What makes our current situation so unnerving is an outbreak of "nonsimultaneity.” At least that’s what I recently heard Robert Habeck, Germany’s energy and commerce minister, tell a gathering of German industrialists.
What a big word, I thought to myself. And what a difficult — though possibly deep — concept. That’s just like Habeck. A leader of the environmentalist Greens in the German governing coalition, he’s also a serial co-author (with his wife) of novels and children’s books. He has an intellectual curiosity that’s rare among politicos.
A simple example of the nonsimultaneity he was talking about might be the backstory behind the recent weather. Much of Europe has been sweltering in record-busting temperatures. People are sweating and panting, doing their best to stay hydrated and avoid heat stroke.