Monday, May 16, A.D. 2011

Auster on the Germans

There have been some threads on View from the Right about the German political class’s condemnation of Chancellor Merkel for stating, “I am pleased that we managed to kill bin Laden”:

“German chancellor criminally charged for expressing delight over bin Laden’s demise”

“Debate on Germany”

“What Merkel actually said”

“A reader replies to Kleine-Hartlage”

The threads explore the postwar German character and how the leftist obsessions of contemporary denazified Germans threaten Europe just as Nazi ideology and aggression threatened Europe in the twentieth century. I commented, though it may not mean much without the thread’s context:

I have enjoyed reading the thread on Germany, though I thought that Daniel S.‘s comment set a bad tone for the discussion:

“If this is all that remains of Germany, then the quicker it disappears as a nation the better. One is almost tempted to say that they deserve to be swallowed up by the very Muslims they grovel before and for which they use their court system as an agent. I have as much contempt for modern Germany as I have for modern Britain.”

I have a friend who says the same thing about Europe in general. The obvious problem is that a significant number of Germans (as well as Brits, Danes, Italians, Canadians, Australians, Americans, and so on) are not deluded, suicidal morons, and yet they must suffer the demise of their nation along with the foolish majority.

I also finally found a blind spot in Kristor’s moral imagination! Kristor writes:

“That’s really interesting. PC is just like the old Deuteronomic Law. Neither of them allow for remission of sins. Both turn in upon themselves, in ever more rococo legalisms that cannot actually be lived. But Liberalism is even more hopeless than the Law; for liberals have no Day of Atonement.”

What Kristor forgets is that there is such a leftist Day of Atonement. It is called Election Day. By electing socialists who redistribute wealth and establish privileges for the least among us, Democrats purge themselves with hyssop, and they shall be clean. It is the only way to atone for their being whiter than snow.

Europe greatly interests me. I do not share the common American view that “over there” is far removed from us. I maintain a colonial perspective; Europe is the homeland. It is the source of our civilization, language, and blood. For all its faults and folly, I cannot dismiss it just as I cannot dismiss America. For I see myself as part of it. The last few centuries of separation do not define America and Europe, and we are very much part of a larger whole—that of Western Civilization. Our fates are intertwined.

I also refuse to consign German identity to the hellish period of the last century. Two decades in the last century do not define Germany, and the revolting defeated Deutschen of the last few generations are as emblematic of the Germans as the Jersey Shore cast is of the Italians. Our age of decadence will eventually pass away, and hopefully nobler representatives will replace the not so Last Man. Yet, we moderns or at least we homines americani have difficulty with our long term memory.

Perhaps, as a Cincinnatian, it is easier for me to see German civilization beyond the twelve year reign of the Third Reich. For Midwesterners are well acquainted with German American republicanism, with its commitments to civic engagement, public duty, and the common good. My travels in Germany and Austria accord with the impressions of some of Auster’s commenters, too. German cities are like decent American cities—clean, well tended, and hospitable to a middle class, industrious lifestyle. If you can get past their idiotic leftist views and knee jerk ethnic and cultural self hatred, which I attribute to denazification and postwar demoralization, the Germans are generally quite pleasant people. They are not the humorless cannibals, perverts, and black leather wearing Sprocketsliebhaber of our popular imagination. Moreover, the more mountainous and more Catholic the area, the better the Germans. Bavaria is one of my favorite places in the world.

Posted by Joseph on Monday, May 16, Anno Domini 2011
Philosophy | Anthropology • Ethics • Politics • (0) Comments