The overstretched empire With loud talk of annexing Canada, Mexico, and Greenland, the US’s global rampage has reached a new dimension. After the de facto president of the US, Donald Trump, expressed his first fantasies of world domination, reactions have been mixed. They range from concern to schadenfreude. But the …
The West is falling apart The unity of the NATO states only exists on the condition that Europe completely submits to the interests of the US. The war in Ukraine is exacerbating the contradictions within the Western world of values. The unity and solidarity that have been demonstrated are crumbling …
Spectator democracy “Representative democracy” is a construct created with the intention of keeping the population away from real power. Exclusive excerpt from “Die extreme Mitte” (The Extreme Middle). We all know the feeling: we have elected our “representatives,” but we have no real influence on what happens. “They” do what …
Outdated paradigms The idea that military deterrence alone can guarantee long-term security is outdated. Anyone who takes a look at Germany’s defense policy can easily see its fundamental strategy: rearmament and the build-up of military strength. Supposedly not to act aggressively itself, but to signal to other actors: Not with …
Fifty Shades of Yellow The image of China in Germany and the US ranges from silly clichés to fear of a powerful economic competitor. “Yellow peril” or a bizarre wonderland like the China chapters in Michael Ende’s “Jim Button” books? China is one of the best-known nations in the West, …
The redistribution agenda Social prosperity cannot be created by policies that lead to the impoverishment of the masses. This dynamic also led to the current stock market turmoil. At the beginning of August 2024, there was a violent stock market storm on Wall Street. The most important US stocks plummeted …
The birth of a new culture The intellectual movement known as metamodernism attempts to reconcile the pursuit of universal truth with skeptical relativism. Exclusive excerpt from “Die Metamoderne” (Metamodernism). When a new era in intellectual history is dawning, it is not immediately apparent on the surface. It begins with a …
Generation Escape In our smartphone-based world, young people are left to their own devices and overprotected in the real world. The result is a feeling of despondency. In his book “Generation Fear — How We Are Losing Our Children to the Virtual World and Jeopardizing Their Mental Health,“ Jonathan Haidt …
Secured totalitarianism In his “Critical Dictionary,” Rudolph Bauer deciphers the language of a new fascism. Language and writing express thoughts and feelings. Sentences formed from words can flatter or hurt. When it comes to the use and meaning of terms, communication becomes a sharp blade. This applies to the private …
Super-fascism In her latest book, Lisa Marie Binder presents a description of the new normal. Since 2020, many people have felt that the world around them has changed. The “new normal” is fundamentally different from what we knew until 2019. Many have vaguely labeled this new normality “fascism,” while others …