19:30 Lezing Christoph Busch – The theater of the world viewed through Arendtian eyes

A lecture for everyone who worries about the state of our democracy and who is looking for ways to take responsibility, not despite, but precisely within the complexity of our time. In a time of increasing polarization, disinformation, and democratic erosion, this lecture by Christophe Busch – inspired by the thinking of Hannah Arendt – offers a clarifying look at current society. Busch explores how truth is increasingly under pressure, how public debate narrows, and how the space for difference and plurality decreases. What happens to a society when facts are replaced by opinions, when the lie is organized, when contradictions turn into enmity, and when the ability to think from multiple perspectives threatens to be lost? From his expertise in collective violence and radicalization processes, Busch highlights the dangers of ‘depluralization’ – the disappearance of a shared reality in which we can still understand each other, even if we disagree. Christophe Busch invites the audience to look at ‘the theater of the world’ with Arendt's eyes. He shows how the preservation of democracy and humanity today depends more than ever on our willingness to continue seeing the other as a human being, to allow doubt, and to actively protect plurality. Christophe Busch is a criminologist (Universiteit Gent) and Master in Holocaust and Genocide Studies (Universiteit van Amsterdam). After his criminology studies in Ghent, he started working in forensic psychiatry in 2001 for the treatment of unaccountable offenders (internment). Later, as a coordinator, he was responsible for the development of a forensic psychiatric care circuit. At the end of 2012, he made the switch to Kazerne Dossin (Memorial, Museum and Research Center on the Holocaust and Human Rights) where he was appointed operational director in January 2013 and general director in July 2016, succeeding Herman Van Goethem who became rector at the Universiteit Antwerpen. He is pursuing a PhD at the UvA on the complexity of offender behavior and the role of image formation in processes of cumulative radicalization. He is involved as an expert on radicalization within various government agencies. At the end of 2019, he left Kazerne Dossin and became director of the Hannah Arendt Instituut for diversity, urbanity, and citizenship.