Skybird
03-29-07, 06:19 PM
Clinton-bashing is considered to be routine in this forum, that's why I remembered the following text once I had red it. I have finished reading another novel by Frank Schätzing, “Lautlos”, which deals with an American-Serbian assassination attempt against Clinton during the summit in Cologne, via a YAG-Laser and many reflection mirrors hidden in the structure of the (at that time) newly constructed Terminal 2 of the airport Cologne-Bonn. It was a good read with many very intelligent dialogues between the protagonists, and to my great pleasure did whiskey not only play an important role in it, no, the author even shares my preference concerning favourite whiskey brands :) At the end of the book, he added some notes on whiskeys, Serbian history, the Russian Mafia, the Balkan war and the Kosovo war, and America. That essay about America and it’s inner nature struck me, because it almost completely mirrored my own perceptions of and conclusions on the contradictory nature of America, that I see as a pair of two extreme poles that are linked in a relation of high inner tensions. Like Schätzing I see America as the most conflict-ridden social society if not worldwide so at least in the West, with massive advantages, but also immense disadvantages, resulting in very intense inner conflicts. I give a loose translation of it in the following text:
part 1 of 2
In the novel, a White House correspondent describes the American way of life by explaining the excesses of the American media culture. And since the book is on Clinton, a certain mishap necessarily gets mentioned. Nobody can hear the name Lewinsky anymore, but Republicans don’t get tired to repeat it again and again, so one should not have illusions here: no matter how sick and tired people are of the Lewinsky affair, it has massively influenced the way political conflicts are dealt with in the future.
How it could come that far that a high-ranking politician could be pilloried (?) that massively for a bit on the side, is the one question. The more important question must be asked as a direct consequence from the first: what must happen that politics will not aim a second time below the belt like with Clinton? And what dangers are hidden in a social system that allows a political slaughter like this one?
Generally, one has to be aware of the differences between the American and the European understandings of values and morals. The Europe of the present, especially Middle Europe, is - despite left and right camps on the extremes sides - dominated by powers and factions that use to seek a balance: one tends to favour agreements and mutual understanding. All major parties are following a moderate course, even the relation to the churches is relaxed and emphasizes reconciliation. After centuries and millennia that were dominated by wars, revolutions and conflicts, that were influenced by the heritage of old and the awakening of new civilisations/cultures, constant shifting of borders, constant thoroughly mixing of different tribes, and omnipresent primitiveness and brutality on the one hand, and enormous intellectual and ethical achievements on the other hand, Europeans finally have reached a status of harmonization and cooperation. Not because we are so tolerant, but because we realise that tolerance and coexistence are necessary practical constraints.
Different to that, the United States look back onto a history which is much younger and shorter. The world wars have not taken place here (continental America), and a detached, objective reflection of one’s own short history also has not taken place. The home-made problems of the early days are lasting and promise to go on in the future. Racism, the inglorious history of the Indian wars, the question of religions: the lack of reflection of all this still remains, and in principal parts these themes are still unsolved. In Europe, cultural development has taken place unhurried and in slow movements, in the United States people got catapulted from a time of archaic morals and ultraconservative religious beliefs, provincial wild west-thinking and social primitiveness, into a high-tech-universe within the shortest amount of time only – within just two centuries.
Though America has fulfilled its development, it has by far not digest it. It is seething, as if the settlement has just taken place. And it is seething even more, because Americans try with all might to show it differently, because they wish so much that they could look back onto a long history – which they do not have (that explains American’s great interest in European culture and history). The presidency is celebrated and put into scene like a surrogate for the monarchy one had sent to hell two hundred years earlier, the president is seen as an institution that boarders to the collective function of a king/queen for his/her people. The USA are torn by extreme views, their history is marked by moral and physical violence. The American system suffers from its own diffuseness/confusion. Within a very powerful union (that understands itself as a symbol of unity second to none in the world), 50 independent states are facing and often hindering each other, whose understanding of their own identity partially shows a very extreme variety. As a consequence, world-wide interests and global superpower go hand in hand with extremely stupid ignorance of anything that lies beyond the next cornfield. In no other place in the world contradictions are so extreme like here.
The patriotism of many Hollywood productions cannot hide that for these reasons America does not have a national identity like England, France or Germany. The emphasising of this kind of patriotism serves to compensate for this lack of homogeneity and unity. De facto the American society is a loose conglomeration of interests and morals who could not be any more different from each other. It is formed by few people who have incredibly much, and many people who have incredibly little, it is formed by liberals and democrats on the one side, and republicans on the other, whose representatives would like to turn back the wheel of history, sometimes at all costs.
Of course the United States are also great and wonderful in many ways. In this country of almost unlimited possibilities, the individual eventually is given the chance for unimaginable ways to unfold his/her individuality, like probably nowhere else. This side of America is a history of freedom and success. The dark side of America, however, is a nation in which prisons daily, regularly violate basic human rights, where juveniles and mentally ill persons get executed, 30 million people need to book security services, and 1.5 million people vegetate behind bars. A country that spends more money on prisons than on universities, and where the Ku-Klux-Klan experiences a renaissance that is unique in its history.
But also this: in almost no other part of the world, the call for tolerance and equality has been made with such convincing staunchness, and has modern progress been given such promising chances because of that. But all the more the reactionaries retreated from reality and retreated into the past of the pilgrim fathers, the ultra-prudish sexual neurotics and the religiously ambitioned racists. Self-declared “Christians” without any trace of brotherly love and compassion, who preach their beliefs even with violence if needed, are slowly winning a better position again, even the upper hand. The freest country in the world does not stand back behind Islamic fundamentalism if one is looking at the ultra-conservative scene.
part 1 of 2
In the novel, a White House correspondent describes the American way of life by explaining the excesses of the American media culture. And since the book is on Clinton, a certain mishap necessarily gets mentioned. Nobody can hear the name Lewinsky anymore, but Republicans don’t get tired to repeat it again and again, so one should not have illusions here: no matter how sick and tired people are of the Lewinsky affair, it has massively influenced the way political conflicts are dealt with in the future.
How it could come that far that a high-ranking politician could be pilloried (?) that massively for a bit on the side, is the one question. The more important question must be asked as a direct consequence from the first: what must happen that politics will not aim a second time below the belt like with Clinton? And what dangers are hidden in a social system that allows a political slaughter like this one?
Generally, one has to be aware of the differences between the American and the European understandings of values and morals. The Europe of the present, especially Middle Europe, is - despite left and right camps on the extremes sides - dominated by powers and factions that use to seek a balance: one tends to favour agreements and mutual understanding. All major parties are following a moderate course, even the relation to the churches is relaxed and emphasizes reconciliation. After centuries and millennia that were dominated by wars, revolutions and conflicts, that were influenced by the heritage of old and the awakening of new civilisations/cultures, constant shifting of borders, constant thoroughly mixing of different tribes, and omnipresent primitiveness and brutality on the one hand, and enormous intellectual and ethical achievements on the other hand, Europeans finally have reached a status of harmonization and cooperation. Not because we are so tolerant, but because we realise that tolerance and coexistence are necessary practical constraints.
Different to that, the United States look back onto a history which is much younger and shorter. The world wars have not taken place here (continental America), and a detached, objective reflection of one’s own short history also has not taken place. The home-made problems of the early days are lasting and promise to go on in the future. Racism, the inglorious history of the Indian wars, the question of religions: the lack of reflection of all this still remains, and in principal parts these themes are still unsolved. In Europe, cultural development has taken place unhurried and in slow movements, in the United States people got catapulted from a time of archaic morals and ultraconservative religious beliefs, provincial wild west-thinking and social primitiveness, into a high-tech-universe within the shortest amount of time only – within just two centuries.
Though America has fulfilled its development, it has by far not digest it. It is seething, as if the settlement has just taken place. And it is seething even more, because Americans try with all might to show it differently, because they wish so much that they could look back onto a long history – which they do not have (that explains American’s great interest in European culture and history). The presidency is celebrated and put into scene like a surrogate for the monarchy one had sent to hell two hundred years earlier, the president is seen as an institution that boarders to the collective function of a king/queen for his/her people. The USA are torn by extreme views, their history is marked by moral and physical violence. The American system suffers from its own diffuseness/confusion. Within a very powerful union (that understands itself as a symbol of unity second to none in the world), 50 independent states are facing and often hindering each other, whose understanding of their own identity partially shows a very extreme variety. As a consequence, world-wide interests and global superpower go hand in hand with extremely stupid ignorance of anything that lies beyond the next cornfield. In no other place in the world contradictions are so extreme like here.
The patriotism of many Hollywood productions cannot hide that for these reasons America does not have a national identity like England, France or Germany. The emphasising of this kind of patriotism serves to compensate for this lack of homogeneity and unity. De facto the American society is a loose conglomeration of interests and morals who could not be any more different from each other. It is formed by few people who have incredibly much, and many people who have incredibly little, it is formed by liberals and democrats on the one side, and republicans on the other, whose representatives would like to turn back the wheel of history, sometimes at all costs.
Of course the United States are also great and wonderful in many ways. In this country of almost unlimited possibilities, the individual eventually is given the chance for unimaginable ways to unfold his/her individuality, like probably nowhere else. This side of America is a history of freedom and success. The dark side of America, however, is a nation in which prisons daily, regularly violate basic human rights, where juveniles and mentally ill persons get executed, 30 million people need to book security services, and 1.5 million people vegetate behind bars. A country that spends more money on prisons than on universities, and where the Ku-Klux-Klan experiences a renaissance that is unique in its history.
But also this: in almost no other part of the world, the call for tolerance and equality has been made with such convincing staunchness, and has modern progress been given such promising chances because of that. But all the more the reactionaries retreated from reality and retreated into the past of the pilgrim fathers, the ultra-prudish sexual neurotics and the religiously ambitioned racists. Self-declared “Christians” without any trace of brotherly love and compassion, who preach their beliefs even with violence if needed, are slowly winning a better position again, even the upper hand. The freest country in the world does not stand back behind Islamic fundamentalism if one is looking at the ultra-conservative scene.