Trump is leading us into the abyss of war – ft. Wolfgang Streeck

Hello and welcome on 99 Media. Today we had the absolute pleasure to interview professor Wolfgang Streeck, one of the most influential sociologists of contemporary capitalism, known for his powerful critiques of neoliberalism, the crisis of democracy, and the limits of market rule. In this rather long interview, we touched many topics: starting with a question on rearmament, the rationale behind the behaviour of european political elites and the history of the conflict between the West and Russia, we then analysed the novelties brought by Trump’s presidency and the internal tensions between western powers, the future of NATO and of the European union. One big take away from this interview, at least from me, is the following: we are at an historical moment of deep crisis, not only economical but a crisis of hegemony; the western block that lead the world since after WWII and the pact between western capitals, as well as the political pact with western working classes in in deep crisis. As the ongoing WEF testifies, this crisis of hegemony sees actors acting in a way that, professor Streeck says, is characterised by elements of irrationality. Personally, I think that this is to be grounded in the fact that this irrationality is anyway rooted in a reactive behaviour to underlying patterns that have a logical structure, which is the aforementioned economic and hegemonic crisis of western capitalism. The irrationality that professor Streeck emphasises is then an element of great importance: it explains how in these moments of crisis of hegemony, the behaviour of single actors can spiral out of control and in the direction of global conflict. Please watch the full interview for the details of this very informative interview. Thanks for watching, please like, share and subscribe to the channel to support our work.