2025

Holger Pötzsch
Our universal values are not for everyone: Hypocrisy and double-standards in the West’s relations to ‘the rest’

Insomnia Insights:
Soft Power, Hard Impact
Seminar Programme
Wednesday 15. October 18:30-22:00
FREE ENTRY

In this lecture, Holger Pötzsch examines the history of Western imperialist interventions against democratically elected governments, showing how such actions consistently installed oppressive authoritarian regimes. His analysis highlights how discourses of “human rights,” “democracy,” and “Western values” have often functioned less as guiding principles than as rhetorical veneers covering exploitative practices.

Connecting this history to the present, Pötzsch turns to the techno-political domain, reflecting on the role of so-called AI in consolidating the power of billionaire elites. He considers how contemporary digital technologies risk reinforcing authoritarian tendencies and accelerating the dismantling of what remains of actually existing democracies.

Holger Pötzsch, PhD, is professor in Media Studies at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway. His main research interests are media and war (in particular the war film and war games), educational potentials and pitfalls of digital technologies, and the politics of popular culture. He coordinates the research network ENCODE at UiT and serves as co-editor-in-chief of the academic journal Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture.