Paris
French philosopher Jacques Rancière recently accused one of our editors of being a ‘Marxist’. It’s no doubt appropriate then that we introduce our Paris city feature under the rubric ‘Paris, Capital of the 21st Century’. Walter Benjamin believed the essential truths of the 19st century as an era could be understood through studying and analysing the thoughts, words and productions of the Parisians. With Brexit in the 21st century however, we may find that it will be truly in the shift of Capital from London markets to Paris that political reality is brought home. So what is happening in Paris now?
Vilnius
Amongst the last people to Christianise in Europe, the Lithuanians as a people have had a roller coaster ride through history. From a sizeable medieval empire to a union with Poland, oppression by the Nazis and incorporation in the Soviet Union –is any small nation always destined ultimately to be pushed from pillar to post by its bigger and more powerful neighbours? Until WWII the population of the city of Vilnius was majority Polish and Jewish, with Polish and Yiddish as the major languages, but since 1991 with the gradual collapse of the Soviet Union, it has been the capital of a thriving independent Lithuanian Republic of total population three and half million.
Paris, Capital of the 19th Century Walter Benjamin