Norwegian writer, translator and lecturer living in Berlin. His first book, Frykt og avsky i demokratiet (‘Fear and loathing in democracy’), Vagant 2020, investigates the crisis of democracy and the notions of crowds and masses in western thought from the early nineteenth century to the present. 
The governments now sanctioning Russian oligarchs forget to mention that it was the free-market policies of the ’90s that created them. In order to regain the initiative after misreading Russia’s aggression, the Left needs to point out how the war for democracy in Ukraine is part of its own struggle for global justice in the 21st century.
Global heating, environmental collapse and increasing global scarcity: no wonder the politics of perpetual advancement are failing to convince. Progressives must brace themselves for the return of some of their most detested ideas. But dismissing the nostalgists as reactionary can no longer be their response.
