"There will probably be a terrible outcry over the exhibition."
PHOTO ART: The lonely person is a prerequisite for the expressive world artist who came to the fore with Edvard Munch in the 1890s. A new biography is now available: According to de Figueiredo, the frivolous reality the bohemians in Kristiania clamored for in the 1880s came to fruition in 1890s Berlin, where Munch was part of a milieu that had conversations about "naturalism and socialism, decadence and Darwinism and psychology – as well as an ever-so-small dose of Satanism”.
Russophobia and anti-Russian propaganda
ADVERTISING: Glenn Diesen has undertaken a comprehensive academic analysis of 'Russophobia' which we get a small glimpse into with this introductory chapter from his book Russiophobia: Propaganda in International Politics (2022). The West's relationship with this world's largest country is characterized by a mixture of fear and the teacher's superiority.
It is not possible to wipe out Hamas
HAMAS: Leila Seurat provides a good basis for understanding what went terribly wrong on October 7, when Hamas made a drastic change of course. The purpose of it all was to get the Palestinian cause back on the global agenda, and it has largely succeeded.
The Western hegemony plans
ISRAEL/UKRAINA: Support for arms to Ukraine and support for Israel are connected. Everyone who in various ways supports the Western expansion plan with support for Ukraine in the ongoing war, in practice supports the Western hegemony plans, which enable Israel's genocide.
When violence becomes the only thing
POWER: According to Hannah Arendt, the use of violence, weapons and bombs renders us politically speechless. Can her particular analyzes of power teach us anything about the violence that is being carried out from and in Gaza today?
Personal and impressionistic war pictures
NORWEGIAN GAME FILM: 83-year-old Knut Erik Jensen is back with Longing for the present. A film that does not fit neatly into the ranks of modern Norwegian blockbusters about the Second World War.
When the peace prize went to a Gestapo prisoner
PEACE PRIZE: MODERN TIMES has chosen to reprint this article about the Nobel Peace Prize from ORINTERING 50 years ago. There are 351 candidates nominated this year, of which Jens Stoltenberg (with 'weapons for peace') and Volodymyr Zelenskyj have been proposed for this award. Former laureate Carl von Ossietzky was one of German militarism's most uncompromising opponents. Here we see how the Norwegian right-wing press reacted to this.
In the shadows of a desk
OCCUPATION: EU parliamentarian and former trade union leader Marianne Vind has written about the problems on the European labor market in the 21st century. It could have been an important book. It just isn't.
Confessional poetry or love poetry
POETRY: Vietnamese-American Ocean Vuong's poetry is corporeal and sensual. And Wales' foremost female poet Menna Elfyn writes in the Celtic-Welsh minority language Cymric. We present them both here.
To live a simpler and calmer life
ECOLOGY: Henry David Thoreau provides the recipe for a wandering life in balance with nature, but arguably also for a leisurely life in balance with oneself. He can be said to be more relevant than ever.
The primary opening to the world
MUSICAL LIFE: With The Use of the Bodies and What is Philosophy?, Giorgio Agamben returns to his early main interest before the first homo sacer book – namely to being, to language, to thought and the blissful life. It is also about where you are – where you simultaneously discover life (ontology) and how life could be (politics, the happy life).
Mimetic desire and violence
PSYCHOLOGY: How has a thoroughly pessimistic view of humanity arisen? That man must be fundamentally sinful is a cornerstone of Western thinking. Or?
The offended male
SEX: Here the male author asks: "How could I understand that I found myself in a culture that wants to identify me with the very heroes that legitimize this culture's dominance?"
Robot dogs, fake information, AI and drones
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Do we have control over the technology we use? We need regulations when it comes to technology, robots and AI – and it's urgent.
To represent the multitude and diversity of the world
AVANTGARDE: The program of the avant-garde was often about 'wild socialism' – the socialism that was critical of the Soviet Union. Aesthetically pleasing is that they uncompromisingly challenged our idea of success.
Search: dialogue with the living
AVANTGARDE: MODERN TIMES has chosen two 'readings' of Mikkel Bolt's new book. Should we draw experience from the avant-garde, or will it be enough with a representative democracy? Bolt provides material on the background of the changing avant-gardes' unsuccessful attempts to influence society from 1917 onwards.
Children's digital use
INTERNET: Are we here presented with 224 pages of panic attacks?
"Resilience and resilience become ideals in times of crisis."
MODERNITY: Sociologist Andreas Reckwitz (b. 1970) has increasingly become a provider of premises in the German social debate. MODERN TIMES meets him at home in Berlin, close to the Humboldt University, where he is a professor. Among other things, he talks about three cultural crises: a political crisis, a crisis in terms of recognition, and a crisis of self-realization.
The intolerance of divergence
TRANSFORMATION: Hartmut Rosa is a central critic of modernity. He emphasizes the importance of our resonant experiences – be it with another, a work or a book – as a central part of being human.
Ecological and political breakdown
ENVIRONMENT: The Baltic Sea has become an unlimited landfill of deadly substances. This stems from the development and pollution of the river Oder. But what about the environmental side? The Oder Delta is a vast, cross-border network of rivers, lakes and life-giving wetlands.
Life is short, and it is urgent to make the right choices
RELIGION: Religion constitutes a war against the spontaneous. Is there an equality between being an obedient citizen and being godly?
A converted military industry
CULTURE OF PEACE: MODERN TIMES prints here an extract from the book Fredskultur. Utopia or security policy alternative? Is it possible to envisage a change of the military industry to more safeguarding of civilian purposes and preparedness?
"Agriculture leaves deserts everywhere" DECLINE: The
NEDVEKST: The Japanese re-reading of Marx advocates green communism or degrowth. The historical overview is impressive, and the analyzes are inspiring. Will a socialist or communist society necessarily be better, ecologically speaking? And should use value now come into play instead of exchange value?
Time is a pond that fills up again and again
TRAVEL ESSAY: To southern Lithuania, to Poland and back. What does it mean for Reffstrup's 80-year-old mother-in-law at such a late age that time has turned a knot – that the threat from Russia has returned? What does it mean to live in a time without living in its progress?
The absurd distinction between so-called civilized and barbaric violence
TORTURE: Veena Das' research shows that systematic torture is part of modern democracy.