Bruno Maçães: preference

Transcript context

…A reader writes to me a question: “Arguably, the last writer to robustly conceptualize Eurasia was Rudyard Kipling. Does Kipling matter today?” Yes, I love his books. I think he is treated very unfairly. We now put everyone in the same bag as imperialists and racists. There were lots of people — part of the British Empire and its expansion — that actually had a very finely attuned understanding of different civilizations, and Kipling I would include there. Another writer that comes out of that spirit that I love and that was important for this book is Toynbee. When we read those books, we actually have the very vivid sense that we’ve lost that. We’ve lost that ability to arrive at a place without preconceptions and try to understand it on its own terms. If Kipling was bad at that, we’re much worse. Portugal today. Why is there no right-wing nationalistic movement as we see in so many other European countries?…

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