I had a long talk with some friends from Germany over dinner at Benjamin’s. They come to Motovun several times a year. According to them, the flagship of the European Union’s economy is in dire shape. Unemployment is much deeper than reported. Social problems are spreading far and wide. Radical groups on the far right are getting out of control. When I brought up depression, they nodded in agreement without discussion. When I brought up the deepening crisis in the Middle East and its possible consequences, they nodded in agreement once again. “Either revolution or war,” they put it in a nutshell. This time around, I nodded in agreement. And they are very sober people by any reckoning. Which started worrying me a bit. Well, it actually started worrying me a lot. Used to being the harbinger of sad news, I found myself in a quandary. Am I going on and on about things that everyone understands perfectly well already? Or am I loosing my compass?