The most dangerous enemies of the West are people who often claim to be saving it, such as Orbán, France’s Marine Le Pen, the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders, Kaczyński, and Trump. By: Ian Buruma In 1938, Aurel Kolnai, a Hungarian philosopher of Jewish origin living in exile, published his most famous …
Read More »COMMENT: Hoping for the best against trump
COMMENT: By Ian Buruma His election is more like an earthquake, unleashing forces no one can control Is there any reason for liberals to feel optimistic after a year of political disasters? Is there even a shred of silver lining to be found in the tatters of , Donald Trump’s …
Read More »American presidential beauty
By Ian Buruma A certain percentage of voters will not vote for a black man, whatever he says, or however good he looks in a debate What is the point of a presidential debate? In the context of American presidential elections, “debate” is something of a misnomer. When former French …
Read More »Post-national football?
By Ian Buruma The contest of devoted nationalism and enlightened self-interest is what made the European Championships so beautiful to watch Some of the more hysterical German newspapers blamed Germany’s defeat against Italy in the semi-finals of the European championship on the fact that few players bothered to sing the …
Read More »Ladies First, Women Last
By Ian Buruma The two things that get people most excited in cultural conflicts are religion and sex Many people still believe that the attacks of September 11, 2001, were not just acts of political terrorism, but part of a cultural war, a clash of civilizations. The two things that …
Read More »