In June, 2018, the political commentator Fareed Zakaria found himself in the Campo de' Fiori, in the center of Rome, with Steve Bannon, who was then President Trump's chief strategist. Bannon-whom Zakaria describes as a "volatile personality" and as a conduit for the international resurgence of nativist sentiment-had come to Italy to help convince two populist parties, one on the left and the other on the right, that their interests were aligned. He drew Zakaria's attention to a monument to Giordano Bruno, the sixteenth-century poet and cosmologist who held Copernican views about the universe and was burned at the stake for heresy. Where Galileo sold out and recanted, Bannon explained, Bruno was a real hero.
Zakaria was surprised by Bannon's admiration for Bruno, who is widely regarded as a progressive, protoEnlightenment figure. But Bannon was less interested in the substance of Bruno's opinions than in his uncompromising defiance. It was Bannon's conviction, Zakaria writes, "that in times of turmoil, take-no-prisoners radicalism is the only option." In his new book, "Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present" (Norton), Zakaria concedes the turmoil but resists the radicalism. Everywhere you look, he says, you can see dramatic change.
The rules-based international order has been destabilized. Traditional left-right divides have been transfigured. The trade-friendly economic consensus of the post-Communist era has yielded to protectionism and autarky. Given that we may be living through "one of the most revolutionary ages in history," he thinks that lessons can be drawn from previous revolutionary ages, especially those that involved actual revolutions.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 01, 2024-Ausgabe von The New Yorker.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 01, 2024-Ausgabe von The New Yorker.
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STUNTED
\"The Fall Guy.\"
MOTHERS OF US ALL
Paula Vogel's \"Mother Play,\" Shaina Taub's \"Suffs,\" and Amy Herzog's \"Mary Jane.\"
PURE PLEASURE
The \"Radical Optimism\" of Dua Lipa.
PARADISE LOST
The search for a home that never was in Claire Messud's new novel.
ORIGIN STORY
What do we hope to learn from our prehistory?
DEATH IN VENICE
At the Biennale, the past dignifies the weird, desperate present.
WE'RE NOT SO DIFFERENT, YOU AND I
\"You'll never get away with this!\" Ultra Man vowed as he wriggled in his chains. \"You may destroy me, but you'll never destroy what I stand for!\"
STONES OF CONTENTION
The British Museum faces accusations of cultural theft-and actual theft.
A CAMPUS IN CRISIS
Dissent and defiance at Columbia's pro-Palestine protests.
ARROW RETRIEVER
I am an arrow retriever. After a batrows are costly and time-consuming to make. It seems like a terrible waste-and maybe even a sin―for an arrow to fall to the ground without hitting someone. Even if the arrow kills somebody, it can be reused to kill someone else. As Randolf the Scot famously said, \"Arrows don't grow on trees.\"