Essays

Nexus has been publishing essays in Dutch on art, culture, politics and philosophy for over twenty years. Now, we are making some of the best essays from our archive available in English online. The essays are available to our members and supporters. New essays will be added regularly.

Nederlandstalige essays uit het tijdschrift vindt u aan de Nederlandse kant van de website.

Theme

Red_rose_bud_001

Francesco Boldizzoni

Do we still need social democracy?

I am far from believing that social democracy is viable anywhere in the world. But if there is a natural home for it, it is Europe.
20221217_Nexus_AngusDeaton-63

Politics, Science, Society

Nexus Lecture 2022

What’s the matter with capitalism?

There is much to be said for capitalism. But it also has it dangers, not in the last place: its current threat to democracy.
Drawing,_Study_of_two_hands_reaching,_ca._1890_(CH_18404433)

Politics, Society

Tariq Ramadan

I am European

To say ‘I am European’ implies, first and foremost, an open identity, support for transnational solidarity and acceptance of international responsibilities.
800px-Robert_Schuman-1929

Politics, Society

Allan Janik

On being European

Citizens of European national states who want to become Europeans today do well to remind themselves of the ideas that guided Robert Schuman’s efforts to heal the wounds of a society that had all but self-destructed in the course of the two world wars. To re-examine the roots of his thinking is to re-discover perhaps the most important of well-springs of European unity.
europa

History, Politics, Society

Adin Steinsaltz

I am European

To sum up: the spirit of contemporary Europe is like that of a person past middle age, a semi-retired gentleman. Things have quieted down; most of the ferocious struggles of olden times are now abating.
Van Gogh, Pair of Shoes, 1886

Art, Culture, Philosophy

Lesley Chamberlain

Van Gogh and the light around a pair of boots

In Cuesmes, Van Gogh learnt about physical work, and philosophy after him embroidered the significance of work.
Nietzsche-Van-Gogh-Nexus2023

Rob Riemen

Tomb or Treasure? Nietzsche and Van Gogh discuss The Future of Western Civilization

On the occasion of the Nexus Conference 2023
©Jelmer de Haas – All Rights Reserved

Politics

Lilia Shevtsova

How the West is accommodating the Kremlin

The postmodern, transactional leaderships of Europe today find themselves poorly equipped to respond to the challenges posed by the Russian System, which is why the Western responses inevitably slide into accommodationism.
pazira-film

Nelofer Pazira

Flight and identity: the story of Cordoba, Kabul and my father’s suit

Bruckner gotterdammerung

History, Politics, Society

Peter Frankopan

Götterdämmerung: Who – or What – will Rule the World ?

keynes

Society

John Maynard Keynes

Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren

how-much-is-enough

Society

Robert Skidelsky

How Much Is Enough?

Insatiability is inherent in the human condition, but in pre-modern times its exercise was controlled by hierarchy, custom, and morals. Capitalism has unchained insatiability and, indeed, made it the principal motor of our civilisation.
war and the future afbeeldin

Politics, Society

Rob Riemen

The War and the Future

On the occasion of the Nexus Conference 2022: The War and the Future
peter-mason-LmTgQa7pqw0-unsplash

Culture, History, Politics, Society

Robert Cooper

Hope and Dover Beach

The big questions today are whether politics has been or will be captured by the forces of darkness – so that we will be robbed of our hopes and our future; and whether, having lost faith in faith, we are now going to lose faith in politics too
academy

Culture, Politics

William Deresiewicz

Wokeness on Campus: The Reign of Stupidity

There are no competing ideologies or rival schools [...] There is only assent. And when there’s but a single ideology, it isn’t just an ideology. It’s a religion. Its ideas aren’t ideas; they are dogmas.
football mirror

History, Politics

Richard J. Evans

Brexit: Refighting the Second World War

Football has sometimes been described as a substitute for war

Politics

Kate Brown

Kiss the Ground: Life Support in Controlled Environments

MIT Professor Kate Brown on how consumerism is eating away a just and livable future
Ivan-Illich

Philosophy

Humberto Beck

The Return of Ivan Illich in Times of Corona

It will depend on us whether the coronavirus will result in a new catastrophe, or in a new beginning.
germania

History

Simon Winder

Goodbye to History

The author of Danubia and Germania shows what we can learn from 20th-century German history.
FallOfMan-600×370

Humanism, Philosophy

George Steiner

The Life of the Mind

Can the life of the mind, the love of truth and beauty, be sustained in a time of materialism and mass democracy?
41_00331340_lucas-cranach-der-aeltere_eve

History

Catherine Nixey

The Evil of Christianity

‘Good’ and ‘evil’ as fundamentally opposed came into the world with Christianity. This wasn’t good.
nexus-jubileum-7987

Philosophy

Bernard-Henri Lévy & Aleksandr Dugin

The Return of Settembrini and Naphta in the 21st Century

Lévy and Dugin fight for the soul of Europe in the spirit of Thomas Mann’s Settembrini and Naphta.
266px-Piet_Mondrian_1942_-_Broadway_Boogie_Woogie

Philosophy

Antonio Damasio

Arcadia, But Not for Long

What should we choose: ‘Broadway Boogie-Woogie’, colorful, edgy, expanding modern urbanity – or a rustic hill overlooking an Alpine lake?
Govaert-Flinck-sherperdess-e

Literature

G.K. Chesterton

A Defence of China Shepherdesses

There are ideal conceptions and real men in every calling.