Progonophobia: The Fear of One’s ForebearsMaybe I’m just getting old, but contemporary life seems increasingly baffling. Let me share three seemingly unrelated occurrences from the past eighteen months that left me bewildered. As I retell these stories, I invite the reader to consider what common thread might tie them together. On a trip to Amsterdam in January 2024, I visited the famous Tropenmuseum, excited to see some of its vast collection of artefacts from the Dutch East Indies. Once inside—seventeen euros poorer—I discovered that nearly the entire anthropological collection had been hidden away, pending debates about “decolonising” the museum.