Yascha Mounk

Berlusconiland

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:50:00 -0500

On Silvio Berlusconi, Maurizio Viroli, and civic republicanism:

Absolute monarchs are able to cow their courtiers into submission by wielding the implicit threat of pain, imprisonment or execution. Berlusconi never had such tyrannical powers. Even so, his underlings acted as if they were mere courtiers—apparently, the hope of getting rich was quite enough to keep them in line. This makes the Italian case all the more relevant at a time when the superrich and their political enablers seek to wield ever more influence over democracies in a climate of austerity. It seems that to achieve their purposes, our would-be masters need not impede our rights or liberties: the promise of a farthing of their vast riches might be quite enough to turn many of us into docile servants.

A Continent's Discontent

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:16:00 -0500

On Walter Laqueur and the European Dream, in the Wall Street Journal.

If the years following the end of the Cold War now seem an era of dreams, then our current moment may one day be known as the era of nightmares. Just as Mr. Fukuyama and others once predicted that the West’s ideas would soon be ascendant the world over, so commentators like Niall Ferguson are now fretting about the West’s descent into irrelevance […]

But the embattled dream that most Europeans truly care about might not be such a bad model for Europe’s—and indeed America’s—future after all. Even if, one day, we will no longer be able to impress faraway nations with the might of our armies, hope remains that we can still provide our citizens a decent life.

The Pursuit of Italy

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:07:00 -0500

A review of David Gilmour’s interesting history of the Italian penninsula at bookforum.

Berlusconi has contributed more than anyone alive to turning Italy into a paese di merda. But his rule, too, shall pass. If the Italian peninsula has remained an enchanted place despite Caligula, Nero, Cesare Borgia, Vittorio Emanuele and Benito Mussolini, it will also manage to weather a grubby little corrupter of men by the name of Silvio Berlusconi.

Germany Is Not That Sorry Anymore

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:03:00 -0500

An op-ed on Germany’s hesitant reaction to the Euro Crisis at Foreign Policy.

A transformed Germany now threatens the stability of the euro, and indeed the future of the European Union itself. But the reason is not just that the new Germany has grown more selfish. If Germans were simply acting rationally, they would bail out the euro. The problem, rather, is that the leaders of the new Germany are so mired in an overreaction to the past that they have become blind to their own self-interest.

On Thomas Friedman

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:59:00 -0500

A review Thomas Friedman’s latest over at The Daily.

The genre of the Friedman Takedown has entered an unprecedented crisis with the publication of his latest work. Friedman’s assault on the English language has noticeably mellowed. Whole pages go by without a mixed metaphor. One or two paragraphs in the book contain no metaphor at all. It seems almost impossible: has Friedman taken his critics to heart?

Losing (but Loving) the Green Card Lottery

Mon, 23 May 2011 16:39:33 -0400

An op-ed in the New York Times.

“While the completely open borders of yore are sadly not feasible today, the lottery, in its limited way, helps America to remain a land of equal opportunity.”

Chess and Madness

Sun, 22 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

On chess, madness and Bobby Fischer, in The Paris Review online:

“Chess has no transcendental or metaphysical justification. But neither do any of the other pursuits that make us human. Fischer may, in some sense, have been mad all along. He certainly, since his earliest childhood, was barely functional the moment he stepped away from the board. And yet, until he was twenty-nine years old, this bare ability to function still allowed him to reach unprecedented heights in one of mankind’s peculiar little forms of art.”

Fiction

Mon, 16 May 2011 20:24:47 -0400

My first short story, “The Other Jesus,” will be published in the Summer Issue of the Antioch Review.

It’s not online, so be sure to go buy a copy in a good old-fashioned book store…

Book Project

Sat, 16 Apr 2011 17:14:00 -0400

I am very pleased to share the exciting news that my first book, on my childhood, German-Jewish relations since 1945, and the current state of Germany, will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG).

Nothing to Declare

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 09:09:56 -0500

The first installment of my new weekly column on German, European and US politics and culture has appeared over at The European. (It is written in German.)

An excerpt from my first piece:

“Nein, über Sarrazin lohnt es sich nicht mehr zu reden. Eine große Bitte habe ich aber an alle deutsche Möchtegernprovokateure mit Schriftstellerambition. Provoziert bloß! Sagt, was ihr wollt. So gern ihr auch so tut, als würde euch jemand zensieren, ihr habt das freie Wort. Versprochen!

Aber bitte, bitte rührt mich dabei nicht, wie der Sarrazin, zu Tränen der Langeweile. Versprochen?”

A Moral Baseball Bat

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:40:00 -0500

A Moral Baseball Bat:

My review of Hans Kundnani’s Utopia or Auschwitz: Germany’s 1968 Generation and the Holocaust in n+1.

UPDATE: Read Hans Kundnani’s interesting and gracious response to my review here.

Towns in Tuscany, Depopulating

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:32:00 -0500

Towns in Tuscany, Depopulating:

“Tuscany is known as a land of plenty, where beautiful landscapes and picturesque hilltop villages combine with a rich cultural heritage to attract tourists from around the world. But off the tourist track, in its poorer areas, whole towns are becoming depopulated and thousands of acres of agricultural land falling into disuse.”

An article about the beautiful Monte Amiata region.

Pimpocracy

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 16:56:00 -0500

Pimpocracy:

Video of the press review on France 24, the news channel, discussing an interview I gave to an Italian paper - in which I likened Italy under Berlusconi to a “pimpocracy.”

Check out the newest issue of the magazine I founded, The...

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 14:17:00 -0500

Check out the newest issue of the magazine I founded, The Utopian.