The lesson from the US crackdown on protests could be different in Beijing—suppressing uprisings without suppressing opposition would be a theological turn, akin to that with the Vatican. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that: “Chinese state media have sought to portray the escalating Los Angeles protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies […]
Post Blade Runners
AI requires more, not less, human intervention, more natural intelligence, not less, more soul and life, as history has proved since the inception of the Industrial Revolution. Do AIs dream of electric sheep? The flicker of light at the end of the screen, the erratic behavior of a program, and the odd mistakes in an […]
Democracy’s Original Sin and Its Limits
Democracy is not perfect. It has flaws that were apparent to the ancient Greeks and that modernity has attempted to rectify. Present challenges may require those fixes again. Democracy was born with an existential flaw, as the Hellenist Luciano Canfora warns. The rabble (perhaps a more accurate translation of the ancient Greek demos than “the people”) elects its leader. […]
Pope Leo and Four Ways for War
The May 11 trade agreement between the US and China was beneficial for calming the markets, which were edgy about a massive tariff war that could upset the global economy. It was also important as it established a mechanism for constant exchanges to keep bilateral tensions in check and avoid sudden disruptive explosions. However, behind […]
Don Camillo and the Gospel
JD Vance’s ordo amoris found its ecclesiastical placet in Cardinal Camillo Ruini’s unique reinterpretation of the parable of the prodigal son. According to Ruini, with pope Francis the Catholic Church has been too concerned with the son who left: now time has come to set things right and focus on the son who always stayed […]
China’s New Revolution of Culture
Unlike the messy attempt launched 60 years ago, a whole cycle of the Chinese zodiac, this is a serious, systematic effort. It is a Revolution of Culture and not a Cultural Revolution. However, whereas China was isolated then, now it is the world’s biggest trading power, and a domestic reset might ill coincide with national […]
Poping the World
Markets are very volatile, trust in the US is slipping, and a trend towards multi-alignment could disrupt the existing international architecture. The Vatican will also be confronted with these problems Pope Francis’s funerals on Saturday 26 will end a very turbulent few days when American markets rose and slipped following US rumors of ongoing trade […]