Na konci světa - Úvahy a glosy o povaze naší současnosti – Pehe Jiří (2015)

The book presents a selection of essays and other texts published by writer and political scientist Jiří Pehe in various periodicals between 2011 and 2015. Their central theme is the idea that we are witnesses and actors of a fundamental transformation of Western civilization as we have known it since the Enlightenment. While we can see and analyze the 'decline' of the old world of reason and modernity, we can hardly glimpse the birth of a new, future age of our civilization. The author discusses this motif on various levels, whether through concepts such as globalization and global capitalism, the nation-state, nationalism, civil society, mass media, mass culture, liberal democracy based on political parties and ideologies, or through literary and film works, many of which are dominated by bleak catastrophism. Jiří Pehe also pays special attention to our Czech reality, specifically political culture, national mentality, and institutions. According to him, the situation here is complicated by the fact that we are affected by all civilizational phenomena, such as globalization or the decline or transformation of certain institutions, but at the same time, some negative phenomena are further exacerbated due to the discontinuity of our democratic development.