i think i feel european as default, to the point where i'm not really aware of it until i exit europe, when i sure feel my roots getting tugged and my attitudes challenged.

similarly, i think americans feel most american, when travelling and noticing how different other cultures are...

in this po-mo, irony-rich world we inhabit, it is nigh-impossible to espouse anything noble without immediately sounding cheesy..

image fetishism...build it up, tear it down...

human rights covers it nicely, why don't we stand up for them here at home, where there are so many problems?

design the policies intelligently,and the qualities will emerge which make us who we are...

whatever qualities we insist on bannering as 'ours', will serve to polemicise unless we insist they are universal, not just gimmicks to attract investment...

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty