On the German desease

[Skybird]

It's really sad that this article again only is in German language, because it is competently summarizing the many details in Germany's misery, bitter-ironic in style and really true, I agree with most if not all of what it has to say. It is a bit too long as if I would translate it by hand, and the online tools for doing that produced nonsens, too many wordgames in it that cannot be translated well. So those of you who waited to hear me complaining about Germany as strong as I do about american politics again will have little satisfaction, I'm sorry. :-j

The text is a result of the recent campaign and election in Germany, but where it does not adress German specifications but today's political anti-culture and mechanisms in general, it is not only representative and descriptive for Germany, but most if not all other Western countries as well.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/20/20961/1.html

Makes me wonder, in what world my grandchildren will live?

In a way I ask that myself, too (I have no children, on a personal and emotional level I am sad because of that, but on another level I feel relief. Maybe you can understand what I mean).

[Takeda Shingen]

I share the sentiment of pessimism for the future, and am thankful that I have no children. It is a good article, and the words of Herr Maresch can easily be applied to a number of nations around the world, mine included.

[tycho102]

So those of you who waited to hear me complaining about Germany as strong as I do about american politics again will have little satisfaction, I'm sorry. :-j

Not so much "complain", as much as just "discuss".

CNN is such a huge organization, they translate into Chinese and Hindi. On top of that, it pipes out a tremendous amount of internal American news. So, the damn INDIANS end up knowing more about John Ashcroft's or Cindy Sheenan's latest antics, than a lot of Americans.

If I could get the Indian Channel, I would totally watch it. I'd watch the German Channel. Discovery Channel Theatre comes close, but they certainly pick and choose what to show you; plus, lately, the fundamentalist Christians have gotten them to blur out boobs and butts and statues. :rotfl:

If I learned Hindi, if I learned French, if I learned Russian and German and Danish and Chinese and Japanese and Italian, I could just read it off the internet. So, to this extent, you get CNN in your native language. Since all media is necessarily biased because you can't air every story that exists, the vast majority of the world gets a fairly tilted part of America, via CNN.

Same thing happens with the Palestinians, for example. CNN doesn't show the propaganda stuff with a Palestinian getting "shot", loaded into the ambulance and rushed to the hospital; only to turn right around in the next film, and load one of his fellow "militants" into some other ambulance. Nor does CNN report on the Palestinian news crews when they interview a 7 year old Palestinian boy, asking the question "are you prepared to die?" -- then nodding a yes to the boy in order for him to understand which answer they wish for him to give to the camera.


It's just interesting. I prefer non-politically-correct views of German issues. I like the raw data, without interpretation.

[August]

Some of the German public reaction to the debacle is interesting. :-j

Michael Vogt, parliament worker

The only option really now is for the Greens to join up with the CDU and the FDP, as far as I'm concerned.

I really can't see a big coalition working and there seems little will in any case.

It doesn't really bode well for Germany. In the longer term I'm very tempted to get out of here and head to America.

[Wim Libaers]

Maybe you can offer your opinion about these too?
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/178
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/278

[MadMike]

A "coalition" government, gimme a break. :roll:
Can I suggest a representative form of government using a federal republic modeled on our own illustrious Congress? :-j
Or better yet-

DENNIS:
What I object to is that you automatically treat me like an inferior!
ARTHUR:
Well, I am King!
DENNIS:
Oh, King, eh, very nice. And how d'you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers! By 'anging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society. If there's ever going to be any progress with the--
WOMAN:
Dennis, there's some lovely filth down here. Oh! How d'you do?

ARTHUR:
How do you do, good lady? I am Arthur, King of the Britons. Who's castle is that?
WOMAN:
King of the who?
ARTHUR:
The Britons.
WOMAN:
Who are the Britons?
ARTHUR:
Well, we all are. We are all Britons, and I am your king.
WOMAN:
I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective.
DENNIS:
You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship: a self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes--
WOMAN:
Oh, there you go bringing class into it again.
DENNIS:
That's what it's all about. If only people would hear of--
ARTHUR:
Please! Please, good people. I am in haste. Who lives in that castle?
WOMAN:
No one lives there.
ARTHUR:
Then who is your lord?
WOMAN:
We don't have a lord.
ARTHUR:
What?
DENNIS:
I told you. We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week,...
ARTHUR:
Yes.
DENNIS:
...but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting...
ARTHUR:
Yes, I see.
DENNIS:
...by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs,...
ARTHUR:
Be quiet!
DENNIS:
...but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more major--
ARTHUR:
Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!
WOMAN:
Order, eh? Who does he think he is? Heh.
ARTHUR:
I am your king!
WOMAN:
Well, I didn't vote for you.
ARTHUR:
You don't vote for kings.
WOMAN:
Well, how did you become King, then?
ARTHUR:
The Lady of the Lake,...
[angels sing]
...her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur.
[singing stops]
That is why I am your king!
DENNIS:
Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
ARTHUR:
Be quiet!
DENNIS:
Well, but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
ARTHUR:
Shut up!
DENNIS:
I mean, if I went 'round saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!
ARTHUR:
Shut up, will you? Shut up!

DENNIS:
Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.
ARTHUR:
Shut up!
DENNIS:
Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
ARTHUR:
Bloody peasant!
DENNIS:
Oh, what a give-away. Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That's what I'm on about. Did you see him repressing me? You saw it, didn't you?

:-j :88) :D :up: :rock:

Yours, Mike

IYAAYAS!