Right, left, ass.

Right, left, ass.

In the past, in state assemblies, the church people sat at the front, then came the nobility, and at the back the "third estate". That was us, 98% of the population, and we were regularly outvoted. In the French Revolution, the citizens brought in a few princes and priests Over there, declared themselves to be part of the National Assembly. There we sat with our asses navigated: loyal to the right, liberal to the left. It was a nice time, now that's enough.

By Friedrich Küppersbusch
It currently feels like 98% are of the opinion that 98% would be overruled just as regularly. No democracy. No matter how you sit and where. Hundreds of thousands were just on the streets to demand "democracy". Against those who demand "real democracy". The learned spectrum "from left to right" is no longer suitable for this. The "Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance" represents all sorts of positions; and personality cult is about as left wing as Stalin. The criticism of the "Corona dictatorship" was democratic in the literal sense. Then "committees of inquiry" were fantasized and wonderful fantasies of omnipotence. The formerly left-wing Greens tremolate values-blasé candy floss in which they wrap conventional right-wing war politics. Baerbock, Hofreiter, even the sprightly Strack-Zimmermann would be no brainer for the very first row today: We no longer have a religion, we now believe some fervent stuff. People need a bit of spirituality. Diversity, wokeness, extreme outdoor human rights. Just something where you are morally clearly above others and can tear them down until your dripping complacency makes you want to change your underwear.
Those up there do whatever they want anyway. We all agree on that. This combines the non-functioning of democracy and the failure to participate in democracy. They're doing shit up there and we're not even trying to make it better: It works. This is how you can do it. Almost everyone who is now calling loudly for "democracy" means: Now it's my turn. Democracy as a synonym for the rule of the other. Is that left? right? Obsessed?
It's authoritarian. People feel like they are powerless, and in Germany the Ossis are fooling the Wessis. Wars, globalization, climate, and Elon Musk is watching us in the toilet from 1,000 satellites. Capitalism too. Extreme right promises a completely left-wing idea of the common good - once you have thrown out everyone who is not allowed to take part in the common good. The loot is then distributed fairly. Ok, that soon became more of a minority position in the NSdAP, but - don't give up, Höcke. There's a constant stream of an increasingly threatening world, and where should we go with it? There are suggestions on every bollard as to which minorities we should leave out: migrants. Asylum seekers. Jews. Palestinians. Muslims. LGBTQI+. Greens! There's something there.
The thinking behind it: You can't do anything upwards, but you can step down hard - is classic authoritarian. There's the "Under Helmut Schmidt, a woman could still go to the park at night" fan as left-wing as everyone who says the same thing about Egon Honecker is right-wing. It's not right-left, it's top down.
Today, especially in digital media, there is an urgent and constant need to "destroy", "annihilate" and "take down". That's enough, and with a lot of luck you can find it "pre-democratic". So another few years of social studies and maybe there will be successful integration. However, it is not unlikely that this is "post-democratic". Our democracy has developed to such a degree of injustice that it no longer passes the TÜV inspection. Children are born failed - no educational opportunities. The five richest Germans have more money than the poorer ones Half of the population (1). The more housing governments promise, the fewer are built. 2.2 million children in Germany are considered to be at risk of poverty. (2) Democracy. If it were a horse, you would have to shoot it.
In the best case, democracy can organize so that everyone has at least the glass half empty. Some of us have full dams and many don't even have a glass. You can let this fester and fester until the system appears irreparably broken. You have to be able to afford the few inexpensable goodies - freedom of travel, freedom of expression, freedom of organization - and yet they hardly outweigh the core deficiencies. First the food, then the morals, Brecht.
So it's going to be tight. Fear and helplessness awaken the longing for the big bang. Farmers have recently been formulating something like this with their 80,000 EUR tractors, poor fellows. The longing, for example, for the person who judges it. Into which everyone can project their wishes for salvation. We know what he can do with it once in power. Well, not the migrants, they weren't there at the time. They actually had a right to 1000 years of detention with Adolf. To become good Germans.
We are no longer on the "left" or "right". But rather: those who, despite everything, believe that they can remind the store of its core values and bring it back onto a fairer line. Apply for a seat in your district council and spend 5 hours after work discussing the lack of lighting on the pedestrian crossing at the retirement home. This is democracy. Well, or do you trumpet some "the foreigner is to blame for everything" nonsense and you'll be mistaken for a top AfD politician. It's not that difficult, the party works like that. We see the end game, but at least the second half from liberal versus authoritarian. From the self-image of being a legitimate part of the whole - against the self-idea of destroying everything and then the savior comes. It doesn't really matter who sits and complains behind the moral slingers and the moneybags in the Third Estate . We'll clarify that another time.


1 https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/deutschland/gesellschaft/faktencheck-vermoegen-deutschland-ungleich-100.html
2 https://de.statista.com/themen/7440/kinderarmut/#topicOverview

02/20/24
*Friedrich Küppersbusch works as a freelance television producer
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