The New Tower of Babel

Summary

This novel began not with a fictional character, but with a historical question: how could a single city—Vienna in 1913—bring together ideas and figures that would reshape the twentieth century? From psychoanalysis to nationalisms, socialism, and political Zionism, these currents intersect in a new tower built with knowledge and power, posing the oldest question: why do civilizations fall?

Central Idea

Knowledge alone does not make a just civilization; when power is severed from ethics, a new tower is built, destined to fall.

Arguments

• Vienna in 1913 was a concentrated laboratory for the currents of the twentieth century.
• The fall of towers begins from within, not from without.
• The novel does not advocate a ready-made position, but opens up the question.

Chapters

Author’s Note

From Vienna in 1913 to the Novel

The Coming Century

The Fall of the New Tower of Babel

Intersecting Currents

Psychoanalysis, Nationalisms, Socialism

Knowledge and Power

When Ethics Parts Ways with Science

Excerpt

This novel began not with a fictional character, but with a historical question that continued to haunt me: how could a single city, at a particular historical moment, bring together ideas and figures that would later influence the course of the world?