The only sure way to dominate a city accustomed to living free is to destroy it. This quote from Niccolò Machiavelli could well represent the challenge we face in today's world. After decades of progress, though not without contradictions, cities, and in particular the so-called global cities, have become the enemy to be defeated by the leaders of the neoconservative and ultraliberal offensive that is sweeping a good part of the Western world. The Italian essayist and novelist Giuliano da Empoli has accurately portrayed this in his book The Engineers of Chaos. An essay that dissects in detail, taking Italy as an example, how populist movements, behind the apparent chaos of what he calls the populist carnival, hide a meticulous work by dozens of propagandists, ideologues, scientists, journalists, or technology experts like Big Data to manipulate public opinion and reinvent the rules of the political game.
The populist discourse offensive, far from being improvised and authentic, is based on a delicate strategy of reinvention and fragmentation of political discourse itself. Through social and political polarization, it fuels anger with political language and narratives specially designed for the digital environment—fast, reactive, and provocative—so that they reproduce virally and distort the political discourses of democratic institutions and moderate options.
Sociologists Fernando Pittaro and Martín Szulman have defined this well in their recent book The Age of Cruelty, analyzing how common sense is no longer a neutral ground for consensus, but is subject to discursive struggles, manipulations, and becomes part of the scenario of symbolic cruelty. A cruelty that is not understood solely as physical violence, but as the aggressiveness of political and media language to destroy the adversary, as exemplified by populist and autocratic leaderships like Trump, Bolsonaro, or Milei.
And that is precisely what the engineers of chaos have attempted, and failed, in the recent New York mayoral elections. The city of skyscrapers is a global symbol both for its economic weight and symbolism and for its cultural and human diversity, as well as its defense of the progressive values of open societies. The victory of Zohran Mamdani, an immigrant of South Asian origin who lived part of his childhood in South Africa before settling in the U.S. and who defines himself as a democrat and socialist, has been an affront to Donald Trump and his disciples. However, it constitutes a breath of hope and excitement both for the citizens of the Big Apple and for progressives as a whole and defenders of open societies. Mamdani, who barely a year ago was a total unknown, won resoundingly with 50.4% of the votes against the candidates of the traditional establishment, former state governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, with a fresh and disruptive discourse.
Mamdani, 34 years old and with a background as an activist in housing, transportation, and social justice issues, thus becomes the first Muslim mayor of New York with a campaign of enormous spontaneity, creativity, and plasticity that has generated a huge wave of hope and excitement among broad layers of the New York population. While his main banner is the battle against real estate speculation and the defense of a progressive housing policy, he also advocates a series of proposals aimed at reclaiming the city for its residents, from transportation to health or support for vulnerable groups.
The impact of Mamdani's victory goes far beyond his constituency and will inevitably become an icon for the reconstruction of an alternative political and social project to the neoconservative offensive in the defense of freedom, social justice, and diversity. Mamdani's social democratic agenda, while revolutionary for the United States, connects directly with the challenges and political agenda of most global cities, especially in the Western world.
Saving the distances and the scale, it could well be said that Mandami's political and social agenda in NYC does not differ much from the political and social agenda of the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, and his proposal of the right to stay in the city. The 21st century is the century of cities, and while national governments will be very busy with the global geopolitical and geoeconomic agenda, it is cities that must step forward to deploy a new politics of affections and care for people, as well as the defense of democratic forms and participation.
Throughout history, cities have shown themselves to be the engines of growth and knowledge thanks to their enormous diversity and by concentrating human, intellectual, and technological capital, and they share many of the challenges we face globally. Our cities are an environment that facilitates the exchange of ideas and collaboration among institutions, companies, people, and organizations of all kinds. And particularly global cities are where major changes or trends are generated from an economic, social, or cultural point of view.
"The result of the New York elections is a signal, we must be more daring, bold, and creative"And in today's world, global cities like New York, London, Paris, Milan, Amsterdam, Copenhagen or Barcelona, to name just a few, with their respective mayors at the helm, have the responsibility to lead a new political agenda based on competitiveness, sustainability, equity, security and democracy against the new barbarians represented by populist far-right movements.
The battle will be hard, long, and intense, but the mayors of the new global cities have the opportunity and responsibility to lead and mobilize a movement and a coalition of free cities in defense of freedom, progress, and social justice. The result of the New York elections is a signal; we must be more daring, bold, and creative. Political tactical maneuvering will not save us; we need collective and collaborative leaderships that overflow institutions themselves to build local and global collective projects to curb the offensive of these engineers of chaos who aim for nothing less than to destroy everything that the best global cities represent. The American journalist Herb Caen said that a city is not measured by its length and width, but by the breadth of its vision and the height of its dreams. Well, that's it, it's time for us to dream and act.