Our society seems trapped in a system that on the one hand builds fantastic new technologies, and on the other hand destroys its own environment with great violence. We seem to be in conflict with nature, with immigrants, with the coronavirus, with radical Islam, with the far right, with the far left, with powerful global corporations, and so on and so forth. Even our own choices as consumers, as voters, and as individuals can contribute to this culture of conflict. Why do we thrive in so much conflict and not in peace? And are these conflicts somehow linked?
Together with philosopher and sociologist Willem Schinkel we’ll explore how our culture feeds conflict across the board. And we’ll try to answer the crucial question: is there a way out?
SG presents: The World at War series
In this series of talks, different thinkers explore the meaning of conflict in our times.
No longer a ‘great game’ of nation states declaring war, invading, and taking land, global aggression in our time takes place through trade, hacking, and proxies. Far from home, or hidden online, it remains largely unseen by us in the Netherlands. And yet ‘war’ in the sense of conflict is everywhere. Immigration, natural resource extractivism, the war on terror, the war on corona, the rise of the Chinese economy, climate change, and a multitude of cultural conflicts beg the question: what is war in the 21st century? And why do we fight?
