Dare to have less democracy!
In Germany, the quiet center is taking to the streets.
The fear of the old demons that rage deep within us all stirs even sleepy minds.
However, there can be doubts about the correct intentions.
The familiar institutes are throwing themselves too hard at the mainstream, which this time shouldn't let the butter be taken from the pseudo-democratic bread.
By Kai Blasberg
The fear of the old demons that rage deep within us all stirs even sleepy minds.
However, there can be doubts about the correct intentions.
The familiar institutes are throwing themselves too hard at the mainstream, which this time shouldn't let the butter be taken from the pseudo-democratic bread.
By Kai Blasberg
Do you know your district administrator?
Do you know how a political party's state electoral list is put together?
Can you describe the difference between the European Council and the Council of the European Union?
When was the last time you attended a federal party conference of a party of your choice in its entirety at Phoenix?
When will there be a parliamentary debate in the largest Bundestag of all time?
You've already noticed that when it comes to democracy, we're all barely in the saddle.
Nevertheless, you cast your vote politely and politely in all kinds of elections, with few interruptions, when the administration asks you to do so.
In every restaurant they ask more about the content of Menu 9 than about politics.
There is always some choice, some position has to be reassigned that you and I don't want to and can't take, because the race for it is being played out somewhere else. Participation doesn't work that way. But it shouldn't either.
Because: we have never had so many positions on offer in the political establishment as now, and we have never had such a bad feeling as now that everything is going exactly as it should.
For reasons.
Only when things seem to be going too badly, as is currently the case with the cretins of the Assholes for Stupid People (AfD), does Michel move out of the sofa.
At least a few hundred thousand of them.
And immediately the democracy professionals who call themselves and the others upright, decent and the silent majority are right in the middle of it all.
They see the unique opportunity to be able to sip extensively from the sweet honey of the media mass, and then, after the wave has foreseeably subsided, to carry on as before, sighing quietly.
You can be assured of mutual sincerity and continue to simmer in your own juices.
It can be assumed that the institutional administrators of democracy use this wind beneath their clipped wings as an opportunity to dream of the great journeys of bygone times across the continents, when the ancestors still called themselves migratory birds and were called Adenauer, de Gaulle and Lloyd Austin.
However, they remain as fat hens, unable to fly, gathered at the bottom of their own fetish for democracy.
If you now think of Mr. Steinmeier, you have done that. Not me.
But alas: too many people make a very comfortable living from it.
At a time when there are fewer members than ever organized in political parties, let alone active, and no Federal Chancellor has been elected by fewer people, it is precisely those parties that are giving the ever-increasing administrative mass of people more than ever before at a turning point want to demand.
And so only one thing doesn't change:
the apparatus. He's swelling.
Richard von Weizsäcker called it forgetful and obsessed with power 35 years ago.
But often the cover is called: democracy.
The Säusel apologists are always at hand via the same, publicly financed talk formats:
The Greens with morals, the Reds with pragmatism, the Liberals with economic miracle recipes and the Christians, previously armed with exactly that, are quietly crying and busy with constant clean-up work after the values demolition bell from the Uckermark.
And: just as expensive as it is strenuous, because it is supported by the inexhaustible public purse, experts, associations, think tanks and NGOs, to name just the best-known ones, who settle in the suburbs around this company and with consulting contracts, studies, reports and the new currency's attention can profitably fuel its own importance.
And anyone who is of absolutely no use in these circles is sent to Brussels with their expensive crew.
Accompanied by the huge entourage of journalists who brag among themselves in an ego fight about who was traveling with whom, in which government plane, for how long, and wherever.
One peak after the other is climbed with media attention in order to end up where we are: advance to go. Accompanied by 1000 hours of publicly paid podcasts.
Time for a change?
If, as a hobby gardener writes to you, you want to save an ailing rose bush, you cut it back long before you give it good nourishment. Mostly even brutal.
Even if it strains every imagination for a long time in order to be able to imagine it in full bloom at some point.
But, if you'll pardon this excursion, our administrative elite is inexplicably far removed from self-moderation through self-cutting.
A radical dismantling of our institutions is necessary.
The number of federal states will be halved.
The number of state parliamentarians is shrinking by more than half.
They have the least right to exist because they have hardly any competences after 45 years of the EU.
In the future, a Bundestag will have 6 years to be able to do proper politics. A maximum number of representatives will never be exceeded again.
Half as many state legislatures with a maximum of half the representatives are elected on the same day as half of the federal legislature, so to speak, in the American midterms.
All representatives are allowed to serve a maximum of 2 legislatures.
Likewise all ministers and also the Chancellor.
The Federal President is no longer allowed to come from the ranks of the political establishment.
It is appointed from among the population.
The Federal Assembly is undergoing a complete renovation for this purpose.
Political parties lose influence as their membership declines. And money.
From now on, they have no say in public institutions because there is no need for any cooperation due to a lack of professional expertise.
Plebiscitary elements are not planned.
A republic of councils emerges.
Citizens can apply to these councils - just like lay judges do today in court.
Companies must release employees who are elected to the councils for one year with full wage compensation, which can be credited for tax purposes.
The Council of Councils has legally binding force.
It is not a volunteer position. But honorable.
The EU's influence is being pushed back politically.
The EU Parliament alone legislates the remaining rules of the EU.
Regions are strengthened politically and legally.
The federal government is losing influence.
We can now continue this indefinitely.
Because of my job, I spontaneously think of the ARD broadcasting companies.
But I don't make it that easy.
You realize: it is unimaginable to think of this utopia.
But it must be clear to us:
The crisis that we free, creative, independent and unprotected citizens are increasingly feeling comes from the system that is no longer changing itself.
Maybe it has never done this before and is only now becoming so ugly.
It is shocking that it takes the destruction of the right-wing populists to wake up. And only we wake up.
Those who cannot expect a large pension into which their employer has paid.
Those who don't understand what's good about the minimum wage, let alone a living wage.
Those who operate in the lower half of the income regions.
Those who have to follow more and more rules without knowing why.
Those for whom the month is too long at the end of their salary and who only work to cover the costs.
They are the students, the pensioners with too little pension, the single parents, those who do not spend time in the home office, those who cultivate their land or look after their livestock, serve at gas stations and bakeries, those who work in industry, that have to be there because otherwise nothing works. Those who ring their doorbell to hand over the pizza they ordered because of their own laziness or the consumer packages they order that are increasingly senseless.
Continue this list yourself.
There is, the other world.
And let's not let ourselves be persuaded that those who recognize and complain about this are the divisive ones.
In this other world, someone rings the bell with the pizza or the package.
In this other world, there is someone sitting at the front of the train or bus who has very great responsibility and is very poorly paid.
A world where tips are cut because the service was supposedly bad.
But the service staff now has to do the job by two people due to a lack of staff. At the minimum wage.
In this other world, everything is taken for granted.
People are just as dissatisfied here as they are in one world, but the reasons are different.
Because in the world of those who have established themselves, isolated, isolated, who do not live in a world that they can shape.
You get fruit, pastries and coffee in the office, if you even have to go there two or three times a week.
Who demand and receive cell phones and laptops from their employers, who, no matter what they do, will probably not be able to be terminated after 20 years due to a lack of skilled workers.
But they plan bridging days because they have so much vacation to manage.
Who like to be sick on Mondays or Fridays.
Those who think about something in their work life and want yoga on Wednesdays.
In the company, of course.
Those who plan their trips on the Internet with full salary compensation, configure their new cars or spend hours chatting with colleagues in the coffee kitchen. Or smoke. Outside.
You already notice: what I call administrative elites are completely normal people.
Those up there? They do what they want anyway.
And everyone thinks: that's not me! I'm having a hard time too.
I am honestly convinced that those mentioned above, let us better call them administrative servants, to a very large extent really and truly, completely sincerely believe that they are on the right side.
I seriously think they think they're making a fool of themselves.
And that they are not part of the problem.
These people are on the streets now.
They realize that things are getting serious. Anyway.
But they long for it to be just a bad dream.
But it's not a bad dream because it's reality.
And that's what it takes to be there persistently.
"If elections would change anything, they would be banned," Kurt Tucholsky is quoted as saying.
We should vote less. And better ones.
And under no circumstances the AfD.
02/01/24
*Kai Blasberg worked in the private media in Germany for 40 years
Do you know how a political party's state electoral list is put together?
Can you describe the difference between the European Council and the Council of the European Union?
When was the last time you attended a federal party conference of a party of your choice in its entirety at Phoenix?
When will there be a parliamentary debate in the largest Bundestag of all time?
You've already noticed that when it comes to democracy, we're all barely in the saddle.
Nevertheless, you cast your vote politely and politely in all kinds of elections, with few interruptions, when the administration asks you to do so.
In every restaurant they ask more about the content of Menu 9 than about politics.
There is always some choice, some position has to be reassigned that you and I don't want to and can't take, because the race for it is being played out somewhere else. Participation doesn't work that way. But it shouldn't either.
Because: we have never had so many positions on offer in the political establishment as now, and we have never had such a bad feeling as now that everything is going exactly as it should.
For reasons.
Only when things seem to be going too badly, as is currently the case with the cretins of the Assholes for Stupid People (AfD), does Michel move out of the sofa.
At least a few hundred thousand of them.
And immediately the democracy professionals who call themselves and the others upright, decent and the silent majority are right in the middle of it all.
They see the unique opportunity to be able to sip extensively from the sweet honey of the media mass, and then, after the wave has foreseeably subsided, to carry on as before, sighing quietly.
You can be assured of mutual sincerity and continue to simmer in your own juices.
It can be assumed that the institutional administrators of democracy use this wind beneath their clipped wings as an opportunity to dream of the great journeys of bygone times across the continents, when the ancestors still called themselves migratory birds and were called Adenauer, de Gaulle and Lloyd Austin.
However, they remain as fat hens, unable to fly, gathered at the bottom of their own fetish for democracy.
If you now think of Mr. Steinmeier, you have done that. Not me.
But alas: too many people make a very comfortable living from it.
At a time when there are fewer members than ever organized in political parties, let alone active, and no Federal Chancellor has been elected by fewer people, it is precisely those parties that are giving the ever-increasing administrative mass of people more than ever before at a turning point want to demand.
And so only one thing doesn't change:
the apparatus. He's swelling.
Richard von Weizsäcker called it forgetful and obsessed with power 35 years ago.
But often the cover is called: democracy.
The Säusel apologists are always at hand via the same, publicly financed talk formats:
The Greens with morals, the Reds with pragmatism, the Liberals with economic miracle recipes and the Christians, previously armed with exactly that, are quietly crying and busy with constant clean-up work after the values demolition bell from the Uckermark.
And: just as expensive as it is strenuous, because it is supported by the inexhaustible public purse, experts, associations, think tanks and NGOs, to name just the best-known ones, who settle in the suburbs around this company and with consulting contracts, studies, reports and the new currency's attention can profitably fuel its own importance.
And anyone who is of absolutely no use in these circles is sent to Brussels with their expensive crew.
Accompanied by the huge entourage of journalists who brag among themselves in an ego fight about who was traveling with whom, in which government plane, for how long, and wherever.
One peak after the other is climbed with media attention in order to end up where we are: advance to go. Accompanied by 1000 hours of publicly paid podcasts.
Time for a change?
If, as a hobby gardener writes to you, you want to save an ailing rose bush, you cut it back long before you give it good nourishment. Mostly even brutal.
Even if it strains every imagination for a long time in order to be able to imagine it in full bloom at some point.
But, if you'll pardon this excursion, our administrative elite is inexplicably far removed from self-moderation through self-cutting.
A radical dismantling of our institutions is necessary.
The number of federal states will be halved.
The number of state parliamentarians is shrinking by more than half.
They have the least right to exist because they have hardly any competences after 45 years of the EU.
In the future, a Bundestag will have 6 years to be able to do proper politics. A maximum number of representatives will never be exceeded again.
Half as many state legislatures with a maximum of half the representatives are elected on the same day as half of the federal legislature, so to speak, in the American midterms.
All representatives are allowed to serve a maximum of 2 legislatures.
Likewise all ministers and also the Chancellor.
The Federal President is no longer allowed to come from the ranks of the political establishment.
It is appointed from among the population.
The Federal Assembly is undergoing a complete renovation for this purpose.
Political parties lose influence as their membership declines. And money.
From now on, they have no say in public institutions because there is no need for any cooperation due to a lack of professional expertise.
Plebiscitary elements are not planned.
A republic of councils emerges.
Citizens can apply to these councils - just like lay judges do today in court.
Companies must release employees who are elected to the councils for one year with full wage compensation, which can be credited for tax purposes.
The Council of Councils has legally binding force.
It is not a volunteer position. But honorable.
The EU's influence is being pushed back politically.
The EU Parliament alone legislates the remaining rules of the EU.
Regions are strengthened politically and legally.
The federal government is losing influence.
We can now continue this indefinitely.
Because of my job, I spontaneously think of the ARD broadcasting companies.
But I don't make it that easy.
You realize: it is unimaginable to think of this utopia.
But it must be clear to us:
The crisis that we free, creative, independent and unprotected citizens are increasingly feeling comes from the system that is no longer changing itself.
Maybe it has never done this before and is only now becoming so ugly.
It is shocking that it takes the destruction of the right-wing populists to wake up. And only we wake up.
Those who cannot expect a large pension into which their employer has paid.
Those who don't understand what's good about the minimum wage, let alone a living wage.
Those who operate in the lower half of the income regions.
Those who have to follow more and more rules without knowing why.
Those for whom the month is too long at the end of their salary and who only work to cover the costs.
They are the students, the pensioners with too little pension, the single parents, those who do not spend time in the home office, those who cultivate their land or look after their livestock, serve at gas stations and bakeries, those who work in industry, that have to be there because otherwise nothing works. Those who ring their doorbell to hand over the pizza they ordered because of their own laziness or the consumer packages they order that are increasingly senseless.
Continue this list yourself.
There is, the other world.
And let's not let ourselves be persuaded that those who recognize and complain about this are the divisive ones.
In this other world, someone rings the bell with the pizza or the package.
In this other world, there is someone sitting at the front of the train or bus who has very great responsibility and is very poorly paid.
A world where tips are cut because the service was supposedly bad.
But the service staff now has to do the job by two people due to a lack of staff. At the minimum wage.
In this other world, everything is taken for granted.
People are just as dissatisfied here as they are in one world, but the reasons are different.
Because in the world of those who have established themselves, isolated, isolated, who do not live in a world that they can shape.
You get fruit, pastries and coffee in the office, if you even have to go there two or three times a week.
Who demand and receive cell phones and laptops from their employers, who, no matter what they do, will probably not be able to be terminated after 20 years due to a lack of skilled workers.
But they plan bridging days because they have so much vacation to manage.
Who like to be sick on Mondays or Fridays.
Those who think about something in their work life and want yoga on Wednesdays.
In the company, of course.
Those who plan their trips on the Internet with full salary compensation, configure their new cars or spend hours chatting with colleagues in the coffee kitchen. Or smoke. Outside.
You already notice: what I call administrative elites are completely normal people.
Those up there? They do what they want anyway.
And everyone thinks: that's not me! I'm having a hard time too.
I am honestly convinced that those mentioned above, let us better call them administrative servants, to a very large extent really and truly, completely sincerely believe that they are on the right side.
I seriously think they think they're making a fool of themselves.
And that they are not part of the problem.
These people are on the streets now.
They realize that things are getting serious. Anyway.
But they long for it to be just a bad dream.
But it's not a bad dream because it's reality.
And that's what it takes to be there persistently.
"If elections would change anything, they would be banned," Kurt Tucholsky is quoted as saying.
We should vote less. And better ones.
And under no circumstances the AfD.
02/01/24
*Kai Blasberg worked in the private media in Germany for 40 years
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