Month: August 2010

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Surviving Germany

Today I’d like to sing praise of a newspaper that has accompanied me for the past 20 years or so and actually contributes more than the occasional laughter to my well-being. By putting its finger in sores few people in Germany actually bother to even notice or be upset about, by constantly pointing out the blatant idiocy of Germanys “political culture” and some of the smartest, angriest and most precise political analytical texts published here the titanic magazine has been an indispensable tool for me to maintain perspective and sanity in this country.

If you think that is me being overdramatic, than explain to me why all the world is up in arms about the racist statements of a Bundesbank board member, while at the same time no-one seems to be bothered at the open comparison of a black to an ape?

If you think thats a sad point of view, entertain me and lets play the following game with a very simple rule: Name a progressive (liberal, communist, anarchist, your pick) german writer or philosopher of statue that was NOT driven to exile or suicide, incarcerated or murdered in the past two centuries. You win if you can name two.

Heine? Marx? Adorno? Horkheimer? Stephan Zweig? Walter Benjamin? And please don’t even try to name Böll or Grass, I said: statue. Gottfried Benn is the only one that actually comes to my mind.

And if you think I am lacking in patriotism: I am glad to be born in a western country with all its possibilities, public services, riches and securites. It just doesnt make me proud. For if it is me, I do not carry the burden of the past, I did not participate in war and genocide. But if there is talk of “we”, then this “we” includes this past, and in this case “we” should shut the fuck up.

And of course there are other countries which are worse, and there are other places presenting just the same amount of reasons to be angry and sad. If I move there, I will let you know. Until then: Three cheers to the titanic, may they live long and proseper, and not stop to cause outrage and be outraged.

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What he said

“Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Beside, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of Nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.”

Taliban?

“Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own.”

Terrorists?

“Nevertheless, to the persecution and tyranny […] we will not tamely submit — appealing to Heaven for the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free.”

Suicide Bombers?

Nope, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson and Joseph Warren, respectively. Different times, same words. And I think the British generals of the time would have understood this man in his rage too well:

What I don’t think people that aren’t in the military, and aren’t in conflict, understand is that the danger of these kinds of leaks.  I think that it’s irresponsible and could very well end up in loss of lives.

Oh and don’t take that as me saying the West should pull out of Afghanistan ASAP and leave the Taliban to beat veil their wives and shoot any infidels. I have no answer to this war, really.  Damned if you stay, damned if you leave.  I am happy not to be asked for advice here.  But what I note is what war does to language and minds: It makes even otherwise smart people think like terrorists:  (and that in the Washington Post): “It is your fault that those people died, you forced us to pull the trigger. We have to kill you, too, and you are yourself to blame.”  Oh land of the free.

As if the soldiers weren’t there on their own free will, as if the terrorists weren’t there by their own decision, as if weren’t the women, the children, the old those who suffer the most.