Karl Hess: toward liberty

Karl Hess first glimpsed political power as a speechwriter for the US senator Barry Goldwater’s failed 1964 presidential campaign. Hess found the experience deeply disenchanting, transforming this former ‘Cold Warrior’ who’d helped launch the conservative magazine National Review into an idiosyncratic political philosopher who viewed any powerful institution with intense scepticism. In Karl Hess: Toward Liberty, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject in 1981, the US filmmakers Roland Hallé and Peter Ladue trace this transformation. Hess describes how, after his time in elite circles, he reinvented himself as a libertarian thinker who, having taken up welding and built his own home, came to embody his values of self-reliance and localism. While his views don’t easily map on to contemporary US partisan politics, they comment on our current world – including debates over AI, energy and education – in often prescient and penetrating ways. A Republican speechwriter-turned-welder’s radical gospel of localism Director: Roland Hallé, Peter Ladue videoThinkers and theories Bigger isn’t better – the renegade ‘Buddhist economics’ of E F Schumacher 30 minutes videoMeaning and the good life Leading 1950s thinkers on the search for happiness in trying times 29 minutes videoHistory What would American fascism look like? A 1939 New York rally offered more than a hint 7 minutes videoKnowledge True mastery demands going beyond the rules to learn for yourself 15 minutes videoAnthropology Margaret Mead explains why the family was entering a brave new world in this 1959 film 29 minutes videoValues and beliefs How a millionaire traded his wealth for happiness – and a shoeshine box 4 minutes videoHistory of ideas I am, therefore I think – how Heidegger radically reframed being 13 minutes videoPersonality Jim Hall, 78, has a blue body – but his outlook on life is more unusual still 8 minutes videoFairness and equality To build a fair society, we must first be able to envision it. John Rawls can help 64 minutes