Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West

by R.R. Reno

George Soros was his student at the London School of Economics shortly after the end of World War II, and the name Soros chose for the main instrument of his political and social advocacy, the Open Society Institute, testifies to Popper’s influence.

Open cultures are for the best. The German chancellor Angela Merkel was not alone in announcing that we have no alternative. Only an open semiotic system can clear space for us to affirm life. Only open trade will bring peace. Only open borders will bring saving diversity. Only open minds can stop the return of Auschwitz. There is simply no other way. When intelligent, educated, and responsible people talk this way, we know that we’ve reached a dead end.

When the open society becomes an enemy of shared loves, when critical intelligence wages total war against our anchoring convictions, our spiritual, cultural, and political consensus becomes anti-human.