How a nation that loved ruins was itself reduced to rubble—and in its own ashes discovered new, impossible ideals. A life in a discarded shoe box. A while back, as I was struggling with a text at the Public Library in the hamlet of Bengtsfors, Sweden, I came across the donated remains from a childless […]
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Under Pressure
The refugee crisis may not break the EU, but it will upend the postwar European political order. Each age has its own fears. Much like the specter of climate change haunts the imagination of many today, and the arms race kept people sleepless in the 1980s, the ‘population bomb’ was the doomsday scenario of choice […]
The Man Who Disliked Saints
Hailed as a prophet and reviled as a racist, Jean Raspail novelized Europe’s immigration crisis—forty years before it happened. George Orwell, which is to say Eric Arthur Blair, said and wrote many memorable things. One of them goes as follows: “Saints should always be judged guilty until proved innocent.” Flipping the ideal of justice enabled […]
The End of the Fifth Republic?
When the terrorists once again struck France on November 13, the country has shown a different, more authoritarian side than in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo outrage. The strategy of terrorism, as has often (but not often enough) been remarked, it to trick stronger powers into doing counterproductive things. The terrorist attacks of November 13 in […]
Populist, jovisst
Krisen i Europa feirer i år sin syv-årsdag og er således i skolemoden alder. Uregulerte finansmarkeder var barnets mor. Barndommen minner om hva Karl Marx advarte mot under rubrikken «kapitalismens iboende motsetninger»: Arbeidsledigheten stiger, lønningene faller og velferdsordningene beskjæres. På tross av treffende analyse har ikke sosialismen opplevd noen renessanse i kjølvannetav krisen, snarere tvert […]
Norge er blitt en annet sted
HVA SLAGS NORGE? Helt uventet erjeg blitt venstresidens kjæledegge. Enspalte i Klassekampen kom inn på temaetinnvandring. Jeg stilte noengrunnleggende spørsmål ved dagensinnvandringspolitikk og vips var innboksenfull av takksigelser. Riktignok ismug, men de takket meg for å hamot til å si det mange tenker.Spørsmålet jeg stilte, var grunnleggende:Under gjeldende regelverkhar flere titalls millioner menneskerrett på asyl […]