Truls Lie

Whether or not crypto-currencies deserve the hype, the hope remains that they can lead to more solidary forms of economy. Crypto has come to stay and, with a US debt crisis looming, may at some point become the more popular option.

Thor Halvorssen, founder of the Oslo Freedom Forum, has been described in the Norwegian media as a ‘suspect liberalist’. In a wide-ranging interview, Truls Lie, editor-in-chief of Eurozine network partner journal Ny Tid and Modern Times Review, asked him about dictatorships, his native Venezuela, anarchism and meritocracy.

What role should Norway play on the world stage? Le Monde diplomatique (Oslo) met the Norwegian foreign minister at the beginning of the new year to discuss his vision for Norway’s foreign policy. “I want to seize the opportunities where Norway can really make a difference,” says Gahr Støre. He emphasises that he has no desire to politicise Norway’s position as an “energy nation”, but points out that parts of Norway’s foreign policy are nonetheless based on “taking care of traditional interests” and that the interests of Norwegian industry provide opportunities to influence authoritarian regimes. He stresses that Norway cannot use its oil wealth to create a better world, but that the international political development and the climate changes pose major dilemmas. “The international economic system needs to be changed,” says Støre.

Filmmakers like Bergman and Antonioni have taught us to think in pictures. diplo editor Truls Lie on the two recently deceased film greats.

Unimpeded by Norwegian language, culture, or social conditions, Norway should be capable of creating and expanding a visionary arena for critically independent, international documentary film.

The French philosopher Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) gave us the tools to understand the media society and counteract the total assimilation into capitalist overproduction. Truls Lie finds a previously unpublished interview he made when Baudrillard visited Oslo in 2000. “Disappearing”, says Baudrillard, “should be an art form, a seductive way of leaving the world. I believe that part of disappearing is to disappear before you die, to disappear before you have run dry, while you still have something to say…”

Those who wield power choose to torture their opponents to the point where they are driven to strike back. Gotcha!

Do we really regard technology as an integral part of ourselves in the same way “machines” are composed of flesh and blood and social context? And doesn’t the rapture of losing oneself satisfy a natural psychological need? The machines are the compelling drug.

There are several reasons to believe that United Airlines flight 93 was shot down by an American fighter plane. Why are the American authorities being so secretive?

Some experiences with Microsoft help to explain why Bill Gates is stepping down. Perhaps Windows is not the only fulfilling religion one can follow. Le Monde diplomatique editor Truls Lie on his conversion from PC to Mac.

Norwegian Le Monde diplomatique editor Truls Lie looks at the new EU directive on telephone and Internet surveillance through the lens of Michel Foucault’s theory of the Panopticon. Humanity is getting a new self-image, writes Lie, formed by the information, control, and network societies.

2006 is the centenary year of the philosopher Hannah Arendt. Her relevance has never been greater. Arendt radically questions whether “politics” is still in the least bit significant. If opinions cannot be freely expressed, the political space disintegrates – a propensity we have witnessed in recent times. At the same time, being political involves seeing and listening to those who are “disregarded”.

Karl Marx himself saw capitalism in a positive light; in its very progress he saw its demise. A demise precipitated by the anarchistic heart of the network society?