What Went Wrong with the West?
Once celebrated for its ideals of progress, culture and democracy, the West today finds itself mired in a civilizational crisis. As societies deal with growing disillusionment, we witness the troubling resurgence of a Fascist mindset — marked by the politics of lies, contempt for culture and education and the scapegoating of foreigners.
What are the historical and structural roots of this crisis? What geopolitical consequences could unfold if this trajectory continues? And most importantly, is there a way out before the world is pushed towards new conflicts?
Join us for a critical exploration of one of the defining questions of our time.
About the Guest Speaker:
Rob Riemen (Netherlands, 1962) is one of Europe’s leading intellectuals and the founder and president of the Nexus Institute. Riemen founded the journal Nexus in 1991 to keep the tradition of European humanism alive. In 1994, he established the Nexus Institute, which has become one of Europe’s most prestigious organizations to inspire public intellectual debate about the most important subjects for humanity and society. Among his guests at the Nexus Institute were President Emmanuel Macron, Nobel Prize Laureates including Amartya Sen, Mario Vargas Llosa and Angus Deaton, Wynton Marsalis, Jordanian Prince Hassan bin Talal, Patti Smith, Brian Greene, Sir Martin Rees, Margaret Atwood, Oscar winner Damien Chazelle, Garry Kasparov, Elif Shafak and Jürgen Habermas.
Riemen is the author of the bestselling books Nobility of Spirit. A Forgotten Ideal (2008), a passionate plea for the revival of classical humanist values, To Fight Against This Age (2018), consisting of two beautifully written, cogent and urgent essays about the rise of fascism and the ways in which to combat it, and Becoming Human is an Art (2023), written as an empowerment of all those individuals who are eager to regain the virtues and values necessary to realize the coming victory of democracy and defeat the growing totalitarian mindset. In the Fall of 2025, his new book The Word that Conquers Death: Stories about True Greatness will be published. His work has been translated worldwide into over 20 languages.
This session is free and open to all. Just visit the venue to attend it.
The Black Hole
Plot 5H, Street 100, G-11/3, Islamabad.
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