Jens Balzer: Confusion is next (Literaturtage Recklinghausen 2026)

Jens Balzer: “Confusion Is Next” – The Noughties and the Dawn of Our Present

Many view the 2000s as a time of new beginnings: social media connects the world, new technologies promise limitless possibilities, and individuality becomes a way of life. Yet behind the euphoria of this decade, the conflicts and crises that shape our present are already looming.

In his book *Confusion Is Next*, Jens Balzer looks back on the 2000s as a decisive period of upheaval. Spanning pop culture, politics, and the digital revolution, he recounts a time when freedom, self-realization, and connectivity reached new heights—and at the same time, the foundations were laid for surveillance, platform capitalism, social division, and political radicalization.

From Facebook and reality TV to the “War on Terror,” the NSU murders, and the 2008 financial crisis, all the way to the early careers of tech billionaires and pop culture phenomena: Balzer combines precise analysis with an entertaining diagnosis of the times and shows how the course for many of today’s developments was already set in the 2000s.

An exciting evening for anyone who wants to understand how today’s world emerged from a decade full of possibilities.