ENZO KREFT Enzo Kreft has a new album out, and just like his previous albums, it is a committed concept album. This time he addresses the theme of dictatorship, and the album is aptly called: ‘Dictator’. We know by now that Enzo Kreft always seriously delves into the themes he addresses, and that he really has something to say about them. That is why we previously asked Enzo Kreft to explain the various songs on the album, each of which represents a separate dimension of the overall picture. But we also wanted to go deeper around this theme, and asked Enzo Kreft a number of more philosophical questions. Enzo Kreft was happy to take on the challenge, and so an interview followed that is more about political philosophy than about music. Hi Enzo, we absolutely love your latest album ‘Dictator’. When I was at your performance in Antwerp, I asked you if you wanted to do a more philosophical interview with questions about democracy and dictatorship. I immediately said that I would ask questions that I myself do not have an answer to, but that I would like to debate.Thanks for agreeing to this. www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be - 4 - Let’s start at the beginning: what made you make an album around the concept of dictatorship? The current geopolitical developments, the rise of new authoritarian leaders worldwide, censorship and growing polarization evoke the feeling that we are moving towards a repressive society again. I felt the absolute necessity to do something with this. ‘Dictator’ has become an indictment against conformism and silent obedience. Dictatorship is sometimes a difficult concept. How do you define dictatorship, and how do you define its opposite, democracy? Are there also shades of gray between dictatorship and democracy, in your opinion? Absolutely. The opposition between dictatorship and democracy is not a black-and-white issue: there is a whole spectrum of intermediate forms. Many political systems in the world are somewhere in the gray area between these two extremes. It is therefore important to recognize these gray values, to recognize creeping slides from democracy to authoritarianism. It prevents us from oversimplifying systems: a country can be
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