On October 7, 2014, the Bard Debate Union hosted West Point for our Third Annual Hannah Arendt Center Conference public debate. The Hannah Arendt Center Conference is an international conference held each year at Bard College that addresses a major topic in political theory. This year’s topic is American Exceptionalism; the title of the conference is: “The Unmaking of Americans: Are there still American values worth fighting for?” So we chose for a debate topic: “Resolved: individualism is an American value worth fighting for.” We organized the debate as two mixed teams of Bard and West Point, with both faculty members and students participating. And it turned out to be a truly phenomenal debate, with each speaker offering a thoughtful and intellectually rich approach to the question of individualism. Great job to Stephanie, Jackie, Andrejs, and Professor Berkowitz from Bard as well as our friends Aaron, Theo, Will, and Major Scher from West Point. What an event!
