Why Europe Must Learn the Language of Power
I'm just back from another stimulating Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in Munich where all the talk was about the growing technological and political gap with the United States and China. From Machiavelli and Hobbes to Napoleon and Bismarck, Europe invented the modern concept of state power. But decades of outsourcing security to NATO and the US have left the continent dangerously rusty both in the language and execution of power. According to Marta Mucznik, a senior analyst at the Brussels-based left-leaning International Crisis Group, "projecting power is the language of today's world." And unless European politicians relearn it, Mucznik warns, that growing gap between Europe and the bipolar reality of a US-China centric world will only continue to dramatically widen.
Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
MinaLima on The Art of Designing the Graphics For the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beast Films
There's More to Life Than Politics: Orville Schell's Fictional Message to Xi Jinping
Kristin Keffeler: Why Do We Care About the Scions of Wealthy American Families Struggling to Find Purpose?
Josiah Ober: In a Time of Hostility Toward Reason and Science, What Can the Ancient Greeks Teach us About the Value of Rationality?
Michael J. Wolf: If AI, Web3.0, and the Metaverse Are Utopian Pipe Dreams, What Internet Innovation Can Actually Help Save the World?
Robert Draper on Weapons of Mass Distraction: How the Republican Party Lost Its Mind After the January 6 Insurrection
Bruce Davis: Do the Oscars Have a Future in an Age of Superhero Sequels and Prequels?
Shahan Mufti: How the 1977 Siege of Washington Marks the Beginning of Our Preoccupation With "Terrorist" Violence and Real-Time News
Andrew Koppelman: How American Libertarianism Became the Delusional Ideology of Greedy, Selfish Capitalists
Fred Hogge on An Icy Truth: How We've Used Cold to Transform Humanity and Destroy the Environment
Roger Ballen: Why Good Photography Should Get Underneath Our Skin and Assault Us
Michael P. Leiter: Why the Latest Battle Between Elon Musk and Twitter Works Is Part of a Bigger War About Burnout and the Need to Manage People's Relationships With Their Jobs
Gary Marcus: Why Smart Machines Will Probably Never Replicate the Human Act of Writing and How Writers Should View AI Suspiciously —"Like a Hawk"