Collectively wrong
Germany at Easter.
When you see the images of the structural engineers of the past, whether in the Vatican or the participantless marches in all sorts of towns, you no longer believe that we can transform what we have long recognized into new action.
For too long we have all held on to what we have inherited.
But give up?
No, says Kai Blasberg
When you see the images of the structural engineers of the past, whether in the Vatican or the participantless marches in all sorts of towns, you no longer believe that we can transform what we have long recognized into new action.
For too long we have all held on to what we have inherited.
But give up?
No, says Kai Blasberg
Do you even know how beautiful the world is?
You know nothing; You don't know anything.
You know something about atomic bombs and international conflicts, you know about peoples who elected governments to protect their homes and lives and then had to leave their homes to give their lives to protect those governments.
Millions of young people who don't want to fight are fighting millions of young people who don't want to fight, and the achievements of science seem to have been achieved for no other purpose than to destroy everything that has been achieved. This is the world today. But can't tomorrow be different?
Leeuwenhoek discovered the microbe in drops of water, Pasteur the causative agent of rabies, Robert Koch the bacillus of tuberculosis. And according to the law that a cure for the causative agent of a disease is always found when that disease has reached its peak, when it has become almost unbearable, the causative agent of human stupidity must be on the verge of being discovered. And if we can find a serum against stupidity, the most terrible of all contagious diseases, then in no time there will be no more hatred and wars and common sense will replace international diplomacy.
Stupidity dead?
What a fantastic perspective.
Only in love, where stupidity exceeds every measure, is she delightful and lovable.
Love gives joy. What we need is hope. What is good for us is confidence. What we long for is happiness.
Nice text, right?
Not mine. But from the year I was born, 1965.
Heinz Rühmann played the science professor Hiob Prätorius, who uttered these words in the film in the lecture hall.
These lines are 60 years old and, with today's knowledge, strongly influenced by the consequences of the Second World War, which rightly shook our existence as a German people to its foundations to this day.
And as simple as the words and the thoughts behind them are, the path they show is just as simple.
We should agree again on what is necessary.
We should then discuss and negotiate what is desired.
Then first determine what is possible and then work hard on what can be achieved as much as possible. Maximum is the word that is important.
We, our society, is falling apart.
Above all, we ourselves have a maximum share in this. For decades, the individual was the fetish, the measure of all things.
Capitalism uses the means of promise towards the individual. Controlling this promise is the task given to us. But what capitalism, in its increasingly pure form, consciously conceals. Nevertheless, it is not capitalism that is to blame, but rather those who act individually in freedom, i.e. us. She and I.
The promise uses marketing in capitalism. Processing the markets. Marketing's job is to address concerns.
When the Mars chocolate bar claimed in the 1970s that it provided mobility for work, sport and play, this was at least crazy, but probably idiotic. People who believe that they can use high-purity industrial sugar to increase their own physical mobility by adding this fattening agent to their bodies have lost control of the promise. That's what Mars wants at most. But not the addressee.
But what is progress for a social democrat? It comes with justice, sometimes equality, always with solidarity. That doesn't seem really progressive. The Greens, on the other hand, are progressive ad nauseam. New. Different. Better. And always the way they say it. The state helps in case of doubt. Liberals believe in the market. If possible, the state should only allow itself to be reduced to a role of controlling accompaniment. In short: progress has not been and will not be explained. The word wavered and fell into the mud of history. All that's left is waiting for the end. As a result, wasted time frustrates citizens. Why should you still choose? The mental rot creeps in.
Well, that's just the price of the freedom we still enjoy. Because being lazy has no effect here. Being lazy means driving from a to b and doing what you always did and then calling it work. Being lazy is knowing that something is going wrong and not doing anything to change it. Being lazy means acting against your own interest even though you know better.
And being lazy is also telling yourself that change for one person won't do anything for everyone anyway. We know that there is another way.
But doing nothing has no consequences in our no longer so open society.
If we rest on what is tried and tested and reliable, and this still happens and perhaps even more than ever before due to self-inflicted insecurity, we will not get any better.
A Harry Kane doesn't help, as we can see. No matter how many goals he scores against Darmstadt.
The automobile company Audi claimed the general term progress for itself by exploiting the obsession with technology of many male Germans and combining the terms. From then on, "Progress through technology" was the very cool positioning in the apparent ratio. Message: Anyone who is sensible and therefore superior drives an Audi. The competitor BMW established a completely different strategy. It marked the joy for itself. That is, the joy of driving , an activity that is implemented to the maximum when operating a vehicle. From now on, "enjoyment of driving" was the benchmark in the opposite world of ratio. So if you perceived the Audi driver as a rather sober fellow, but the BMW owner as a wild rager, there was a reason for this right up until the noughties.
These very successful promises from the world of capitalism unfortunately increased almost three decades ago and also hijacked the political sphere to the maximum. Toni Blair called his entire party "New Labor" and paved the way for the Workers' Party into the cold arms of neoliberalism. Gerhard Schröder titled his policy of social reorganization "Agenda 2010." The foundling "good daycare law" also has its roots in marketing. All of this is supposed to promise what should not be explained, but should be glorified to the maximum. It promises everything. And it delivers little. Politics belongs to us, not them Parties. They don't produce a product, but are supposed to keep the world manageable for people.
The Germany of 2024 is waiting for the "traffic light" to be replaced. This is also a simplification from the positioners' toolbox. The "traffic light" also began its intrinsic imbalance with a promise, as it spoke of iconic selfies by the Greens and the FDP accompanied, also by progress.
And unlike Audi, they didn't even provide the legitimacy of the "through".
Progress, yes, through what?
The political scientist Herfried Münkler spoke of the collective singular, which is no longer resilient when the three parties simply used the term "progress coalition" for themselves. At first it sounded catchy.
Occasionally it has to be a project with new content. Which at least many people are convinced of.
We have to be as convinced as possible. From your own actions.
In the context of my very modest charisma, I believe, for example, that it is not the shabby Ms. Weidel who is a problem, but her voters. Because the shabby Ms. Weidel and her equally shabby party have never in their lives given a single reason to vote for her. In terms of content, see above, certainly not. So when compatriots who are rightly disappointed in themselves still go to the polls to give shabbiness a voice, the disappointed people do so consciously. And should have to justify it. A long time ago. However, our conflict avoidance techniques in politics, the media and society talk about these voters as if they were deplorable disabled people who just need to be heard about their concerns.
This borders on incapacitation. And leaves the lazy thinkers in their cocoons. In which they then let the bad mood continue to ferment vigorously until the casings burst like brown manure bubbles. We are all responsible for that. And have to wipe it away too.
The former Empress, er, sorry, Chancellor Merkel, the onion among her peers, who was once highly praised by the hustle and bustle of Berlin journalists, falls year after year, month after month, shell after shell, revealing the devastation that her style of politics leaves behind.
Asymmetrical demobilization was the name of a concept that aimed at sedating thoughts so that comfortable governance would be possible forever. Conservatism as market destruction, reduced to their 2013 election slogan: "You know me." Translated: Cheers. Imagine another one, eat your fat. Nothing has to change. I'll do it. The result was maximum: Peter Altmeier, a demolition bell made human, so to speak, of any future design.
At Easter we should believe in the resurrection.
This time to our own.
Out of the caves and into full life.
This is on your doorstep, not at overcrowded airports with the prospect of all-you-can-eat destinations on the Red Sea. Let's learn to endure our lives. Maybe even find it beautiful. Let's go hiking, cycling or sit in a café with our loved ones. What we will gain is time. With it comes leisure.
If we want to change something, we need these comrades.
What we want is our business.
Maximum.
04/03/24
*Kai Blasberg worked in the private media in Germany for 40 years
You know nothing; You don't know anything.
You know something about atomic bombs and international conflicts, you know about peoples who elected governments to protect their homes and lives and then had to leave their homes to give their lives to protect those governments.
Millions of young people who don't want to fight are fighting millions of young people who don't want to fight, and the achievements of science seem to have been achieved for no other purpose than to destroy everything that has been achieved. This is the world today. But can't tomorrow be different?
Leeuwenhoek discovered the microbe in drops of water, Pasteur the causative agent of rabies, Robert Koch the bacillus of tuberculosis. And according to the law that a cure for the causative agent of a disease is always found when that disease has reached its peak, when it has become almost unbearable, the causative agent of human stupidity must be on the verge of being discovered. And if we can find a serum against stupidity, the most terrible of all contagious diseases, then in no time there will be no more hatred and wars and common sense will replace international diplomacy.
Stupidity dead?
What a fantastic perspective.
Only in love, where stupidity exceeds every measure, is she delightful and lovable.
Love gives joy. What we need is hope. What is good for us is confidence. What we long for is happiness.
Nice text, right?
Not mine. But from the year I was born, 1965.
Heinz Rühmann played the science professor Hiob Prätorius, who uttered these words in the film in the lecture hall.
These lines are 60 years old and, with today's knowledge, strongly influenced by the consequences of the Second World War, which rightly shook our existence as a German people to its foundations to this day.
And as simple as the words and the thoughts behind them are, the path they show is just as simple.
We should agree again on what is necessary.
We should then discuss and negotiate what is desired.
Then first determine what is possible and then work hard on what can be achieved as much as possible. Maximum is the word that is important.
We, our society, is falling apart.
Above all, we ourselves have a maximum share in this. For decades, the individual was the fetish, the measure of all things.
Capitalism uses the means of promise towards the individual. Controlling this promise is the task given to us. But what capitalism, in its increasingly pure form, consciously conceals. Nevertheless, it is not capitalism that is to blame, but rather those who act individually in freedom, i.e. us. She and I.
The promise uses marketing in capitalism. Processing the markets. Marketing's job is to address concerns.
When the Mars chocolate bar claimed in the 1970s that it provided mobility for work, sport and play, this was at least crazy, but probably idiotic. People who believe that they can use high-purity industrial sugar to increase their own physical mobility by adding this fattening agent to their bodies have lost control of the promise. That's what Mars wants at most. But not the addressee.
But what is progress for a social democrat? It comes with justice, sometimes equality, always with solidarity. That doesn't seem really progressive. The Greens, on the other hand, are progressive ad nauseam. New. Different. Better. And always the way they say it. The state helps in case of doubt. Liberals believe in the market. If possible, the state should only allow itself to be reduced to a role of controlling accompaniment. In short: progress has not been and will not be explained. The word wavered and fell into the mud of history. All that's left is waiting for the end. As a result, wasted time frustrates citizens. Why should you still choose? The mental rot creeps in.
Well, that's just the price of the freedom we still enjoy. Because being lazy has no effect here. Being lazy means driving from a to b and doing what you always did and then calling it work. Being lazy is knowing that something is going wrong and not doing anything to change it. Being lazy means acting against your own interest even though you know better.
And being lazy is also telling yourself that change for one person won't do anything for everyone anyway. We know that there is another way.
But doing nothing has no consequences in our no longer so open society.
If we rest on what is tried and tested and reliable, and this still happens and perhaps even more than ever before due to self-inflicted insecurity, we will not get any better.
A Harry Kane doesn't help, as we can see. No matter how many goals he scores against Darmstadt.
The automobile company Audi claimed the general term progress for itself by exploiting the obsession with technology of many male Germans and combining the terms. From then on, "Progress through technology" was the very cool positioning in the apparent ratio. Message: Anyone who is sensible and therefore superior drives an Audi. The competitor BMW established a completely different strategy. It marked the joy for itself. That is, the joy of driving , an activity that is implemented to the maximum when operating a vehicle. From now on, "enjoyment of driving" was the benchmark in the opposite world of ratio. So if you perceived the Audi driver as a rather sober fellow, but the BMW owner as a wild rager, there was a reason for this right up until the noughties.
These very successful promises from the world of capitalism unfortunately increased almost three decades ago and also hijacked the political sphere to the maximum. Toni Blair called his entire party "New Labor" and paved the way for the Workers' Party into the cold arms of neoliberalism. Gerhard Schröder titled his policy of social reorganization "Agenda 2010." The foundling "good daycare law" also has its roots in marketing. All of this is supposed to promise what should not be explained, but should be glorified to the maximum. It promises everything. And it delivers little. Politics belongs to us, not them Parties. They don't produce a product, but are supposed to keep the world manageable for people.
The Germany of 2024 is waiting for the "traffic light" to be replaced. This is also a simplification from the positioners' toolbox. The "traffic light" also began its intrinsic imbalance with a promise, as it spoke of iconic selfies by the Greens and the FDP accompanied, also by progress.
And unlike Audi, they didn't even provide the legitimacy of the "through".
Progress, yes, through what?
The political scientist Herfried Münkler spoke of the collective singular, which is no longer resilient when the three parties simply used the term "progress coalition" for themselves. At first it sounded catchy.
Occasionally it has to be a project with new content. Which at least many people are convinced of.
We have to be as convinced as possible. From your own actions.
In the context of my very modest charisma, I believe, for example, that it is not the shabby Ms. Weidel who is a problem, but her voters. Because the shabby Ms. Weidel and her equally shabby party have never in their lives given a single reason to vote for her. In terms of content, see above, certainly not. So when compatriots who are rightly disappointed in themselves still go to the polls to give shabbiness a voice, the disappointed people do so consciously. And should have to justify it. A long time ago. However, our conflict avoidance techniques in politics, the media and society talk about these voters as if they were deplorable disabled people who just need to be heard about their concerns.
This borders on incapacitation. And leaves the lazy thinkers in their cocoons. In which they then let the bad mood continue to ferment vigorously until the casings burst like brown manure bubbles. We are all responsible for that. And have to wipe it away too.
The former Empress, er, sorry, Chancellor Merkel, the onion among her peers, who was once highly praised by the hustle and bustle of Berlin journalists, falls year after year, month after month, shell after shell, revealing the devastation that her style of politics leaves behind.
Asymmetrical demobilization was the name of a concept that aimed at sedating thoughts so that comfortable governance would be possible forever. Conservatism as market destruction, reduced to their 2013 election slogan: "You know me." Translated: Cheers. Imagine another one, eat your fat. Nothing has to change. I'll do it. The result was maximum: Peter Altmeier, a demolition bell made human, so to speak, of any future design.
At Easter we should believe in the resurrection.
This time to our own.
Out of the caves and into full life.
This is on your doorstep, not at overcrowded airports with the prospect of all-you-can-eat destinations on the Red Sea. Let's learn to endure our lives. Maybe even find it beautiful. Let's go hiking, cycling or sit in a café with our loved ones. What we will gain is time. With it comes leisure.
If we want to change something, we need these comrades.
What we want is our business.
Maximum.
04/03/24
*Kai Blasberg worked in the private media in Germany for 40 years
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