BlomCast

Modernity is a Viennese phenomenon, says historian Richard Cockett, who is currently working as senior editor at The Economist. The cauldron of Vienna ca. 1900 with its dynamism, its migrants and its cultural new beginnings and especially the political and intellectual energies after the First World War created panoply of new approaches which revolutionised life far beyond Vienna, and indeed Europe. As creative minds and experienced city planners, film directors, engineers, philosophers, economists, artists, and designers fled from the Nazis, the world would never be quite the same again, from fitted kitchens to neo-classical economics, from Hollywood to shopping malls, from nuclear physics to right-wing populism, all had their debut what had been an imperial capital and was now an experiment in living.

"We Have Never Been Woke" is the title of Musa Al-Gharbi’s brilliantly polemic analysis of an educational and social elite that believes it has all the answers. He calls this professional class symbolic capitalists — people who make their living from manipulating the symbols of our societies, i.e. journalists, academics, creative professions, the media, NGOs, etc. The turning point here is the arrival of wokeness as the ultimate arbiter of truth, coupled with great moral rigidity and intolerance of other opinions. The reason for this, Musa suggests, may be elite overproduction, which means that too many qualified people are competing for two few jobs, and therefore have to develop not only professional, but also ideological points of distinction and advantage. Has symbolic capitalism taken over the public sphere?

Die Artenvielfalt bricht weltweit so rasend schnell zusammen, dass die Naturwissenschaft schon von einem Sechsten Artensterben sprechen. In Europa sind beispielsweise die Insekten um bis zu 80% zurückgegangen, die der Singvögel um etwa 50%. Franz Essl ist Biodiversitätsforscher an der Universität Wien. Seine Wahl zum Wissenschaftler des Jahres 2023 verdankt er auch seiner Arbeit in der Wissenschaftsvermittlung und als politischer und wissenschaftlicher Berater verschiedener NGOs. Der Einsatz für die Erhaltung der Artenvielfalt in der eigenen Landschaft war ihm schon immer so wichtig, wie ihre Erforschung. Ein Gespräch über Naturwissenschaft und eine Kindheit am Land, über Wissenschaft und Macht. Ist es möglich, eine ökologische Transformation voranzutreiben ohne die Bürger:innen dabei zu verlieren? Wie kann eine wirklich breite demokratische Diskussion über eine gemeinsame Zukunft entstehen?

In this fascinating conversation we explore the history of liberal ideas from Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mills until today. Samuel Moyn is particularly interested in liberalism during the Cold War and the changes these ideas were subjected to during the battle of the ideologies. But we also explore how important theological traditions are for liberal thinking and how the philosophical principles underlying this broad current of ideas — freedom from oppression, emancipation, and human rights — can be revived in our current world.