Institut Ramon LLull

Today’s world is one whose limits are ‘liquid’ as Bauman would say. Being cosmopolitan is something that is imposed on us, often without us being fully aware of it. This erudite book is a blend of essay-writing and narration, and explores three ways of being cosmopolitan. It does so through three models, which while very different, all shed light on the present-day world. The cynic Diogenes renounced culture altogether.

The Flying Dutchman would never belong anywhere, like some tragi-comic tourist. Ramon Mercader, The Chameleonic Catalan who buried an axe in Trotsky’s skull, was moved by an idea that he sacrificed his life (and of course, that of his Bolshevik victim) to. The three cases respectively represent Renunciation, Disorientation, and Obsession. The three perils and three temptations are three ways of being cosmopolitan.