Muslims and the decadent West

Young Muslims in Europe who criticize western "decadence" are rejecting mainstream norms, argues Jörg Lau. Nevertheless, some commentators interpret young Muslims' self-segregation as the fault of the majority. What motivates this alliance between liberal self-critique and Muslim religiosity? [more]

Self-esteem and self-improvement

The patriotism of the Berlin republic

In Germany, both Right and Left have shifted the patriotism discourse away from the past towards the present and the future. Following Richard Rorty's idea that patriotism is to a nation what self-esteem is to an individual, Jörg Lau welcomes the new patriotism's integrative potential. [more]

The Search for Normality Lost

Helmut Kohl and Hans Magnus Enzensberger as two representative success-stories of postwar West Germany - one a critic, one the epitome of bourgeois "normality". On the meaning, importance and development of an "average" in West Germany. [more]