MTR-to-do

ECOLOGY: We need such voices as Holly Jean Buck, who criticizes wishful thinking – precisely to help bring forward a hopeful, serious and long-lasting climate fight, beyond all easy optimism.

EUROPE: MODERN TIMES recently visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg, and met one of the founders of the Conference on the Future of Europe – where the following topics have been discussed: democratic values, climate change, social justice and job security, human rights, European defense and digital transformation. This is the basis for ORIENTERING this time, as we on the following pages have asked a number of Norwegian opinion leaders about much of the same. And here with Daniel Freund, who is a member of the party Die Grünen in Germany, we could not help but talk about climate.

ENVIRONMENT: "It's about changing people's mindset," says Volker Schlöndorff (83) to MODERN TIMES. The veteran German director himself describes his film about agronomist Tony Rinaudo's reconstruction of forests in Africa as propaganda.

GENREDIGERING The new gene technology is putting a lot of risk on patients, parents and researchers. When letting nature take its course becomes controversial, choice itself becomes a problem.

PUBLIC: The image of the public in the Enlightenment was an ideal image of enlightened citizens gathered in an audience that discussed – or 'deliberated' – to arrive at the best solution. But what happens when early hair loss, premature ejaculation and simulated disability become therapy texts for the endless frustration of living in one of the world's supposedly richest and best countries?

DESPOTER: The totalitarian regimes of the 20th century caused disasters and crimes of completely different dimensions than any pre-modern tyrants could have imagined. But what qualifies those in power over the centuries to become tyrants?

DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT: By following four young demonstrators, the documentary Faceless comes very close to the protest demonstrations in Hong Kong in 2019.

COMMUNITY: The need to stem the fear of an uncertain future is great today. Racism, xenophobia, violence and authoritarianism are growing all over the world. We present here some alternatives to this.

More people with ever-increasing energy consumption assume that we are accelerating technology development at an ever wilder pace.

The mathematician Hannah Fry has explored the shortcomings and possibilities of artificial intelligence. A fruitful division of labor between machine and human is possible – and necessary, she believes.

When the climate becomes the main focus for cross-border politics, this is not necessarily good news. Clima Leviathan is trying to provide a political forecast for the climate crisis.

EARTH OF THE EARTH: In a groundbreaking new collective novel, we can read about how the climate crisis is escalating and a new ecological world order is emerging.

Essay: What happens when we listen to a book while we are also doing something completely different?

INTERNET: Are we here presented with 224 pages of panic attacks?

RUSSIA: Mikhail Shishkin has long pointed out that Russia, unlike Germany, has never come to terms with its totalitarian past.

PROMISE: Jens Bjørneboe has made a storyline where Emma Goldman remembers the many events in her life. Here is a report from Grusomhetens Teater's rehearsal of Red Emma.

By studying the modes of hope and the irresolutions of hopelessness, Ronald Aronson shows us what changing the world entails.

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.

ACCELERATION: We have interviewed the thinker Armen Avanessian about "accelerationism" and the possibility of a new political thinking.

PHILOSOPHY: Both the outer and the inner world are today being 'colonised'. What is the connection between the destruction of the mental landscape and the natural landscape, of the inner and outer environment? We look at this in the light of Jonathan Crary and philosophy – including Martin Heidegger.

SCENARIO: MODERN TIMES here tries out an imaginary scenario to compare two irreconcilable conflicts. It is up to the reader to make up their own mind as to what this might mean.

PHILOSOPHY: The immune democracy. According to the Italian philosopher Donatella Di Cwesare, there exists today a political culture ruled by the fear of the foreigner and the future, a sham democracy in favor of security, control and short-term competitive considerations. And those who consider themselves "liberal" today have suffered greatly in standing up to the irrational impulses and decisions that govern the market and the pursuit of short-term profit.

PHILOSOPHY: While postmodernism involved an explosion, today's posthumous condition, according to Marina Garcés, involves a liquidation of all possibilities – an implosion. Yes, are the hopes we cling to today just market-adapted needs for hope?

Assange: "It is incomprehensible that an undermining of the rule of law to such an extent can take place in a democracy like Sweden," says Günter Wallraff in a conversation with MODERN TIMES about the Julian Assange case. And adds: "The death sentence is as good as handed down."

VISUALLY: Graphic satire has become a weapon. The first 'caricature war' arose between Protestants and Catholics. Caricature is about – also in Ukraine and Russia – increasing morale in one's own ranks by ridiculing the enemy with all possible means and stereotypes – and praising one's own side.