Articles

On Wednesday 22 May 2013, British soldier Drummer Lee Rigby was killed in broad daylight in the street near a military barracks in Woolwich, south-east London. Professor of peace studies Paul Rogers insists that there is a connection between this shocking murder and “remote-control” attacks by western states. Recognizing this connection is crucial if we are to avoid such extreme violence in the future.

The destination of intellectual journeys, remarks John Gray, is unknown at any one time. Utopianism, on the other hand, usually ends in disaster. Thus the radical anti-communist of the 1970s finds Marx’s analysis of capitalism prescient today and rates Keynes above Hayek.

On 28 September 2012, the Institut français d’Estonie opened a series of debates entitled “New ideas in Europe”. In the first event, Marc-Olivier Padis of Esprit and Märt Väljataga of Vikerkaar exchanged ideas on “Cultural journals and new ideas”. The following is a reworked version of Marc-Olivier Padis’ contribution to the debate.

Who will outsmart who, and who will be kicked out first? This is the job market, and probably society at large, reduced to the level of a TV reality show, writes Bauman. However, though the spirit of solidarity is in exile, it would be premature to give up on the prospect of its return just yet.

The presidents and prime ministers of Balkan countries have convinced Europe that they represent the only guarantee that the Balkans will not descend back into war. It is through this kind of counterfeit politics that Croatia has arrived at the threshold of the European Union.

He pointed a way for American fiction out of the doldrums of postmodernism, writes George Blecher. For a culture troubled by the corrosive commercial media and closed-end systems underpinned by modern technology, David Foster Wallace’s influence remains a force to be reckoned with.

Brussels is not empowered to be a policeman for liberal democracy in Europe. Not yet. But should it be? Following recent developments in Hungary and Romania, Jan-Werner Müller argues that it is legitimate for Brussels to interfere in individual member states as a democracy watchdog.

With German-bashing now firmly established as a European Volkssport, Dublin Review of Books editor Enda O’Doherty turns to the semi-barbarous German language; only to find that in the right hands, or expressed through the right vocal cords, German is indeed a very beautiful language.

The first printed newspaper appeared 150 years after Gutenberg, as the postal service replaced the messenger and news began to spread faster. Yet the format developed slowly, as Müller shows in a history of print media that concludes with the Internet age.

As part of a special issue of “Springerin” on anti-humanism, Timothy Druckrey reflects on the role of apparatus in a system that incorporates and monetizes virtually every form of transaction via omnivorous detection algorithms that mine personal data.

The suggestion that the division of the social product is as urgent a problem as its overall growth has led to political economy returning to both history and current politics, argues Charles S. Maier. High time, then, to analyse deprivation, wealth and inequality on a world scale.

As part of a special issue of “Host” on attitudes to murder in real-life and literary contexts, the American writer David Nemec reveals a sub-plot to a notorious unsolved murder case in which real life remains stubbornly resistant to fiction.

Contemporary architecture seems to have forgotten about the walls as a protection against external heat; they heavily rely on air conditioners instead, which not only use extreme amounts of electricity but also create urban heat islands, thus worsening the microclimate. A better solution is to revisit traditional architectural solutions, such as the Tulou roundhouses, which can inspire less demanding contemporary technologies.