Robert Menasse
Auteur de The Capital
A propos de l'auteur
Séries
Œuvres de Robert Menasse
Enraged Citizens, European Peace and Democratic Deficits: Or Why the Democracy Given to Us Must Become One We Fight For (2013) 31 exemplaires
Die Zerstörung der Welt als Wille und Vorstellung: Frankfurter Poetikvorlesungen (edition suhrkamp) (2006) 10 exemplaires
Permanente Revolution der Begriffe: Vorträge zur Kritik der Abklärung: Essays (edition suhrkamp) (2009) 6 exemplaires
Guschlbauer weiche Kokosbusserl: österreichische Ansichten; ein fotografischer Kommentar (2003) — Avant-propos — 2 exemplaires
' Trilogie der Entgeisterung'. 2 exemplaires
Die sozialpartnerschaftliche Asthetik: Essays zum osterreichischen Geist (German Edition) (1990) 1 exemplaire
A Capital 1 exemplaire
Oeuvres associées
Die Geschichtenerzähler: Neues und Unbekanntes von Allende bis Zafón (suhrkamp taschenbuch) (2008) — Contributeur — 4 exemplaires
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Nom canonique
- Menasse, Robert
- Date de naissance
- 1954-06-21
- Sexe
- male
- Nationalité
- Oostenrijk
- Lieu de naissance
- Vienna, Austria
- Lieux de résidence
- Wenen, Oostenrijk
- Professions
- auteur
Vertaler - Relations
- Menasse, Eva (halfzus)
- Organisations
- Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung
Grazer Autorinnen Autorenversammlung - Prix et distinctions
- Alexander Sacher Masoch Prize (1994)
Marie Luise Kaschnitz Prize (2002)
Membres
Critiques
Listes
Prix et récompenses
Vous aimerez peut-être aussi
Auteurs associés
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 32
- Aussi par
- 2
- Membres
- 827
- Popularité
- #30,854
- Évaluation
- 3.7
- Critiques
- 31
- ISBN
- 95
- Langues
- 13
- Favoris
- 3
A pig is seen rattling around in downtown Bruxelles, the European capital. A wealthy Austrian pig farmer pressures his brother, a bureaucrat in the EU hierarchy, to lobby for new subsidies for pig farmers. A senior trade bureaucrat is fending off pressure from pig farmers to eliminate agricultural subsidies to buoy European pig prices.
A man is murdered at the Hotel Atlas and all trace of evidence is “disappeared” by authorities. A concentration camp survivor is on the loose. A professor of economics is tapped to advise on Europe’s future. A bureaucrat is tapped to advise on the best means to celebrate the EU’s Jubilee year, but the idea is snuffed out by vigilant cronies.
Then there are the metaphorical pigs: the bureaucrats eating at the trough of a fat European government. The police units ever present on the streets of Bruxelles. The capitalist pigs at the trough of subsidies. And not the least of it: the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain) the source of Europe’s financial crisis.
Menasse sees little hope for the confederation as long as territorial imperatives cloud the benefits of unity. For one thing, what good is an organization founded on collective guilt, especially when the last of the survivors disappear?
The “Never again!” mantra of the continentalists rings hollow when every sign is on the horizon of a repetition of the dire events of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Nationalism, the old pig on the block, is back.
At every turn the reader (intended to be a European?) is asked to question what it means to be a European. It doesn’t say “European” on their passport. Having sex isn’t a peculiarly European pleasure any more than drinking wine, or beer, or attending a football match. Nor birth. Not death. Not religious affiliation. Nor surveillance.
“Why bother?” Menasse seems to be asking along with a significant number of minority of voices in the UK. What value is a confederation whose sole raison d’être is economic growth when growth is never going to keep up with demand and growth means despoiling the planet?
Well, for one thing if the government in Bruxelles is corrupt so too are the national governments. Moreover, the national governments duplicate other services that automation has clearly shown can be done by a machine. In truth, Europeans are paying too much for government. And their governments are too slow. So are ours on the other side of the Atlantic.
For another thing, the trading players in this universe are China, Japan, and the United States. Going nationalist is suicidal in traditional trade talks.
What is the metaphorical “capital” of the European experiment in continental government? At the moment it’s in the trash can Along with Karl Marx’ “das Kapital” and Thomas Piketty’s “Capital.” There is no room for logic, rationalism, or compassion in this capital.
If anything this planet needs less governance and more cooperation. Yes, I’m speaking of the impending environmental disaster of global warming. The many millions more of environmental refugees on the horizon.
Just to test my thesis I asked my Canadian wife: “If you could have smaller government, lower taxes, and greater access to international trade, would you agree to annex Canada to the United States?”
Her answer: “No way! Over my dead body!” The defence rests, your Honour.
Of that and much more our governments and our voters are petrified. They are all worried about it in France as they are in Ohio or Pennsylvania or the suburbs of Toronto. They too are the “pigs” that frighten us in the night.
The biggest pig in the room? Why, of course, it is us. And if you don’t remember why I urge you to go back and read George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.”… (plus d'informations)