Xenophobia: Is It Something Morbid?

Addressing the problems of xenophobia, racism, and anti-Europeanism in light of the encounter between Hestia, goddess of the hearth, and Hermes, the messenger, the essay reflects on the extent to which our world has shifted from the class struggle to the struggle between Hermes and Hestia, between a social class (wealthy, mobile) that interacts easily with and through the world system and a social class (poorer, localistic) that remains confined to the margins of the system or excluded from it altogether. Today, the struggle even in politics seems centered on “Hermeticists” and “Hestiacs”: the sharp split between those who readily accept immigration and those who reject it in horror expresses this bitter conflict.