Mark Adomanis, Contributor
Sean Guillory and I don’t agree on everything (he’s much more economically left-wing than I am, and rather more pessimistic about where Russia is heading) but he’s extremely knowledgeable, an excellent writer, and someone and whose opinions deserve to be taken seriously. He recently wrote a truly outstanding piece that talked about how an “imaginary Europe” has captured Ukrainians’ collective imaginations. The article is worth reading in full, but here’s a particularly choice excerpt:
Europe is at a nadir. Yet Ukrainians are nevertheless clamoring to join it. Granted, I understand why so many Ukrainians place their hopes on “Europe” as a symbol for the future. In the cosmology of the West/East divide, Europe has wondrous powers over the imagination. My only fear is that by imbuing it with such symbolic meaning, Ukrainians will turn Europe into a false promise.
Sean Guillory and I don’t agree on everything (he’s much more economically left-wing than I am, and rather more pessimistic about where Russia is heading) but he’s extremely knowledgeable, an excellent writer, and someone and whose opinions deserve to be taken seriously. He recently wrote a truly outstanding piece that talked about how an “imaginary Europe” has captured Ukrainians’ collective imaginations. The article is worth reading in full, but here’s a particularly choice excerpt:
Europe is at a nadir. Yet Ukrainians are nevertheless clamoring to join it. Granted, I understand why so many Ukrainians place their hopes on “Europe” as a symbol for the future. In the cosmology of the West/East divide, Europe has wondrous powers over the imagination. My only fear is that by imbuing it with such symbolic meaning, Ukrainians will turn Europe into a false promise.









