latest is the widely discussed book Dieser Drang nach Härte. Über den neuen Faschismus (2026) by Evy von Redecker. Refusing to follow historical analogies in depth, the German philosopher focuses on the contemporary Anthropocene, framing fascism in its current form as the culmination of an “unfettered logic of ownership” in the form of an “eliminating defense of phantom property.” The subject of the speech will be a reconstruction of assumptions and a discussion with the diagnoses of the mentioned book and an attempt to place them also in the context of the diagnoses contained in contemporary literary works.

Arkadiusz Zychlinski
Philosophy Essay Contest Organizer
Barbara Skarga Foundation for Thought

partnership
Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw

Curator of the cycle and conducting meetings
Mateusz Falkowski

The project is financed from the state budget, granted by the Minister of Science and Higher Education as part of the Social Responsibility of Science III Program.