Pankaj Mishra: "Age of Anger: A History of the Present" (Wie gaat er met me mee lezen?)

One of our most important public intellectuals reveals the hidden history of our current global crisis
How can we explain the origins of the great wave of paranoid hatreds that seem inescapable in our close-knit world―from American shooters and ISIS to Donald Trump, from a rise in vengeful nationalism across the world to racism and misogyny on social media? In Age of Anger, Pankaj Mishra answers our bewilderment by casting his gaze back to the eighteenth century before leading us to the present.
He shows that as the world became modern, those who were unable to enjoy its promises―of freedom, stability, and prosperity―were increasingly susceptible to demagogues. The many who came late to this new world―or were left, or pushed, behind―reacted in horrifyingly similar ways: with intense hatred of invented enemies, attempts to re-create an imaginary golden age, and self-empowerment through spectacular violence. It was from among the ranks of the disaffected that the militants of the nineteenth century arose―angry young men who became cultural nationalists in Germany, messianic revolutionaries in Russia, bellicose chauvinists in Italy, and anarchist terrorists internationally.
Today, just as then, the wide embrace of mass politics and technology and the pursuit of wealth and individualism have cast many more billions adrift in a demoralized world, uprooted from tradition but still far from modernity―with the same terrible results.
Making startling connections and comparisons, Age of Anger is a book of immense urgency and profound argument. It is a history of our present predicament unlike any other.

Te koop via Bol.com (handig als je het als boek wilt) en Amazon.com (als je et als e-boek op je telefoon wilt lezen)







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Wellicht is mijn boekenblog ook interessant: http://dutchysbookreviews.blogspot.nl/l

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Nederlands multiculturalisme haalt de New York Times

Amid Rise of Multiculturalism, Dutch Confront Their Questions of Identity

Herman Wouters for The New York Times

Albert Cuyp Market, on a popular street in Amsterdam. In light of the mass killings in Norway, the Netherlands' population of Muslim immigrants from Morocco and Turkey has stirred debate.

By STEVEN ERLANGER

Published: August 13, 2011

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AMSTERDAM — Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian who admitted to mass killings last month, was obsessed with Islam and had high praise for the Netherlands, an important test case in the resurgence of the anti-immigrant right in northern Europe.

Related

• Times Topic: Netherlands

ROOM FOR DEBATE

Will the Norway Massacre Deflate Europe's Right Wing?

The killings could weaken nationalist fervor in Europe, as the Oklahoma City bombing cooled off militias in the U.S. in the late 1990s.

•  Post a Comment

The sometimes violent European backlash against Islam and its challenge to national values can be said to have started here, in a country born from Europe’s religious wars. After a decade of growing public anger, an aggressively anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim politician, Geert Wilders, leads the third-largest party, which keeps the government in power.

In Slotervaart, a majority immigrant neighborhood in southwestern Amsterdam, Maria Kuhlman and her friends watched Muslim families stroll by on a Ramadan afternoon, some of the men in robes and beards, the women wearing headscarves. A large blond woman shouted, “Go Wilders!”

Mr. Wilders’ Freedom Party, which combines racist language with calls for more social spending, won 15.5 percent of the vote in June 2010. He was recently acquitted of charges of hate speech for comparing the Koran to “Mein Kampf” and calling mosques “palaces of hatred.” He wants all immigrants and their children deported and warns of the supposed Muslim plot to create “Eurabia.” He declined repeated interview requests.

While many Dutch recoil at his language, he touches on real fears. “Sometimes I’m afraid of Islam,” Ms. Kuhlman said. “They’re taking over the neighborhood and they’re very strong. I don’t love Wilders. He’s a pig, but he says what many people think.”

Now, after Norway, the Dutch are taking stock. The killings frightened everyone, said Kathleen Ferrier, a Christian Democrat legislator born in Surinam, who had objected to her party joining a Wilders-supported government. “Norway makes it clear how much Dutch society is living on the edge of its nerves,” she said. “Wilders says hateful things and no one objects. We have freedom of speech, but you also have to be responsible for the effect of your words.”

Taboos about discussing ethnicity and race — founded in shame about delivering Dutch Jews to the Nazis — are long gone.

Ms. Kuhlman has lived in the Slotervaart neighborhood for 36 years but says, “I no longer feel at home.” Built in the 1950s, Slotervaart is now about 60 percent immigrants or their children, most from Morocco or Turkey. Crime rates are high, especially among the second generation.

She remembered sunbathing topless on her balcony in the 1980s. “It’s inconceivable now,” she said. “Now my next-door neighbor doesn’t even greet me in the hallway, he can’t look at me, and it’s been 28 years,” Ms. Kuhlman said.

Then she laughed bitterly. “He doesn’t work; I work. I work all shifts. I pay taxes. I work for them!”

Willem Stuyter, nursing a beer, broke in. “It’s already too late,” he said. “In 10 years this will be a Muslim state.”

Mr. Wilders is the political inheritor of two more flamboyant and intellectual figures —Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh, who both spoke about the dangers of Islam to Dutch civic culture. Both warned of homophobia, anti-Semitism and suppression of women, and both were killed — Mr. Fortuyn in 2002 by an animal-rights activist and Mr. van Gogh in 2004 by a Dutch Muslim who shot him, tried to cut off his head and attached a note to his body with a knife.

The brutal murder of Mr. van Gogh after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was a turning point, giving a focus to social unease and anxiety about immigration, multiculturalism and Muslims.

If part of the Dutch anxiety is about identity, there are similar concerns among Muslims here. There are two parallel sets of identity crises, said Ahmed Marcouch, 42, son of an illiterate Moroccan immigrant and now a Labor member of Parliament. Most Muslims came from poor, less educated parts of Morocco and eastern Turkey, and clung to traditional values and the mosque as bulwarks against a secular society that promoted individualism, gender equality and gay rights.

“They didn’t speak Dutch, they didn’t know Holland, and they saw the sexual revolution, feminism and youth anarchism as a provocation, as part of a decadent society,” Mr. Marcouch said. He remembers his father saying with contempt, “Women are the bosses here.”

(Page 2 of 2)

Their children, fluent in Dutch but not readily accepted, were even more at risk. A significant number, he concedes, turned to crime. They had their own identity problems, Mr. Marcouch said, asking: “Who am I? Where am I really from? Can I be Dutch?” He described his own son, 22, discussing these questions with his 10-year-old sister. “They won’t recognize you as a full citizen,” his son told her.

Related

• Times Topic: Netherlands

ROOM FOR DEBATE

Will the Norway Massacre Deflate Europe's Right Wing?

The killings could weaken nationalist fervor in Europe, as the Oklahoma City bombing cooled off militias in the U.S. in the late 1990s.

•  Post a Comment

At the same time, Mr. Marcouch said, Dutch politicians were promoting economic integration — language training, job training. “They didn’t understand the importance of religious identity among the immigrants,” he said. They dismissed it as backward even as they failed to understand the anger a growing immigrant population was creating. “The fear,” he said, “is on both sides.”

Some, like Rob Riemen, director of the Nexus Institute, a research organization, think that Mr. Wilders represents a new fascism, using Islam as the scapegoat for every ill. “Wilders was a key source of inspiration for Breivik,” Mr. Riemen said. “But the Dutch don’t want to acknowledge that we see fascism in the face of Wilders. To call him a populist is to disguise what is really going on.”

Social democracy has lost its way and become too tied to materialism and the market, Mr. Riemen said. “And history teaches us that fascism pops up when social democracy loses its compass.”

But others argue that analogies to fascism overstate the weakness of Dutch society and the appeal of the far right. Paul Nieuwenburg of Leiden University says that many issues are jumbled together in the growing revulsion against immigration: fear of “Islam,” as if it were monolithic; of terrorism; of globalization; of joblessness; of the growing influence of European Union bureaucrats in Brussels; of austerity; of the perils to the euro and the Dutch budget of Greek, Portuguese, Irish, Spanish and now Italian debt; of juvenile criminality, especially among youth from Morocco and the Antilles.

“There is a growing protest vote,” Mr. Nieuwenburg said. “People feel let down by the traditional parties.” And the traditional parties, reacting to the rise of Wilders, have all fled from the language of multiculturalism. “The taboos are gone, and now you’re suspect if you say anything positive about multiculturalism,” said Henk Overbeek, a political scientist at VU University.

The Labor Party thought it would win the 2010 elections by fielding Job Cohen, a former mayor of Amsterdam who was a champion of multiculturalism. Mr. Cohen now takes a less accommodating tone, speaking of the problems of immigration, dislocation and juvenile crime to the native population. “They feel they have moved without moving,” he said. “They live in the same house as 30 years ago, but the environment has changed.”

Mr. Cohen calls the government’s reliance on Mr. Wilders “the worst possible solution, because it gives him a lot of influence without responsibility.”

But Eddie Dekker, 38, who works for a delivery company, thinks that Mr. Wilders is doing just fine. “He’s saying what many people think and don’t want to say,” Mr. Dekker said. “I don’t agree with everything, but 70 percent of what he says is what I’ve thought for the last 20 years.”

Muslims in Europe are not going to leave, Mr. Marcouch said. Pointing to the Arab Spring, he said: “Muslims need to reach out to the others and say, ‘Freedom is our common value, and we must all fight for it and defend it.’ ”

In the United States, citizenship once granted is never questioned, said Mr. Overbeek of VU University. “But in Europe it’s never quite established, no matter how long you’ve been here. Here it’s still, ‘When did you get here, and when are you going back?’ ”

East of Amsterdam, in Almere, the youngest city in the Netherlands, 30 percent voted for Mr. Wilders.

Shopping in the city center, Raihsa Sahinoer, 24, born here of Surinamese immigrants, was not surprised. “Wilders says we all have to go back even if we were born here,” she said. “It’s not only about Muslims, it’s about colored people, too.”

She lives as the Dutch do, she said. “But they tell us if you’re colored, you’re not Dutch.” Does she feel Dutch? “No,” she said, then paused, then asked: “What is Dutch?”

Bron: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/world/europe/14dutch.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

Law blog Klik op +1 als u dit een interessant artikel vindt en Google zal het dan beter zichtbaar maken in de zoekresultaten.

Lezingenreeks over burgerschap, migratie en nationalisme

Van eind 2008 tot de zomer van 2009 organiseerden de Integratiedienst en Intercultureel Centrum de Centrale voor de eerste keer een reeks lezingen onder de titel ‘Ongehoord. Quo vadis Europa? Over Europa, Verlichting en globalisering’. Nu is er de nieuwe reeks ‘Ongehoord. Over burgerschap, migratie en nationalisme’. Het is een thema dat nauw aansluit bij vragen die ook al in die eerste editie kwamen bovendrijven.

Sinds een paar eeuwen is Europa de bakermat van het concept natiestaat, de staat georganiseerd op basis van een homogene etnisch culturele natie. De laatste halve eeuw is West-Europa echter een belangrijk immigratiegebied geworden. Hoe moet het verder met de natiestaat nu zich op zijn grondgebied grote groepen migranten uit andere etnisch-culturele gemeenschappen vestigen?

In vijf lezingen en gesprekken verkennen de Integratiedienst en De Centrale vanuit een telkens iets andere invalshoek dit vraagstuk, dat meer dan ooit in vele vormen en gedaanten (integratie, inburgering, islamdebat, enz.) de publiek opinie beroert.

VRT-journalist Werner Trio (Klara) leidt alle gesprekken in goede banen.

Lezingen

De eerste lezing ‘Identiteit in tijden van globalisering’ heeft plaats op maandag 8 maart 2010 om 20.30 uur. Centrale gastspreker is Maykel Verkuyten van de Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen van de Universiteit Utrecht. Hij verricht onderzoek naar de etnische, nationale en religieuze identiteit van jonge mensen.

Hij zoomt in op identiteit en hoe die wordt geconstrueerd. Wat is identiteit? Waarom willen mensen zich absoluut tot een groep bekennen? Wat bepaalt waarom en wanneer iemand zich identificeert met een natie, een etnie of een religie? Waarom haalt nu eens de ene identiteit de bovenhand en dan weer de andere?

En hoe verhouden die identiteiten zich tot elkaar? Zijn ze wel altijd verenigbaar? Kunnen ze complementair zijn? Of leiden ze onherroepelijk tot een ‘botsing van culturen’?

Na de lezing gaat professor Verkuyten in gesprek met Ludo Abicht (filosoof en publicist) en Meryem Kanmaz (doctor politieke en sociale wetenschappen, Expertisecentrum voor Islamitische Culturen in Vlaanderen).

De tweede lezing ‘Voor God of vaderland?’ vindt plaats op maandag 29 maart 2010 om 20.30 uur

Centrale gastspreker is Martijn de Koning (docent Islam en Arabisch, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen). Hij verrichtte onderzoek naar de manier waarop Marokkaans-Nederlandse moslimjongens en -meisjes met hun religieuze identiteit omgaan.

Gespreksgasten: Bahattin Koçak (voorzitter vzw Via Dialoog, Centrum voor Cultuur en Diversiteit), Patrick Loobuyck (doctor in de moraalfilosofie, Universiteiten Antwerpen & Gent) en Rik Pinxten (professor culturele antropologie Universiteit Gent, voorzitter Humanistische Vrijzinnige Vereniging).

De derde lezing ‘Taal en onderwijs: herauten van de natie?’ vindt plaats op maandag 26 april 2010 om 20.30 uur.

Centrale gastspreker is Christiane Timmerman (Centrum voor Migratie en Interculturele Studies, Universiteit Antwerpen). Zij verricht onderzoek naar integratieprocessen bij verschillende groepen in het onderwijs.

Gespreksgasten: Piet Van Avermaet (directeur Steunpunt Diversiteit en Leren, Universiteit Gent) en Metin Özbel (directeur Lucernacollege Gent).

In het najaar wordt de reeks afgerond met ‘De migrant tussen wens en werkelijkheid’ (oktober) en ‘Voorbij de natiestaat?’ (november).

Praktisch

De lezingenreeks ‘Ongehoord. Over burgerschap, migratie en nationalisme.’vindt plaats in De Centrale – Turbinezaal, Kraankinderstraat 2, 9000 Gent.

De toegang is gratis. Voor het programma kan men terecht op de website www.decentrale.be.

1. Identiteit in tijden van globalisering
maandag 8 maart 2010 om 20.30 uur
2. Voor God of vaderland?
maandag 29 maart om 20.30 uur
3. Taal en onderwijs: herauten van de natie?
maandag 26 april om 20.30 uur

Informatie:

Integratiedienst
Kaprijkestraat 12
9000 Gent
Tel.: 09 265 76 76
Tel.: 09 265 76 70
Fax: 09 265 76 70
E-mail: integratiedienst@gent.be
Openingsuren:
maandag van 8:00 tot 13:00 uur en van 14:00 tot 16:30 uur
dinsdag van 8:00 tot 13:00 uur en van 14:00 tot 16:30 uur
woensdag van 8:00 tot 13:00 uur en van 14:00 tot 16:30 uur
donderdag van 8:00 tot 13:00 uur en van 14:00 tot 16:30 uur
vrijdag van 8:00 tot 13:00 uur en van 14:00 tot 16:30 uur

Mevrouw Anja Van Den Durpel, directeur

Bron: www.gent.be