Devolution Review

18/12/2021

Though not a man of the cloth, Gerry Dionne's weekly columns were small sermons delivered from his kitchen table. A table, no doubt, covered with all the finest ingredients in French cuisine.

One of his last wishes from his columns was that he wanted to “see people listen to each other.”

I listened, Gerry, and I will continue listening to everything you taught us in word and memory.

Thank you for being a friend, a mentor, and a guide to this strange star-stuff existence. You will be missed. Until we meet again.

Earlier this month, the curtain fell on a man of irreplicable passion, small snippets of wisdom, and love for humanity. Gerry Dionne, a man I’ve known for the better part of two decades, played out his swan song on December 4, 2021. Gerry, the father of my friend JR, was always a bit culturally al...

15/02/2021

"We have had to accustom ourselves gradually to living without certainty, without knowledge of when this will end, without free­dom, and without security."

by Maria Chaplia

A reimagining of Stefan Zweig's World of Yesterday Despite the propriety and the modesty of this view of life, there was a grave and dangerous arrogance in this touching confidence that we had barricaded ourselves to the last loophole against any possible invasion of fate. In its liberal idealism, t...

08/01/2021

Today I received a work email from someone who said he had vital info. I dialed him back with intrigue. It turns out he’s an older gentleman living in Florida who had some thoughts on the COVID vaccine. He needed someone to hear him out.

https://www.devolutionreview.com/uncovering-the-modern-conspiracy-mindest/

15/12/2020

Despite my best efforts to break free, my body remained chained to the bed.

All I could muster was a muffled screech pleading to be woken.

Infinite shapes and forms of colorful figures skimmed my chest, subtly applying pressure to my muscles with every sweep.

Every move of the dark figures floating around my body was choreographed and narrated via an omnipresent loudspeaker somewhere behind me.

Flickers of my life – from childhood until adulthood – were hastily projected onto a cracked screen at the foot of my bed.

On my left was a person I did not know, wearing a Carnival mask that shed every few seconds, reconfigured into masks with sharper beaks, more powerful colors, and larger openings for the mouth. They told me time had expired. This was it.

Despite my best efforts to break free, my body remained chained to the bed. All I could muster was a muffled screech pleading to be woken. Infinite shapes and forms of colorful figures skimmed my chest, subtly applying pressure to my muscles with every sweep. Every move of the dark figures floating....

01/09/2020

Amid a pandemic of unprecedented proportions, U.S. cities like Portland, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, and Seattle have sweltered in the summer heat and raged with flames. Passions have run wild in the streets, with buildings and businesses torched, and statues torn down by mobs intent on vigilante justice. In fact, “social justice” has risen from the ashes to become the new dogma du jour and being “woke” is in vogue.

To those of us watching from afar, this was a moment we could have predicted. Though many have been reluctant to admit it, certain demographics in the U.S. have indeed faced forms of injustice: unjustified killings at the hands of law enforcement, discriminatory policies in minority neighborhoods, and a justice system that has been all but equal and fair. With the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, the resentment harbored by too many Americans has been revealed, and their rage has been given a voice.

Amid a pandemic of unprecedented proportions, U.S. cities like Portland, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, and Seattle have sweltered in the summer heat and raged with flames. Passions have run wild in the streets, with buildings and businesses torched, and statues torn down by mobs intent on vigilante ju...

26/06/2020

The time to be hopeful for our cosmopolitan future

https://mailchi.mp/e09e41ff3f07/26-june-2020

26/06/2020

In the current moment of revising our collective memorialization of past figures – mostly in the context of former Confederate generals and politicians – we need a new conversation about the kind of people we honor with public landmarks.

On the streets where I learned to drive in Concord, a quiet suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina, I often broke the speed limit on Warren C. Coleman Boulevard. I never gave much thought to the name, and always figured he was a former mayor or governor of some renown with his own winding highway. When...

29/11/2019

"My friends are falling apart. This one is having open-heart surgery. A couple have diabetes. Another is noticing vision deterioration; and all of us have some hearing loss. Hearing what? Yes, I’m fine; thanks for asking. And then there are those abrupt pauses in the conversation while we collectively try to remember a name we all know like the back of our whachucallit. We’re in phase three of the Sphinxian riddle that begins. “What walks on four legs in the morning?”

by Gerry Dionne

My friends are falling apart. This one is having open-heart surgery. A couple have diabetes. Another is noticing vision deterioration; and all of us have some hearing loss. Hearing what? Yes, I’m fine; thanks for asking. And then there are those abrupt pauses in the conversation while we collectiv...

02/08/2019

What can architecture tell us about politics? How does one influence the other?

This, and more, in Stephan Bürklin's new piece.

Share. Like. But most importantly: Read!

The Weissenhof Estate – an early exemplar of modernist architecture – is striking in its banality. An aimless wanderer in Stuttgart’s gently terraced northern suburbs may be unaware she has stumbled across a UNESCO World Heritage site were it not for a discreetly hung plaque. To the untrained ...

02/08/2019

The Weissenhof’s detractors, royal hangers-on, and the nervous bourgeoisie understood correctly, perhaps instinctively, that the built environment could structure society in ways that threatened the status quo.

by Stephan Burklin

The Weissenhof Estate – an early exemplar of modernist architecture – is striking in its banality. An aimless wanderer in Stuttgart’s gently terraced northern suburbs may be unaware she has stumbled across a UNESCO World Heritage site were it not for a discreetly hung plaque. To the untrained ...

11/07/2019

The plan is to go to Austria to procure a Gorenje, the long-coveted Yugoslav-made free-standing refrigerator, unavailable in Hungary.

Its name might sound Russian (go-ren-ye) but is Slavic only. Free-standing it is and always shall be.

All true Magyars are trying these days to get a hold of one of these, riding out en masse, motorised, to hunt down this treasure in the spirit of the invading Hungarian tribes.

Two tales of Hungarians on the move The refrigerator – Austria, 1988 Grandma is sitting in the backseat, loaded (hardly able to move, effectively locked) into the car. Her currency allowance has been unloaded from the bank and added to the family budget. The plan is to go to Austria to procure a G...

08/02/2019

For Zweig, it was not Empire and the State that motivated individuals to better themselves, but a recognition of our shared experience. This was his version of cosmopolitanism, what I’ve dubbed modern cosmopolitanism, humanity no longer divided by lines or frontiers. Culture is our language and our currency. Freedom is our common goal, and that alone makes us brothers.

On Nov. 27, 1881, in Vienna, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, one of the world's greatest writers was born as a gift to humanity. His name was Stefan Zweig. He was a world-renowned celebrity, earning the distinction of being one of the most translated authors of the first half of the 20th...

06/02/2019

We should be defined by our poets, authors, musicians, philosophers, and our merchants, not our politicians and public service workers. That’s not how our society functions. We should know that the division between state and society exists on purpose.

In every country I’ve ever visited, across Europe, Africa, Asia, and more, individuals are always skeptical of government and always question its impact on their life. And that’s healthy.

In the new age of Trump, which some bemoan as others cheer, we should know that society is no stronger than it is weaker. No culture has suffered a loss or been rejected.

https://devolutionreview.com/fear-not-trump-we-advance-society-with-ideas-not-politics/

24/01/2019

"A certain amount of these young people, of course, will always be politically engaged. These are the enthusiastic young people at certain conventions, conferences, and now found online. They are always ready and willing to volunteer for campaigns and support candidates and causes they believe in. They are the first to appear at a public demonstration and to voice their opposition to a plan or policy they don’t like, whether it’s protesting for the marital rights of gay and le****ns or against the current economic situation. These are the people I was able to meet not only at Occupy Wall Street when I worked as a journalist in Philadelphia, but also the good number of young people present at Tea Party rallies I witnessed in Florida in 2011 and 2012."

Every few years in the world of politics, there begins a new push to reach out to young people, and with good reason. In the 2019 federal election, the 9.5 million millennials in Canada will make up the largest single voting bloc. Whether they will come out and vote to let their voice be heard,...

17/12/2018

For Zweig, it was not Empire and the State that motivated individuals to better themselves, but a recognition of our shared experience. This was his version of cosmopolitanism, what I’ve dubbed modern cosmopolitanism, humanity no longer divided by lines or frontiers. Culture is our language and our currency. Freedom is our common goal, and that alone makes us brothers.

But just because today’s Europe is one united by a political and economic union does not mean it is a cultural one as he envisioned.

On Nov. 27, 1881, in Vienna, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, one of the world's greatest writers was born as a gift to humanity. His name was Stefan Zweig. He was a world-renowned celebrity, earning the distinction of being one of the most translated authors of the first half of the 20th...

12/12/2018

Dejan Tiago-Stanković: "The one who calls himself a writer must write every day. That does not mean that everything he writes must be good, it all depends on inspiration, but the man never knows when inspiration will take hold of him. The key is for it to happen in the moment of labour, because if it catches you in a bar, you’ll entertain your friends without any material trace of it."

I suppose that when writing interviews, it’s customary to begin with a terse biographical introduction of your guest; who they are and where they come from sort of thing. I’m not sure why that is significant, but it probably has something to do with nippily setting the context for the reader. I....

07/12/2018

However make no mistake, this is not a book on how to help you become a kitchen pro or how to open up your own restaurant. This book is predominately about the life of Anthony Bourdain, the characters that influenced him the most, and even more so about the culture that exists behind that swinging kitchen door. And like the state of a kitchen at the end of a rush on a Saturday night, sometimes it is gritty, dirty, and contains some unexpected things.

by Michelle Mock

It should be noted that my reasons for reading this book were two-fold. First and foremost, I wanted to honor the death of the man who authored this book by reading it. I felt, as I do with most artists who pass before their time, that I should read their words in an effort to...

28/11/2018

In the beginning, Bitcoin was something of a revolution to me. The digital currency represented everything from my rebellious youth.

It was a decentralized, denationalized, and digital currency operating outside the traditional banking and governmental system. It used tools of cryptography and connected buyers and sellers across national borders at minimal transaction costs.

Admitting you've changed your mind is daunting. Even more so when you've poured money, time, and effort into promoting a particular cause and idea. For me, that time has come with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and the promise of the underlying Blockchain technology. In the beginning, Bitcoin was som...

27/11/2018

Stefan Zweig’s Dream of Europe: What has been achieved? - https://mailchi.mp/f4ec8621c29e/27nov

27/11/2018

The themes of Stefan Zweig’s stories always gave us hope. Universalism was key, personal liberty a calling, and culture was the grand unifier. Authority was seen be absurd and zealous. Cosmopolitanism was both an achievable and desirable goal.

He crisscrossed the European continent meeting fellow artists, philosophers, and thinkers who would come to shape western civilization for decades to come.

It was in the cafes, theatres, and streetcars of major cities that he fell in love with the dream of Europe, a majestic collection of cultures and peoples wed together by history but bonded by a yearning for freedom.

Reflecting on his words some two-thirds of a century after his death, it is incumbent upon us to examine how Zweig’s dream of Europe has fared in the decades since.

On Nov. 27, 1881, in Vienna, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, one of the world's greatest writers was born as a gift to humanity. His name was Stefan Zweig. He was a world-renowned celebrity, earning the distinction of being one of the most translated authors of the first half of the 20th...

21/11/2018

"I’ve been asking myself what the other side of this looks like. How do I do this better? Is there a way to celebrate a place without the possibility of destroying it? Or is this just what we are now -- a horde with a checklist and a camera phone, intent on self-producing the destruction of anything left that feels real, one Instagram story at a time?

Clearly, I don’t have an answer. I understand there are larger forces involving tourism and technology and society writ large at play here, and I’m not enough of a hypocrite to turn this into a morality play about the internet and the consequences of our actions, but maybe if we were all as kind to each other as Steve Stanich has been to me, we might just survive this apocalyptic puddle of s**t we currently find ourselves in."

If you love a burger...

20/11/2018

It takes a certain amount of self-loathing to draw an uninterested person into a campaign of targeted hatred.

For the better part of a year, I was at the focal point of such a campaign: one man against the entire Republic of Serbia, and possibly the entire ex-Yugoslavia region. Persona Non-Grata.

It must take a certain amount of self-loathing to draw an uninterested person into a campaign of targeted hatred. For the better part of a year, I was at the focal point of such a campaign: one man against the entire Republic of Serbia, and possibly the entire ex-Yugoslavia region. Persona Non-Grata...

20/11/2018

But, at the same time, progress and innovation must also adhere to the core truths of humanity. The fairly recent establishment of individual freedoms as safeguards against misery must not perish while technology allows quick and immediate change. The inviolability of individuals should remain a core virtue as much as a forward bent toward progress.

In one of the episodes in the newest seasons of Netflix’s Black Mirror, a young woman visits a strange museum across the way from a gas station in the hot desert. Inside, she meets the museum’s proprietor who offers her an early tour. The exhibitions preserved onsite include eccentric artifacts ...

13/11/2018

All art begins as revolution and ends as kitsch. Is this the lesson of the Bauhaus?

It’s at least one plausible, although not necessarily charitable, interpretation of the school’s evolution, which started with the highfalutin aim of social regeneration and class harmony but whose best-selling product would later turn out to be wallpaper and whose icons now seem destined to the more pedestrian task of dignifying law offices.

All art begins as revolution and ends as kitsch. Is this the lesson of the Bauhaus? It’s at least one plausible, although not necessarily charitable, interpretation of the school’s evolution, which started with the highfalutin aim of social regeneration and class harmony but whose best-selling p...

09/11/2018

Ideas over politics, German Jihad, and private governance 🎩 - https://mailchi.mp/40595edd6b32/9nov

09/11/2018

We should be defined by our poets, authors, musicians, philosophers, and our merchants, not our politicians and public service workers. That’s not how our society functions. We should know that the division between state and society exists on purpose.

As an individual who has primarily made a career as both a journalist and an advocate for a philosophy, I’m well acquainted with ideas and their impact. I bank on it. Ideas have always been much more powerful for than holders of ideas. Especially politicians like Hillary Clinton or now President T...

08/11/2018

On the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, a look at a less well-known aspect that we still live with today.

Some years ago, I made a brief stint in Istanbul, the former capital known as Constantinople in the former Ottoman Empire. Much to the chagrin of my family and loved ones, my boots hit the ground not more than 24 hours after a terrorist attack took out 11 German tourists and injured a dozen other in...

05/11/2018

The central thesis that Edward P. Stringham aims to prove in the book is that individuals and groups throughout history and in the modern era, through voluntary exchange, have devised methods of private governance that don’t require a role for government, legislation, courts, or centrally planned rules enforced by the state.

The enemies of Edward Stringham’s book Private Governance: Creating Order in Economic and Social Life are many. Principally, it is an argument against the “legal centrist” mentality, according to Stringham, the practitioners of which are bound to place the role of the state as central to priva...

31/10/2018

There’s nothing more satisfying than the thoughtful ravings of a wily foreign correspondent who returns home. Especially once it can be melted down into a kind of beautiful soliloquy on the mad state of affairs in the world.

That’s what I picked up in Author Lutz Kleveman's Wanderjahre: A Reporter’s Journey in a Mad World, a fitting narrative that is as much a personal and spiritual journey as a historical account of various hot-spots around the world and the malaise that condemns them.

Kleveman, a German journalist and jack-of-all-trades who peppers his speech with enough English and French idioms to be considered a good European, shines throughout this book. He made his career dispatching reports from the unforgivable pits of deserts and jungles for the Telegraph, Die Zeit, Newsweek, and Pl***oy Magazine, among others.

There’s nothing more satisfying than the thoughtful ravings of a wily foreign correspondent who returns home. Especially once it can be melted down into a kind of beautiful soliloquy on the mad state of affairs in the world. That’s what I picked up in Lutz Kleveman’s Wanderjahre: A Reporter’...

30/10/2018

Though it was once in the German Empire’s interest to incite Muslim hatred against British or French colonial masters, the same plan was adopted by the Americans against the occupying Soviet forces who invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Local tribes and powers such as the Taliban were radicalized to defeat the Soviet’s invasion, ending in a disastrous defeat for the occupiers and likely a collapse of their empire. With additional interventions in the region by invading Iraq and placing troops on sacred Islamic soil in Saudi Arabia, however, the Americans went further than the Germans ever did. Or the British or French for that matter.

Some years ago, I made a brief stint in Istanbul, the former capital known as Constantinople in the former Ottoman Empire. Much to the chagrin of my family and loved ones, my boots hit the ground not more than 24 hours after a terrorist attack took out 11 German tourists and injured a dozen other in...