Switzerland has a few public perception of intellectuals, the log on as independent thinkers in the major political debates, sometimes with a surprising Argument to word. Depending on how strict one is in judgment, you need a Hand or two to count. Since Friday evening this short list is even shorter. The Suhrkamp Verlag announced that the Swiss-Israeli journalist Carlo Strenger, a Professor of psychology and philosophy is completely passed away suddenly at the age of 61 years in Tel Aviv. Carlo Strenger was born in Basel, studied in Zurich, psychology, and philosophy and remained a member of the existence-analytical Seminar, after he had emigrated in the 90s, to Tel Aviv. They had offered him a doctorate, a professorship, in addition, he conducted a practice as a psychotherapist. Strict won the critical view from the outside in, Switzerland, and the therapy for people in need, from inside Israel and the globalized world. And he intervened as a columnist in the current debates.
His columns for the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”, the British “Guardian” and the Israeli “Haaretz” went to the big questions of globalization and division of society. Not by chance, that this Swiss with the broad Radar and more attention abroad than in Switzerland. His writings have appeared in various volumes, on the political actuality in the Suhrkamp-Verlag in Switzerland, it was already difficult to find a gig with him a organizer for a large hall. This Strengers messages were numerous hidden wisdom for the Switzerland, how about in the big end-of-year conversation in 2016 with the “Tages-Anzeiger” is displayed. Strict attacks called for under the impact of the Islamist terror in the West, its mechanisms for self-mortification and with them the political correctness, understood it – wrong – to criticize prohibition, cultures such as fundamentalist Islam.
Strict a sharp critic of the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and the settlements was. But he was also, however, if Israel was unilaterally condemned.
His main theme remained of Israel. Strict was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home and witnessed how his desire of exile transformed under the pressure of external threat, and the Conservative from a utopia to a very ordinary-ethnic state with a religious base. His own conversion to the secular atheists he once described as the most influential experience of his life.
. In his studies he explored the question of how people who grow up in a globalized reality, more by the media than by tradition, affect, and what effect this has on society. Strict remained self-critical, and not only to others but also to put yourself in the mirror.
struggle and legacy
In his book, “Israel: introduction to a difficult country,” and in many of his columns, he devoted himself to the middle East conflict. How many on the Left was also Strict, a sharp critic of the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and the settlements. But he was also, however, if Israel was unilaterally condemned. Increasingly pessimistic he was, what relates to the realization of a two-state solution. He also had Concerns about the democracy in Israel, which he saw through the attacks of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the rule of law at risk. The increasing influence of the ultra-Orthodox and nationalist forces, he was responsible for the fact that society is changing in its second home more and more.
Even to his home, he remained critical. Finally, Switzerland had created with the simple, but successful reflections of Bloch’s SVP against EU Green and what is not moved as a so-called Elite intellectually on a line, in the early 90s was the blueprint for similar movements and parties in Europe and Israel. That was just the price of populism and posed the question of how the exposed “Elite” should now deal in turn with the Simplifizierern. Carlo Strenger civilized contempt”, which means to despise their irrational, immoral, or inhumane reason, values are not recommended”, but the simplifi zierer yourself, and in the threat of hate, the achievements of civilization such as courtesy and attentive listening is not to give up. A good recipe also for Germany, where the parties outside of the AfD have been discussing for years about how they should with this new competitor both within and outside the Federal Parliament deal with it. Strict devoted to those “damn liberal elites”, to which he felt himself to belong, in the past may be his last book.
“If you can claim anything without being held accountable, the democracy is broken”Carlo Strenger
a voice Calmly Sprenger also about the danger of a new totalitarianism, of the lives of the populism inherent in the left. At Donald trump’s first election campaign, he was black before the eyes, and the campaign for the Brexit advocates was to give him the creeps in the beginning, not: “If you can claim anything without being held accountable, makes the democracy is broken,” he said in 2016, compared to the “Tages-Anzeiger”. And recommended that in the face of this threat, even as a Liberal, a stronger regulation of democracy. Finally, it was the question he asked in his last column for the NZZ 2019: “Can Democrats cynical state to stop the leaders?” Strict referred to “the drama” in the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel. Like a good therapist, he tried to find always Positive and alert. The dual talent as a philosopher and psycho-analyst and his experience as a border Crosser between cultures, made these thinkers similar to a stimulating like Peter Sloterdijk.
Strengers conclusion: “Maybe this will keep a core of what was once called “the free world”. But this will only be the case if the citizens will watch this liberal order as guaranteed, and are ready to fight against totalitarian tendencies by legal means.” Sure, he was not consequently, and also we are not allowed to be. Liberal democracy, media freedom and the separation of powers have come in the past few years, under strong pressure, even in countries such as the UK and Spain, where they had not expected it to be. Switzerland is like an island of Prosperity be an exception. Strengers legacy, democracy and the rule of law not backed up, but here’s an important reminder. The cries of the sharp analysts are missing.
Created: 27.10.2019, 16:47 PM
