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Zeitenwende - Der Angriff auf Demokratie und Menschenwürde
Erleben wir einen Epochenbruch?
Die Coronakrise hat nicht nur virologische Fragen aufgeworfen, sondern auch soziale, politische und kulturelle, die zuvor allzu leicht übersehen wurden. Insofern kann man die Krise auch als eine Lerngeschichte lesen, die für die Zukunft der Demokratie und die Lösung ihrer Zukunftsprobleme von Rassismus bis Ungleichheit äußerst wichtig ist. Michel Friedman und Harald Welzer untersuchen die Frage, ob wir einen Epochenbruch erleben, und skizzieren, wie unsere Gesellschaft modernisiert werden kann.
Wir leben in einer Zeitenwende. Die demokratischen Gesellschaften stehen unter Druck durch die machtvolle Rückkehr der Autokraten, durch die Wiederkehr der Rechtsextremen, Nationalisten, Rassisten und Antisemiten, die Wellen von Hass, Hetze und Terrorismus erzeugen. Dazu kommen soziale Ungleichheit, Klimawandel und Pandemie. Die Welt ist erheblich in Unordnung geraten und der Politik fehlt es an politischen Konzepten und Lösungen. Michel Friedman und Harald Welzer, die zu den streitbarsten und profiliertesten Intellektuellen des Landes zählen, suchen im intensiven Gespräch nicht nur nach den Ursachen der Erosionskrise, sondern auch nach Strategien für eine verantwortungsvolle, historisch aufgeklärte und proaktive Politik. Dabei greifen sie nicht nur auf ihr profundes historisches und gesellschaftspolitisches Wissen zurück, sondern schauen auch in ihre eigenen Biografien, um den Widersprüchen einer schwierigen Zeit nachzuspüren. Eine Lerngeschichte des Politischen in Echtzeit.
Die Coronakrise hat nicht nur virologische Fragen aufgeworfen, sondern auch soziale, politische und kulturelle, die zuvor allzu leicht übersehen wurden. Insofern kann man die Krise auch als eine Lerngeschichte lesen, die für die Zukunft der Demokratie und die Lösung ihrer Zukunftsprobleme von Rassismus bis Ungleichheit äußerst wichtig ist. Michel Friedman und Harald Welzer untersuchen die Frage, ob wir einen Epochenbruch erleben, und skizzieren, wie unsere Gesellschaft modernisiert werden kann.
Wir leben in einer Zeitenwende. Die demokratischen Gesellschaften stehen unter Druck durch die machtvolle Rückkehr der Autokraten, durch die Wiederkehr der Rechtsextremen, Nationalisten, Rassisten und Antisemiten, die Wellen von Hass, Hetze und Terrorismus erzeugen. Dazu kommen soziale Ungleichheit, Klimawandel und Pandemie. Die Welt ist erheblich in Unordnung geraten und der Politik fehlt es an politischen Konzepten und Lösungen. Michel Friedman und Harald Welzer, die zu den streitbarsten und profiliertesten Intellektuellen des Landes zählen, suchen im intensiven Gespräch nicht nur nach den Ursachen der Erosionskrise, sondern auch nach Strategien für eine verantwortungsvolle, historisch aufgeklärte und proaktive Politik. Dabei greifen sie nicht nur auf ihr profundes historisches und gesellschaftspolitisches Wissen zurück, sondern schauen auch in ihre eigenen Biografien, um den Widersprüchen einer schwierigen Zeit nachzuspüren. Eine Lerngeschichte des Politischen in Echtzeit.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published October 1, 2020
5 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
Michel Friedman
28 books6 followersMichel Julien Friedman is a German lawyer, publicist, political commentator, and author.
He is a well-known public figure in Germany, and was vice-chair of the Central Council of Jews in Germany from 2000 to 2003.
He is a well-known public figure in Germany, and was vice-chair of the Central Council of Jews in Germany from 2000 to 2003.
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January 29, 2021So far on Goodreads I have written a review for each book I have read since joining the site, I like to think this stops my brain from going too rusty and helps me remember things like paragraphs, which I tend not to use when speaking. And generally I like to write the review as soon as possible after finishing the book, though sometimes it helps to sit back and let it settle a bit first.
All of which is way of slowly easing myself into the waters of this book, written as a conversation in thematic chapters between two German men, one teaches at the university in Frankfurt, the other at Flensburg university. One is Jewish, the other was from a lower social class background . It was a fairly easy book to read, just considering the actual words on the page but the discussion frequently returned to the Holocaust among other events which was not precisely cheerful nor what I would generally regard as easy reading. And that is one of the reasons why I find the book a bit difficult to review. I posted a few updates as I went and dog-eared a number of pages, but I don't think that the couple of points that I will make in this review will reflect either the updates or those dog-eared pages.
On the whole my impression is that Germany has gone further in acknowledging its past than most other countries. A consistent point made in the book is though that this is a process that has not gone far enough, they cite Brecht :
"Ihr aber lernet, wie man sieht, statt stiert
Und handelt, statt zu reden noch und noch.
So was hätt' einmal fast die Welt regiert!
Die Völker wurden seiner Herr, jedoch
Dass keiner uns zu früh da triumphiert –
Der Schoß ist fruchtbar noch, aus dem das kroch." ( book:the resistable rise of Arturo Ui)
and I suppose that is what the the subtitle is driving at, both the rise of the far-right, but also the legacy of persistent anti-Semitism, and racism, and various other delightful things that add dreariness and pain to life.
One of the authors, Michel Friedman, knew Oscar Schindler who visited the family home when he was growing up. Schindler was at that time completely ignored in public life in Germany and this rather brought to mind the dark side, if I may so express myself, of the respect and veneration of the Scholls and the White Rose organisation. Schindler saved the lives of a few people, the Scholls saved nobody and failed to disrupt the war effort. Because of this the Scholls are entirely safe to be venerated in a post-third Reich world, their example excuses everybody in that it demonstrates that resistance was futile, there was nothing that could be done. Schindler however is a challenge to everybody's conscience, as he demonstrates that with cunning, one could resist evil (and live to tell the tale ), he is a rebuke to all those who accepted of authority .
There was though amongst all the jollity of this book something of a contradiction, on the one side they see Democracy as an active process, not something that we partake in with different degrees of limited enthusiasm only on election days, on the other hand they see activism by those participating in the Pegida marches and other far-right days out as problematic. I don't disagree, but political activism is political activism, aside from activities which are flat out illegal like shooting politicians because one disagrees with their stance on immigration, or setting fire to refugee's hostels, murdering Turkish greengrocers and so on, where is the line drawn between acceptable and unacceptable activism? I think they would point out that in Germany (and indeed in other countries, the USA, providing several recent examples) the tendency has been for the authorities to be more accepting of activism from the Right than from the Left, and indeed that this is nothing new, and that the 'acceptable' activism of the Right feeds into the context of acceptance and support (or indeed official indifference) for illegal forms of activism.
I felt ultimately that both were harking back to their youths and the era of 1968. And the subtext of the both for me was that 1968 and all that was great, the tide has turned and we regret this - can we revive and have a continuous 1968ism but without the pendulum ever swinging back? I don't particularly disagree with them, but it does mean that this is another grumpy middle-aged book, shaking its walking stick and shouting at the young people gathering on it's lawn.
I curse the river of time could have been another good title for this book but it was already taken hence they had to go with the one at the top of the page instead.
All of which is way of slowly easing myself into the waters of this book, written as a conversation in thematic chapters between two German men, one teaches at the university in Frankfurt, the other at Flensburg university. One is Jewish, the other was from a lower social class background . It was a fairly easy book to read, just considering the actual words on the page but the discussion frequently returned to the Holocaust among other events which was not precisely cheerful nor what I would generally regard as easy reading. And that is one of the reasons why I find the book a bit difficult to review. I posted a few updates as I went and dog-eared a number of pages, but I don't think that the couple of points that I will make in this review will reflect either the updates or those dog-eared pages.
On the whole my impression is that Germany has gone further in acknowledging its past than most other countries. A consistent point made in the book is though that this is a process that has not gone far enough, they cite Brecht :
"Ihr aber lernet, wie man sieht, statt stiert
Und handelt, statt zu reden noch und noch.
So was hätt' einmal fast die Welt regiert!
Die Völker wurden seiner Herr, jedoch
Dass keiner uns zu früh da triumphiert –
Der Schoß ist fruchtbar noch, aus dem das kroch." ( book:the resistable rise of Arturo Ui)
and I suppose that is what the the subtitle is driving at, both the rise of the far-right, but also the legacy of persistent anti-Semitism, and racism, and various other delightful things that add dreariness and pain to life.
One of the authors, Michel Friedman, knew Oscar Schindler who visited the family home when he was growing up. Schindler was at that time completely ignored in public life in Germany and this rather brought to mind the dark side, if I may so express myself, of the respect and veneration of the Scholls and the White Rose organisation. Schindler saved the lives of a few people, the Scholls saved nobody and failed to disrupt the war effort. Because of this the Scholls are entirely safe to be venerated in a post-third Reich world, their example excuses everybody in that it demonstrates that resistance was futile, there was nothing that could be done. Schindler however is a challenge to everybody's conscience, as he demonstrates that with cunning, one could resist evil (and live to tell the tale ), he is a rebuke to all those who accepted of authority .
There was though amongst all the jollity of this book something of a contradiction, on the one side they see Democracy as an active process, not something that we partake in with different degrees of limited enthusiasm only on election days, on the other hand they see activism by those participating in the Pegida marches and other far-right days out as problematic. I don't disagree, but political activism is political activism, aside from activities which are flat out illegal like shooting politicians because one disagrees with their stance on immigration, or setting fire to refugee's hostels, murdering Turkish greengrocers and so on, where is the line drawn between acceptable and unacceptable activism? I think they would point out that in Germany (and indeed in other countries, the USA, providing several recent examples) the tendency has been for the authorities to be more accepting of activism from the Right than from the Left, and indeed that this is nothing new, and that the 'acceptable' activism of the Right feeds into the context of acceptance and support (or indeed official indifference) for illegal forms of activism.
I felt ultimately that both were harking back to their youths and the era of 1968. And the subtext of the both for me was that 1968 and all that was great, the tide has turned and we regret this - can we revive and have a continuous 1968ism but without the pendulum ever swinging back? I don't particularly disagree with them, but it does mean that this is another grumpy middle-aged book, shaking its walking stick and shouting at the young people gathering on it's lawn.
I curse the river of time could have been another good title for this book but it was already taken hence they had to go with the one at the top of the page instead.
November 29, 2024
Sehr interessantes und forderndes Streitgespräch, über den Zustand der Demokratie in Deutschland.
Ein Rückblick der beiden Autoren auf die vergangenen Jahre seit der Veröffentlichung des Buches wäre sehr spannend!
Ein Rückblick der beiden Autoren auf die vergangenen Jahre seit der Veröffentlichung des Buches wäre sehr spannend!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews