democracy

POWER:Today's autocratic regimes have turned what was once a domestic policy into a foreign policy doctrine. Autocracy Inc. is brilliant and terrifying from Anne Applebaum.

RESISTANCE: We try to analyze President Trump as a late-capitalist fascist whose political program is based on racial exclusion, xenophobia, transphobia, misogyny and a vision of national rebirth. This in a country where more than 30 people are killed by firearms every year, an average of over 000 victims a day. But also: we see a return to political crime to suppress protests. This is the case everywhere today, but besides the US it is especially visible in Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Emirates and Iran.

MEDIA: Populists use the same stylistic devices: scandalization, incitement and imitation – something that politicians exploit. Press ethics, source criticism, thoroughness and transparency are difficult enough in the midst of today's media crossfire, which is characterized by haste and a weak economy.

POLICY: In a time when right-wing radicals create false security in connection with myths about nation and family, the left must also learn to speak to emotions. It matters little whether one is right; one must also appeal to people's emotions. Our vulnerability needs a language that politicians understand.

MODERN TIMES CONVERSATION: We hear from Pål Steigan about his political background, upbringing and thinking. Also about the establishment of the newspaper Klassekampen, and his time in the AKP (ML) and Rødt parties. He is contrarian and censored in Norway when it comes to many issues. We have chosen to let him speak with his own arguments, where we meet him in Italy at the Franciscan monastery he has furnished as a writing room and seminar venue.

ECOLOGY: Must the limitations of democracy bear the responsibility for our collective climate defeat? What crime does the Norwegian state commit, for example, when it allows the mining company Nordic Mining to dump the toxic substance SIBX in the Førdefjord? in Odin Lysaker's theory of democracy, love and care become political, and ecology existential.

USA: The European political-media elite portrays Trump as the new Hitler, but is nevertheless in a great hurry to subordinate itself to the USA economically, militarily and politically. Glenn Diesen analyzes the US situation now.

TRANSFORMATION: In How to Save the City, the overall challenge is still how we can re-establish our relationship with nature.

ECOLOGY: With today's western consumer standards, how can we as environmentalists avoid the stigma of hypocrisy? Eat less meat, drive less, waste less resources? It is a prerequisite for the freedom of the next generations – because technological solutions cannot carry the load alone.

PALESTINE/ISRAEL:What is it like to be the UN's special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories? After the launch of the Italian book J'accuse, we spoke to Francesca Albanese – about Israel's war against Gaza, genocide, anti-Semitism and impunity, based on her specialization in international law. She talks about political, legal, psychological and epistemic violence resulting from how Israel, with the consent of the West, has oppressed the Palestinians for decades. (And what about the Oslo agreement, see the sub-section.)

LOVING ANARCHISM: Here we have ten chapters on topics such as water shortages, democracy, environmental challenges, artificial intelligence and economics. A writer who is more concerned with social than technological innovations. For example, he believes that citizens' councils with real power, debate and direct decisions can be established without representative democracy being abolished.

REBELLION: Through this essay we are taken on an exciting journey through revolutions all over the world. The book refers, for example, to the 2010 uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain.

IRAQ: In Iraq, young people trust neither the politicians nor the parties. MODERN TIMES has met the director and producer of the film Baghdad on Fire, which deals with the mobilization of the youth fighting for change in the bad governance of the country's leaders. Karrar Al-Azzawi says the following about the US invasion in 2003: "They brought 'democracy', but we got only chaos and corruption – with politicians who only wanted to steal. The religious leaders were also involved in this."

MODERN TIMES CONVERSATIONS: We talk to the former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, the man who could have become Prime Minister of Great Britain, about current issues – such as military rearmament, Ukraine, Israel, climate justice and work, security, democracy, citizens' councils, and not least a hope for the future.

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.

Hat: Turkish-German Seyda Kurt is concerned with hatred that produces tenderness. Hate is often rooted in racism, misogyny, xenophobia and prejudice.