Is Germany Becoming Germany -- Again?

nationalreview.com ^ | 6/4/19 | Victor Davis Hanson

[a little elbow grease]

The more things change, well, the more they . . . So it is with the perpetual German resentments of the U.S. Recently German chancellor Angela Merkel reminded us of that German fixation, when she made some astounding statements to the German media that revealed what many Americans had long ago surmised.

Merkel all but announced that Germany, or for that matter Europe itself, is no longer really an ally of the United States: “There is no doubt that Europe needs to reposition itself in a changed world. . . . The old certainties of the post-war order no longer apply.”

She insisted that Germany views the democratic United States as not much different from autocratic Russia and Communist China: Urging Europe to present a united front in the face of Russia, China, and the U.S., she said, “They are forcing us, time and again, to find common positions.” And Merkel concluded that therefore Germany must find “political power” commensurate with its economic clout to forge a new independent European path.

In other words, in the calculus of the supposedly sober and judicious Merkel, the democracy that saved Europe twice from a carnivorous Germany — and Germany once from itself and once from becoming a Soviet vassal — is now similar to the world’s two largest authoritarian dictatorships, nations that not so long ago murdered respectively 30 million and 70 million of their own citizens. And how odd a sentiment for someone who grew up in Communist East Germany, a nightmarish state whose collapse was largely attributable to the Reagan-era effort to bankrupt and roll back the Soviet empire.

[a little elbow grease]

"And how odd a sentiment for someone (Merkel) who grew up in Communist East Germany, a nightmarish state whose collapse was largely attributable to the Reagan-era effort to bankrupt and roll back the Soviet empire."

______________

Indeed ....

[Celtic Conservative]

Still looking for the stasi tattoo on Angela’s ass...

CC

[mkmensinger]

“Still looking for the stasi tattoo on Angela’s ass...”

I hope you never get to see it...for your sake.

[Gay State Conservative]

Germany's been trying to destroy Europe for 100+ years.In elevating a former Stasi informant as leader I think the German people have finally hit upon the winning formula.

[Junk Silver]

All of this is irrelevant in the long term because of demographics.

It doesn’t matter what Germany thinks it’s becoming if native Germans aren’t going to bother having kids. What Germany is actually becoming is a combination of Turkey and Afghanistan.

“The future belongs to those who show up for it.” - Mark Steyn

[Former Proud Canadian]

People get the kind of government they deserve. Let Germany be Germany and let the Germans be German, whatever that means.

Western civilization might be retreating to the Anglosphere with a few outposts in Europe, Israel and elsewhere.

[mywholebodyisaweapon]

Ouch! You jabbed your finger in my mind’s eyeball.

Prescient analysis from America’s finest historian - the Reichs’ gonna rise again. And it isn’t pretty... Could usher in the end of all things.

[Gay State Conservative]

Still looking for the stasi tattoo on Angela’s ass...

I've read that East German government documents seized after the fall of The Wall (the ones that East German officials failed to destroy) showed that approximately one in eight East German citizens were Stasi informants. I also read that in East Germany children informed on their parents and that PARENTS INFORMED ON THEIR CHILDREN.

I can easily see Hausfrau Merkel informing on her kids.

[elcid1970]

“What Germany is actually becoming is a combination of Turkey and Afghanistan.”

Ja, wohl!

[DesertRhino]

Stasi existed for 40 years. They collected 900 million to a billion pages of data on their citizenry. The CIA/NSA does that to us every 2 days or so.

[Junk Silver]

“I can easily see Hausfrau Merkel informing on her kids”

She would have had to have given birth to some children in order to be able to inform on them. Merkel has a step-son but like most of the EU technocratic leaders has no children of her own.

[USS Alaska]

“What Germany is actually becoming is a combination of Turkey and Afghanistan.”

I was stationed in Germany in the early 60s and it is a beautiful country. For all the war damage, the Germans are extremely clean, to a fault.

It boggles my mind to think of a million mooselimbs and all of their quaint habits over running Germany.

[Destroyer Sailor]

She has no kids.

[bdfromlv]

They are still collecting WIFI info everywhere with the stingray boxes at intersections

[nathanbedford]

Germany certainly does not approve of American fracking

This is certainly the reality and it is worth a moment because it is a symptom of an overall state of mind, or should I say an overall state of closemindedness that one encounters in Germany on many issues besides fracking.

A couple of years ago in a weekly meeting with several German businessmen the subject of fracking came up and the opinion of these men was unanimous, that fracking was terribly dangerous and that it was leading to all manner of pollution. On examination, it was revealed that the source of their understanding was not just their media but the film in which burning water from a sink was portrayed. I countered by saying that independent studies in several states together with a study from the Obama administration itself confirmed that there had never been a single incident of damage of such kind from fracking in America. I was met with general disbelief and even dismissal.

Next week at the same meeting, I produced written copies of the reports produced by various states and by the Obama administration (no doubt reluctantly produced) confirming that fracking had in fact caused no incidents. I distributed copies of these official reports and I pointed out to the gentleman that the Obama administration was adamantly opposed to fracking and therefore the contents of the report ran counter to their expressed ideology and were therefore credible.

The most extraordinary thing occurred, I was told that my government was lying. It was simply assumed without an ounce of proof that all these reports from all of the sources, all confirming the same results were lies. There was nothing that could be said to change that fixed conviction.

So it is with so many issues in Germany concerning America. Climate Change is an obvious example. The unfortunate war in Iraq confirmed to many Germans the wrong-headedness of America and it seems that, with the exception of Barack Obama, no American president since John F. Kennedy has been anything but either a fool or a knave.

What causes this fixed mindset? I believe it is a fixed mindset of the German media and a stranglehold on German thought in the academic institutions.

Let me hasten to add before the usual curses are indignantly brought down on Germany, that they are simply in an advanced stage of the same cancer that afflicts America, a malady which we see so blatant today in the Democrat party.

A top-down solution will never avail against a grassroots mindset planted generations ago by leftists and academics.

[a little elbow grease]

"I've read that East German government documents seized after the fall of The Wall (the ones that East German officials failed to destroy) showed that approximately one in eight East German citizens were Stasi informants. I also read that in East Germany children informed on their parents and that PARENTS INFORMED ON THEIR CHILDREN.

I can easily see Hausfrau Merkel informing on her kids."

________________

Yes .... she is dark.

[a little elbow grease]

(however she has no children that she bore)

[nathanbedford]

“The heads of [European] state and government will decide how far to let populism go,”

This statement reeks of arrogance and offends our conservative ears as a people who are vouchsafed liberty or, rather, had their liberties confirmed by the Declaration of independence and the Bill of Rights.

To the German hear, however, the statement rings true historically. Today's German Chancellor is only echoing that which Chancellor Bismarck undertook and so successfully achieved in the second half of the 19th century, Bismarck concluded that the revolutions of 1848 were dangerous to the ruling class Prussian Junkers and so must be contained by the most forward-looking social welfare legislation in Europe.

But make no mistake, Bismarck was not inclined to turn populism loose, rather he shaped the Industrial Revolution in Germany to avoid many of the horrors seen in Dickensian England of the time. His idea was not so much to vitalize the lower classes but to protect the prerogatives of his elite class. He wanted to consolidate Germany as a nation, he wanted to wage wars to do so, he wanted the decks cleared for that action and he wanted, above all, to prevent revolution.

Angela Merkel is only acting as the elitist she is, but she is not alone today in Germany nor is she alone in that regard since Bismarck.

[FreedomPoster]

>>a grassroots mindset planted generations ago by leftists and academics.

I’m convinced it’s a mindset planted by Soviet psyops dating back to the 1950s and 1960s that were wildly successful over the long haul. See the Yuri Bezmenov interviews for partial proof.