[Column] What Europe's 1848 revolutions can tell us about 2024
[Column] What Europe's 1848 revolutions can tell us about 2024
As multiple crises converge again, like they did in 1848-1849 — war, inflation, social inequality, recession — sometimes resulting in economic, social and political stagnation, new political nationalists seek to benefit.
How did they manage this? How did Europe's governing elites get away with it? His answer: they pulled it off by focusing on new horizons, so it looked like they had moved on and left the old problems behind. In reality, they rather ignored most of those problems and left them unsolved, by choosing a new narrative and drawing attention to future developments and opportunities.
The real new story distracting us from the current crisis mood, then, had better be about what Europe and its member states really need.