Welcome to Luxzenburg

The Past as a Weapon On nostalgia as state strategy and why it works 1. Two images, one mechanism On 27 January 2024, satirical Dutch outlet De Speld published a piece about a Dutch tradwife who longed so intensely for the past that she accidentally ended up in 1917 — and no longer has the right to vote. “Well, that’s a bit annoying,” she says to her 5,000 TikTok followers, washing dishes in full make-up. Spanish flu, World War One, and no say in anything. She is considering joining the Association for Women’s Suffrage. ...

This is not a blog in the traditional sense. No daily commentary, no news digest, no personal diary. Luxzenburg.nl is a place for essays. About geopolitics, society, history and the connections between them that are rarely named. Written from the conviction that most of the problems of our time do not stand alone — and that you cannot understand them in isolation either. I am Erik van Luxzenburg. By training a human geographer, specialising in political and cultural geography, geopolitics and macro-history. By character a systems thinker who struggles with loose fragments. By nature someone who thinks by writing and talking, not before. ...

Other Paths Were Always Possible An essay on systems thinking, prehistory and the narrative that is missing 1. The hook: two ways to misuse the past In the magazine 1843 of The Economist I read the article How Graham Hancock became conspiracy theorists’ favourite historian about Graham Hancock and his Netflix documentary about a glorious civilisation some 13,000 years ago that collapsed around 12,000 years ago. A story about the so-called Atlantis and the sages who built it, leaving behind grand ruins that still astonish us today. It is a reading of history that appeals to many: grand and sweeping, a lost paradise with us as its descendants. Unfortunately it is not supported by real science. Hancock says it himself in the article, almost accidentally: there is no evidence in what archaeologists have studied. That is a classic epistemic trap — the theory is formulated such that every absence of evidence becomes evidence of a cover-up. Archaeologists find nothing? Then they haven’t looked hard enough, or they’re hiding something. This mechanism makes the theory immune to refutation. It is not falsifiable in the Popperian sense. That is not proof the theory is correct, but it shields it from the normal corrective workings of science. ...

This article was originally written on 30 March 2014 and published on blog.luxzenburg.org — twelve years before the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and eight years before Finland’s accession to NATO. It is republished here as a historical document and reflects the author’s ideas at the time of writing. An article in the Times of India gives pause for thought. According to a former Russian Minister of Economic Affairs, Putin does not only want Crimea back. Belarus, more parts of Ukraine, and even EU member state Finland he reportedly wants to ‘reclaim’ — to restore the old Russian Empire. ...

This article was originally written on 1 December 2012 and published on blog.luxzenburg.org. It is republished here as a historical document and reflects the author’s ideas at the time of writing. Nu.nl headlines: First flight of new European combat aircraft. The French Dassault has invested around 400 million euros in the aircraft — a remarkably low amount for a more advanced aircraft than the JSF. Far better value for money than what the Americans have delivered in developing comparable aircraft. ...

This article was originally written on 5 March 2012 and published on blog.luxzenburg.org. It is republished here as a historical document and reflects the author’s ideas at the time of writing. A well-written article about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, by an American scholar on Al Jazeera. He argues why the debate over whether a Palestinian nation exists is nonsense. The Palestinian nation is just as invented as the Israeli nation. Judging by the scholar’s name, he appears to have a Jewish background. If so, his contribution to the dialogue is all the more valuable: people who bridge the ‘camps’ — that is ultimately where peace must come from. ...

This article was originally written around 2008 and published on Google Knol. It is republished here as a historical document and reflects the author’s ideas at the time of writing. This is part of the Project Policrateia series. Muslim Anarchism sounds to many like an illusion, as most Muslim nations are known for harsh governments and suppression. However, Islam has many anarchist tendencies incorporated. This article will study these anarchist components and offer an alternative for Islamic politics. ...

This article was originally written around 2008 and published on Google Knol. It is republished here as a historical document and reflects the author’s ideas at the time of writing. This is part of the Project Policrateia series. Policrateia is a political system based on the best values of democracy, federalism and aristocracy. Why these three? Democracy is chosen because it is a widely accepted form of government that gives citizens the ability to choose and to maintain influence in government. Federalism is a political form that places power as close to the citizens as possible. By aristocracy is meant the political form described by Plato and Machiavelli: “the government of some gives the most powerful decision-making abilities; the government of many is weak government. Democracy is only a solution to keep as many people as possible satisfied.” ...

This article was originally written around 2008 and published on Google Knol. It is republished here as a historical document and reflects the author’s ideas at the time of writing. This is part of the Project Policrateia series. Introduction The Celtic Confederation is a proposal for a cultural confederation for the Celtic Nations in Europe. Besides the cultural aspects, economic cooperation and international lobbying — mostly at the European Union — can also become part of the confederation’s tasks. Another aspect worth considering is the development of education and science policy. ...

This article was originally written on 8 October 2009 and published on blog.luxzenburg.org. It is republished here as a historical document and reflects the author’s ideas at the time of writing. OpenDemocracy, an open-source knowledge network and think tank on international politics, publishes a compelling essay on borders by Parag Khanna. He gives a tour d’horizon of geopolitics, seen through the lens of infrastructural connections. A fascinating picture, with many maps. It raises a question for me: what do we make of this, and what does it mean for us? Can we create a world in which we are united by lines on maps — infrastructure, trade, connection — rather than divided by other lines: borders? ...