Sorry. This is not a book review. See SB for a refund. But the title of the book in question is amusing. There is no doubt that, indeed, Germans do some things so much better than others… so, suspend belief, & break out the Schwarzwälderkirschtorte und Reisling, Puffins …
The Germans are back!!!
No, not the warm, peace-loving, towels on the beach lounger, post-war Germans ..… the Germans!
You know the ones I mean. The “I didn’t know where the trains were going” Germans. The “I was just following orders” Germans. The other Germans.
Yep.
You got it… those Germans.
In case you missed it, last year, on November 18, the German parliament passed a law, the so-called “Infection Protection Act” (“Das Infektionsschutzgesetz” in German) formally granting the government the authority to issue whatever edicts it wants under the guise of protecting the public health. The government has been doing this anyway — ordering lockdowns, curfews, travel bans, banning demonstrations, raiding homes and businesses, ordering everyone to wear medical masks, harassing and arresting dissidents, etc. — but now it has been “legitimized” by the Bundestag, enshrined into law, and presumably stamped with one of those intricate official stamps that German bureaucrats love stamping things with.
Now, this “Infection Protection Act” rushed through the parliament, is not in any way comparable, no sir, to the “Enabling Act of 1933″ which formally granted the government the authority to issue whatever edicts it wanted under the guise of remedying the distress of the people………..
Well, OK, on the surface I realize that it does rather sound quite similar, but, according to the government and the German media, there is no absolute equivalence whatsoever, and anyone who suggests there is is “a far-right AfD extremist,” “a neo-Nazi conspiracy theorist,” or “an anti-vaxxer,” or whatever.
As the Protection Act was being legitimized (i.e., the current one, not the one in 1933), tens of thousands of anti-totalitarian protesters gathered in the streets, many of them carrying copies of the Grundgesetz (the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany), through which the parliament had just driven a steamroller. They were met by thousands of riot police, who declared the demonstration “illegal” (because many of the protesters were not wearing masks), beat up and arrested hundreds of them, & hosed down the rest with water cannons.
The German media — which are totally objective, and not at all, no sirree, like Goebbels’ Ministry of Propaganda in the Nazi era — dutifully reminded the German public that these protesters were all “Corona Deniers,” “Far-Right Extremists,” “Conspiracy Theorists,” “Anti-Vaxxers,” “Neo-Nazis,” and so on, so they probably got what they deserved. Also, a spokesperson for the Berlin police (who bear absolutely no resemblance to the Gestapo, or the Stasi, or any other notorious official-ideology-enforcing goons) pointed out that their water cannons were only being used to “irrigate” the protesters (i.e., not being aimed directly at them) because there were so many “Corona Denier” children in their ranks.
According to the government, the German media, the intelligentsia, and, basically, anyone in public life who wants to remain there, these “Corona Deniers” are becoming a problem. They are spreading baseless “conspiracy theories” that are threatening the public health and causing distress to the German people (e.g., that the vast majority of those infected suffer only mild to moderate flu symptoms – or more commonly, no symptoms at all, & that over 99.7% survive. They are walking around without medical-looking masks, which is making a mockery of the government and media’s efforts to convince the public that they are under attack by an apocalyptic plague. They are posting scientific facts on the internet. They are staging these protests and otherwise challenging the government’s right to declare a “health emergency,” suspend the German constitution indefinitely, and rule society by decree and force.
Despite the German government and media’s efforts to demonize anyone not obediently parroting the official “New Normal” narrative as a “Dangerous Neo-Nazi Corona Denier,” the “Corona Denialism” movement is growing, not just in Germany, but across Europe. Clearly, the time was coming for Germany to take stronger measures against this threat. The health of the Reich……. err, the Nation, is at stake! Fortunately, this “Infection Protection Act” will provide the government with the authority it needs to conceive and carry out some kind of … well, you know, solution (awks). Allowing these degenerate anti-social deviants to run around challenging the German government’s absolute power is not an option, not in a time of national health emergency! These “Nazi-sympathising Corona Deniers ” must be rooted out and dealt with, mercilessly!
Now, I’m not privy to the details, of course, but, it being Germany, I imagine some sort of Special Task Force has been set up to efficiently deal with the “Corona Denier Problem.” Steps have clearly already being taken. Alternative media outlets are being de-platformed (because – according to state media – they are “Querfront” magazines). Last April, a well known dissident lawyer was forcibly committed to a psychiatric ward (but that of course had nothing to do with her dissident views, or the lawsuit she was filing against the Government – she just coincidentally became completely paranoid). In the run-up to demonstrations last August at which some “Neo-Nazis” were given de facto permission to storm the Reichstag so that official media could film the event & discredit the real protest, one German politician went so far as to call for “Corona Deniers” to be deported … presumably on trains, somewhere to the east….
But c’mon man, I don’t mean to pick on the Germans. And they’re not the only ones implementing this new variant pathologized totalitarianism. It’s just the inconvenient truth that given their not-too-distant history, it’s more than a little frightening, to watch as Germany is once again transformed into a totalitarian state, where the police are hunting down the mask-less on the streets, raiding restaurants, bars, and people’s homes, & where good German citizens are peering into the windows of Pilates studios to see if “social distancing rules are being violated”.
Now hold on.
Before SB gets flooded with outraged emails, no, I’m not calling these Germans “Nazis.”
But I am calling them “totalitarians.” Which, at this point, given everything we know, if you’re still pretending that this coronavirus in any way warrants the increasingly ridiculous “emergency measures” we are being subjected to, I’m sorry, but that is what you are. You may not believe that is what you are … totalitarians never do………….not until it is far too late.
It functions like a cult, totalitarianism. It creeps up on you, little by little, little lie by little lie, accommodation by accommodation, rationalization by rationalization … until one day you find yourself taking orders from some twisted little narcissistic nihilist on a mission to remake the entire world. You don’t surrender to it all at once. You do it over the course of weeks and months. Imperceptibly, it becomes your reality. You do not recognize that you are in it, because everything you see is part of it, and everyone you know is in it … except for the others, who are not part of it. The “Covidiots.” The “Virus Spreaders.” The “Deniers.” The “Deviants.” The “Foreigners.” “Die Juden”.
See, although the narratives and symbols may change, totalitarianism is totalitarianism. It doesn’t really matter which uniform it wears, or which language it speaks … it is the same abomination. It is a simulacrum of the hubris of man, formed from the clay of the minds of the masses by megalomaniacal spiritual cripples who want to exterminate what they cannot control. And what they want to control is always everything. Everything that reminds them of their weakness and their shame. You. Me. Society. The World. The Past. The Future. Life. Death. Everything that will not obey them.
Unfortunately, once this kind of thing gets started, and reaches the stage we are currently experiencing, more often than not, it does not stop, not until cities lie in ruins or the countryside is littered with human skulls. It might us take ten years to get there (2030 would appear to be the bookies favourite) but, make no mistake, that’s where we’re headed, where totalitarianism is always headed … if you don’t believe me………… just ask the Germans, the people who really know how to do it better.
© DJM 2021
The Goodnight Vienna Audio file