I feel like I really need to write some things about the massacre in Winnenden in south Germany.
CNN.com
„If an unassuming youth like Kretschmer can turn into a mass murderer, and if this can happen in a quiet place like Winnenden, it can happen anywhere in this country which, for two generations, has striven with immense success to recast itself as a peaceful democratic nation, but whose violent past still has echoes and still has the power to unsettle today’s Germans.“ <– is this the NEW view of Germany in the world? If so, thank you…
Youtube.com
Anyone able to understand German should (!) go through the comments. What’s it gonna be like to live here in 15 years? Who did fail when (not) doing what?
Politicians here, like always, are really fast at hand with some answers to my question. Action games (German: „Killerspiele“), social insecurity, no future for the lower-educated youth, immigration policy failed, parenting went wrong, I could continue this list forever. Oh, did I mention that the murderer was on psychiatric drugs the day he killed 16 people? So it’s the medicine, too.
In my opinion, nobody really knows what’s going on. At least and certainly not the people who could possibly change something. When was the last time those highly-paid politicians with all their extra salaries from lobbyist work took a look down at Mr and Mrs Ordinary? When was the last time they really cared about us, the PEOPLE?
Alright, we’re gonna make the sale of PG-18 games even harder. Alright, we’re gonna be fine, just go and raise some taxes. Alright, give us the new all-in-one-wonder-card making it so much more easy to go see the doctor. Alright, go ahead and give us extra money to buy some cars and at the same time try to educate us about being environmentally cautious. Alright, come on, go ahead and give us some more Ritalin. We’re really in need.
Something’s going wrong here. FUNDAMENTALLY wrong. Seriously wrong.
Walking around in Berlin, you see a Turkish 10-year-old boy calling a coloured 15-year-old girl to go and leave his (!) country. You see other, mostly young people pondering the streets, molesting others, drinking, smoking and enjoying themselves by accidentally hitting some stranger in the face because he took a too close look. It’s a fine line between being treated as not-existing and being THE hate object. You have to walk that line carefully these days, I can tell you.
Ever heard of the country of Hitler? Ever heard of the Third Reich? Yeah, that’s us about 70 years ago.
My parents weren’t born then, and I wasn’t even taken into consideration, I guess, but before Hitler came to power, we had a shockingly similar situation. Ever took a look at election outcomes these years, especially in the Eastern parts of Germany? Ever wondered why the extremists, left AND right, were able to regain some tiny, but saddening amount of power?
I don’t wanna say that it’s likely for another Hitler to come back. But it’s gonna be hard work for our society (if it is only a single society we live in, probably there are LOTS of them…) to regather and face the problems with unity and the strength we could find in ourselves.
Change we can believe in? Not in Germany, Ms Merkel, sure not. Unfortunately.
