It's like you're describing my falling apart South Africa (except for the funny sounding names).
Then I look at the UK where a family member of mine had to go through 10 government doctors (most online) and two visits to Emergency before getting help. The first hospital visit was an 8 hour queue where there was nowhere to lie down, and then she was told to go home. On the second trip they realised it was a serious situation, and consulted with specialists who are unsure if their treatment will work. She's also in a 15-month queue for a hysterectomy.
Wanting to be American has fucked up a lot of countries.
There's that joke: "Depression isn't a hard pill to swallow... it's just practice for the next 50 pills." That's the Public swallowing politicians. Don't trust leaders, don't trust opposition, just hoping for chaos in many places, enough pain to pull people back to common sense.
My book may essentially be banned so I thought I'd at least use the title.
This is a truly a great text. I lived in Berlin until June of 2018 and remember, like it was yesterday, how a year or so earlier I sat with my then German girlfriend in Victoria Park (we lived in Bergmannstraße) and how we discussed what we are witnessing as 'Peak Berlin' and how it would all go to hell.
I had no real reasons to say that - everyone was getting their PhDs in 17th Century Irish poetry or some such, 80,000 scientists were living there, everyone was getting money for flats (even if you owned your own flat, you were eligible for financial help for living costs), Sozialhilfe, stipends to study, money for all sorts of crypto BS projects. And yet it felt like it's over.
Much better than any comment of mine is this guy's joke.
Now, I want to make it clear again that I'm not against immigration whatsoever. I've grown up in an area that has been a hotspot of immigration since the '70s and in my personal experience, the vast majority of immigrants in Germany are honest and hardworking people. But I feel we can't close our eyes to the small minority that ruins it for the rest. As far as I am concerned, everyone who lives in this country is German. No matter if their parents were born in Bologna, Antalya, Baghdad or Berlin. What we need to do is to start putting our money where our mouth is and start treating all of these people the same. If you defraud the state or commit any other crimes, you need to go to jail. And the state needs to start making the punishment for brazen tax and social fraud and violent behaviour so painful, that people will start thinking twice.
I don't want to take away anyone's ability to live here. But they need to respect the society they are becoming part of. I think that's only fair. I would behave the same if I emigrated, say to Texas. It would be a matter of course to me to respect the ideals of the United States' Constitution and the culture of a place like Texas if I wanted to live there. I wouldn't move to Texas and start making fun of all the "dumb country hicks" who are my neighbours. Or start berating them for owning guns or whatever. And I sure as hell wouldn't assume that the criminal and tax laws don't apply to me in the same way they did to "the dumb hicks". It's just basic human decency. Why is it so frowned upon to assume this of others?
Oct 9, 2023·edited Oct 9, 2023Liked by Fabian A. Scherschel
You want a harsh perspective? I want to clarify that I say the following not to be a smart-ass or mean, on the contrary, but because I was a huge admirer of Germany and the German people while I lived there. I lived in Germany as an American, or at least my residence was in the U.S., and my license plate on a 25-year-old Mercedes S-500 was from Texas (it was so old-fashioned and hated that was cool for those Berliners and their crazy sense of humor) - essentially a tourist.
However, given my background and the friends I spent a lot of time with, including recent immigrants, I noticed a stark contrast. While the former immigrants wanted to become Germans in Germany, the newcomers do not. Not a single one of my German friends reacted kindly when I shared this observation. When you say, 'I don't want to take away anyone's ability to live here,' what many fail to understand is that many of the people coming to Germany nowadays want to take away YOUR ability to live here. [there]
It's that bad. Even than. I saw that. I heard that.
I wish I were wrong or at least able to express it more kindly. You guys deserve kindness, but you're not going to get it from a lot of people you let in. To be clear, it has nothing to do with individual people wanting to live their lives, even if they receive social assistance. It's part of a larger global shift where one part of the world is attempting to assert dominance over another.
The profound changes happening in the world today are beyond what any of us could have imagined.
This might be the case, but I'm simply not worried about it. People who immigrate simply can't take away my ability to live here. The only way that is going to happen if Germany ceases to exist. And for that to happen, Germans themselves will have to let it happen.
I've studied history and therefore have a pretty long perspective on things like this. Germany (if not as a nation) has been around for maybe a thousand years. The country itself has recently (in a historic sense) survived the collapse of three different forms of government (monarchy, democracy, authoritarian dictatorship) and two of the biggest wars that were ever fought. It's not going anywhere.
Granted, it could happen that what it means to be German will just fade away. I guess that happening is more likely here than in any other Western country because we basically have trained generations of people to think that any kind of nationalism or patriotism is evil incarnate. But if it happens, and I don't think that is very likely, precisely for the reasons outlined in my article (the mainstream political parties and the press might think German nationalism doesn't exist and German heritage is worth nothing, but they are, as I said, out of touch with reality), then I am okay with it. If Germans just let the idea of what it means to be German just fade away, than so be it. I'm okay with that.
But what I think is much more likely is that people like the AfD will get into power and we'll have a very ugly struggle with the forces you describe. And I don't want to live through that. I don't want closed borders in the EU or, even worse, a collapse of it. I would much prefer we simply analyse the problems we have, do not shrink away from them and then try to solve these issues. There is no reason we cannot integrate many of these people you describe. And we develop plans of what to do with the ones we can't deal with easily. It has worked in the past. All we need to do is start admitting that we have problems and try to deal with them in a sane way.
What you wrote, 'All we need to do is start admitting that we have problems and try to deal with them in a sane way,' should be a foremost concern of everyone with a functioning brain and consciousness. Thank you for your text and this conversation.
I dunno. The author complains a lot and then discounts the fact that the AfD is growing. Sounds like things are bad but not yet bad enough. Just wait a bit longer ...
Quintessential Fab! Rich and deep, some things I don't agree with, many I do agree with.
But it mainly makes me think, especially about those points I don't agree with.
Thank you! That is quite the complement!
The Media is Government, Government is the Media.
It's like you're describing my falling apart South Africa (except for the funny sounding names).
Then I look at the UK where a family member of mine had to go through 10 government doctors (most online) and two visits to Emergency before getting help. The first hospital visit was an 8 hour queue where there was nowhere to lie down, and then she was told to go home. On the second trip they realised it was a serious situation, and consulted with specialists who are unsure if their treatment will work. She's also in a 15-month queue for a hysterectomy.
Wanting to be American has fucked up a lot of countries.
My 'German' thoughts:
https://mikehampton.substack.com/p/whats-happening-in-germany-isnt-good-for-ukraine
https://mikehampton.substack.com/p/german-propaganda-right-wing-ibiza-affair
I arrived here via @trygvewighdal notes, and glad I did. Depressing but great read. Thanks.
Thanks for the links. I must say the title of your Substack immediately endeared it to me. I will give this a read later tonight!
Those links more thoughts than articles.
There's that joke: "Depression isn't a hard pill to swallow... it's just practice for the next 50 pills." That's the Public swallowing politicians. Don't trust leaders, don't trust opposition, just hoping for chaos in many places, enough pain to pull people back to common sense.
My book may essentially be banned so I thought I'd at least use the title.
This is a truly a great text. I lived in Berlin until June of 2018 and remember, like it was yesterday, how a year or so earlier I sat with my then German girlfriend in Victoria Park (we lived in Bergmannstraße) and how we discussed what we are witnessing as 'Peak Berlin' and how it would all go to hell.
I had no real reasons to say that - everyone was getting their PhDs in 17th Century Irish poetry or some such, 80,000 scientists were living there, everyone was getting money for flats (even if you owned your own flat, you were eligible for financial help for living costs), Sozialhilfe, stipends to study, money for all sorts of crypto BS projects. And yet it felt like it's over.
Much better than any comment of mine is this guy's joke.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbiBeZIKTS4
That's very harsh. But probably also accurate.
Now, I want to make it clear again that I'm not against immigration whatsoever. I've grown up in an area that has been a hotspot of immigration since the '70s and in my personal experience, the vast majority of immigrants in Germany are honest and hardworking people. But I feel we can't close our eyes to the small minority that ruins it for the rest. As far as I am concerned, everyone who lives in this country is German. No matter if their parents were born in Bologna, Antalya, Baghdad or Berlin. What we need to do is to start putting our money where our mouth is and start treating all of these people the same. If you defraud the state or commit any other crimes, you need to go to jail. And the state needs to start making the punishment for brazen tax and social fraud and violent behaviour so painful, that people will start thinking twice.
I don't want to take away anyone's ability to live here. But they need to respect the society they are becoming part of. I think that's only fair. I would behave the same if I emigrated, say to Texas. It would be a matter of course to me to respect the ideals of the United States' Constitution and the culture of a place like Texas if I wanted to live there. I wouldn't move to Texas and start making fun of all the "dumb country hicks" who are my neighbours. Or start berating them for owning guns or whatever. And I sure as hell wouldn't assume that the criminal and tax laws don't apply to me in the same way they did to "the dumb hicks". It's just basic human decency. Why is it so frowned upon to assume this of others?
You want a harsh perspective? I want to clarify that I say the following not to be a smart-ass or mean, on the contrary, but because I was a huge admirer of Germany and the German people while I lived there. I lived in Germany as an American, or at least my residence was in the U.S., and my license plate on a 25-year-old Mercedes S-500 was from Texas (it was so old-fashioned and hated that was cool for those Berliners and their crazy sense of humor) - essentially a tourist.
However, given my background and the friends I spent a lot of time with, including recent immigrants, I noticed a stark contrast. While the former immigrants wanted to become Germans in Germany, the newcomers do not. Not a single one of my German friends reacted kindly when I shared this observation. When you say, 'I don't want to take away anyone's ability to live here,' what many fail to understand is that many of the people coming to Germany nowadays want to take away YOUR ability to live here. [there]
It's that bad. Even than. I saw that. I heard that.
I wish I were wrong or at least able to express it more kindly. You guys deserve kindness, but you're not going to get it from a lot of people you let in. To be clear, it has nothing to do with individual people wanting to live their lives, even if they receive social assistance. It's part of a larger global shift where one part of the world is attempting to assert dominance over another.
The profound changes happening in the world today are beyond what any of us could have imagined.
This might be the case, but I'm simply not worried about it. People who immigrate simply can't take away my ability to live here. The only way that is going to happen if Germany ceases to exist. And for that to happen, Germans themselves will have to let it happen.
I've studied history and therefore have a pretty long perspective on things like this. Germany (if not as a nation) has been around for maybe a thousand years. The country itself has recently (in a historic sense) survived the collapse of three different forms of government (monarchy, democracy, authoritarian dictatorship) and two of the biggest wars that were ever fought. It's not going anywhere.
Granted, it could happen that what it means to be German will just fade away. I guess that happening is more likely here than in any other Western country because we basically have trained generations of people to think that any kind of nationalism or patriotism is evil incarnate. But if it happens, and I don't think that is very likely, precisely for the reasons outlined in my article (the mainstream political parties and the press might think German nationalism doesn't exist and German heritage is worth nothing, but they are, as I said, out of touch with reality), then I am okay with it. If Germans just let the idea of what it means to be German just fade away, than so be it. I'm okay with that.
But what I think is much more likely is that people like the AfD will get into power and we'll have a very ugly struggle with the forces you describe. And I don't want to live through that. I don't want closed borders in the EU or, even worse, a collapse of it. I would much prefer we simply analyse the problems we have, do not shrink away from them and then try to solve these issues. There is no reason we cannot integrate many of these people you describe. And we develop plans of what to do with the ones we can't deal with easily. It has worked in the past. All we need to do is start admitting that we have problems and try to deal with them in a sane way.
What you wrote, 'All we need to do is start admitting that we have problems and try to deal with them in a sane way,' should be a foremost concern of everyone with a functioning brain and consciousness. Thank you for your text and this conversation.
I agree! And thank you, as well. Such civilised discourse is unfortunately very rare on the net these days.
I dunno. The author complains a lot and then discounts the fact that the AfD is growing. Sounds like things are bad but not yet bad enough. Just wait a bit longer ...
Where exactly did I discount that? It seems to me I said quite the opposite...