Oh my goodness… I must confess, I am trained as a political scientist! So, I am biased, and it shows. However, my professional practice has been in political sociology rather than the positivist American-style political science, and in recent years, I’ve grown disillusioned with the discipline of political science.
As a child, I often played around with my own ‘systems’ of political simulation long before computer simulation games such as SimCity and Civilization were created. In the 1980s, I was highly active in the Danish Youth for Peace movement and believed that we could change the world. Some people might ask today: ‘So now you have become wiser and more conservative?’ Unfortunately, I have to answer no; on the contrary, although the peace movement almost disappeared with the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1990, we did think we had postponed the prospect of nuclear war for a while. Now, the nuclear threat is back! I don’t think the world has become a much better place, and I definitely feel there was more hope for a brighter future when I was a child in the 1970s than there is today.
I have seen new ‘expert’ commentators suddenly pop up in new fields—researchers and analysts sitting in their ivory towers, being clever about everything without actually being in touch with the real lives of people and the world. Consequently, I have distanced myself from my own discipline, which in turn has alienated and sidelined me from it. Nevertheless, as a now redundant political analyst dumped in the trenches, I still can’t help wanting to share my perspectives on politics and society in the world we live in today. If nothing else, then at least as a vent to release my steam, so I do not turn into a pressure cooker of frustration festering inside me due to the hopeless actions of current politics worldwide.
Don’t be fooled. Politics is about the allocation of resources—nothing else. If there were full abundance and equality, politics would disappear as irrelevant. Capitalism has a wonderful way of finding ‘durable solutions’ to manage its borders and keep permanent crises manageable, but it is utterly incapable of solving the major problems humanity is facing. I have lost almost all respect for our existing humanity because, although we know better, inequality is still rising, climate change is threatening our livelihoods globally, and indifference is incredibly widespread. The ultra-rich techno elites are more preoccupied with becoming ‘spacers’ than sharing their technology and wealth for the benefit of the masses and eradicating poverty, while permanent wars are emerging in a scenario that increasingly resembles Orwell’s 1984 vision, where even the political left gets caught up in playing their role in war.
I’m not inclined to be a negative pessimist or a naysayer, protester, or rebel. Instead, I choose to approach the world in a positive light. While the solutions may not be easy, they do exist, and we, as individuals, hold more power than we realize. Therefore, this blog aims to present my perspective on our world, sharing my ideas and thoughts for you to consider as you see fit.
