…that’s the childish logic at the heart of a great deal of very adult violence. In this piece, I examine how quickly geopolitical conflict gets reframed as a moral—or even theological—contest, and how easily people who would reject certain ideas at home find ways to defend them abroad. What interests me is not just the…
I’ve got a new piece up on CounterPunch that dives into the increasingly bizarre civil war unfolding on the far right since the war in Iran. When your entire worldview is built on layered hatreds, sooner or later they start colliding. What we’re watching now isn’t strategy—it’s a movement arguing with itself about which enemy…
For years, Spain had one of the best healthcare systems in the world. Not perfect—but fast, universal, and remarkably effective. You got sick, you were treated. No drama. No billing calculations. No quiet fear about what it might cost you. Getting sick wasn’t a death sentence. And the data backed it up. Spain sits near…
There’s a certain kind of art that appears whenever politics gets too involved in culture. It’s grand, symbolic, completely certain of itself — and often, unintentionally, a bit absurd. You see it in Stalinist skylines, Soviet statues, gold-plated presidential monuments. Different countries, same instinct: culture not as something messy and alive, but something to simplify,…
How do you understand a country that seems to contain at least two entirely different worlds? In my latest Camino a Ítaca column in the Spanish newspaper HOY, I explore a paradox I witnessed while thinking about modern Iran. In Tehran, a one-hour drive can feel like a journey across centuries — from affluent northern…
It’s a strange moment in the imperial timeline. A 79-year-old property developer with the diplomatic instincts of a casino bouncer—threatened to cut off all trade with Spain because Spain declined to let American bases on its soil be used in an illegal bombing campaign against Iran. This is apparently how alliances work now. You provide…
On Homer’s return, the right’s suicide pact, and the peculiar madness of men who invite their own devourers There is something deeply reassuring about the fact that, in 2026, we have decided—collectively, enthusiastically—that what this moment really needs is more Homer. Film studios are adapting The Odyssey. Theatre directors are reinventing Penelope. Musicals are turning…
If you don’t follow Spanish regional politics, the name María Guardiola may not mean much to you. She is the current president of Extremadura, one of Spain’s poorest regions — a place rich in history, agriculture, and chronic underinvestment. But her recent political trajectory offers something far more universal than local intrigue: a near-textbook case…
Europe is once again debating freedom — by regulating what women wear. Yes, the burka and niqab emerged from deeply patriarchal tribal traditions. That much is obvious. But here’s the awkward question: does banning them liberate women, or does it simply replace one authority with another? Years ago, I taught in Sana’a. My classroom was…
This morning’s piece came from a feeling I couldn’t quite shake: a strange, low-grade nostalgia, not for some golden age, but for a time when certain ideas, however persistent, at least had the decency to keep their voices down. The article looks at how that quiet embarrassment seems to have evaporated, replaced by something far…