(b.1957) Professor at the Centre for Semiotics at the University of Aarhus and the editor of the periodical KRITIK. His books include: The Power of Thought. The History of Western Ideas I-III (with Hans Siggaard and Ole Knudsen); The Significance of Form; The Heavens of Rationality; and his doctoral dissertation Diagrammatology. Together with Jens-Martin Eriksen he has written The Anatomy of Hate and The Scenography of War, about Bosnia and Serbia, and, in 2008, The Politics of Segregation. Multiculturalism – Ideology and Reality.
The right to criticize religious tenets held by a minority has again been aggressively challenged in public debate, following the attack on “Charlie Hebdo” in Paris. Jens-Martin Eriksen and Frederik Stjernfelt take issue with the argument that free speech is meant to be used against “those in power”, not against minorities.
The controversy on multiculturalism has changed the political fronts. The Left defends respect for minority cultures while the Right stands guard over the national culture. But these two fronts merely constitute two variants of a culturalist ideology, argue Jens-Martin Eriksen and Frederik Stjernfelt.
In 1986 the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences published a “Memorandum” that compiled the central theses of Serbian nationalism. Several authors have seen in this document evidence of early and systematic preparation for the establishment of a state of Greater Serbia, and with it the war in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
