If we take stock of another year on our planet Earth, then humanity is still in crisis mode. When we (re)recognise Christmas as the festival of the (solar) turning point, wonderful perspectives suddenly emerge.
Two weeks full of events that reflect the sad fact that humanity is apparently incapable of learning from past miseries. A lack of education and contempt for old age could be the reasons for this.
Black Friday in retail aims to make people forget the black days, but this time it doesn't really succeed because many retailers are struggling with in some cases massive problems themselves. And even a brief consumer frenzy ends in reality, which is anything but rosy. Is there any hope?
Governing on the basis of mercy for citizens is not a sustainable form of "rule". Unfortunately, there are numerous examples of how this approach is used, be it in relation to rising energy costs, the handling of Julian Assange or the punishment of educational offences.
It would be nice if we didn't learn for school, but for life. But our "Verbildungssystem" leads to everything that makes the world an uncomfortable place: wars, power struggles, the power of money and a lack of warmth.
More than everything is by no means more of the eternal same: it is a living existence in the face of death. In order to leave the hamster wheel of the everyday madness of our world, we have to take time and remember that we are mortal.
The delusion of feasibility and the intoxication with power are the downsides of the inherently good human quality of shaping the world. Bearing in mind the admonitions that power corrupts or reveals the true character of the powerful, it is important to use it carefully.
German-Russian political scientist Matthias Penkin about his impressions of Russia, the risk about speaking up, Putins speech on May 9th and the importance of staying in contact with the civil society of Russia.
