By Patrik Baab, World BEYOND War, January 8, 2025
Swedish activist and poet Håkan Östlundh reads his poem “The Chaos Demon” in Lisbon (International Conference on Peace Negotiations, Mediation, and Human Rights, November 2025)– a literary indictment of war, hypocrisy and the West’s moral self-deception.
In a conversation with Patrik Baab, he discusses Sweden’s accession to NATO, the erosion of neutrality, the assassination of Olof Palme, the end of Swedish social democracy—and the “Chaos Demon,” which he describes as a symbol of Western hubris.
A conversation about the intellectual state of Europe, media manipulation, collective fear—and the hope that art and culture can become the language of resistance.
