blog - gObama 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
(Berlin, Germany - 12.21 a.m. local time)
There goes history in the making... Spain kicks Italy (world champions) out of the European championship. Goalkeeper safes!
Obama talks about Israel and business as usual kicks in...
My skeptical optimism of hope shifts to football and beers or should I better say I develop an optimistic pessimism?
People seem to be tired of this election business and need a summer break. Anyway, as I cruised around the Berlin streets at the “fete de la music” yesterday, there was a gigantic block party on “Zions”church street. I came across a young sister and her peers - who did not give a shit for this general US election. I asked if they would support Obama. Awful silence. I guess I am too old school...or just a nutter. Who cares for American foreign policy if a band plays loud enough to dance?
Funny, it was inside this “Zions” church where the first environmental movement as a political East German resistance movement started 25 years ago. At the library of the church inside the “Umweltbibliothek” was a corner with forbidden books. The secret service (Stasi) of course would monitor who would go in and out the building. I was a youngster then and did not care about the Stasi repressions, but enjoyed to read books like Orwell’s “1984” and “The revolution releases her children...” (about Stalins killing machine) from W. Leonhard.
I remember I was depressed by the realistic fatalism after reading these books - too much fictional reality that hit the chords of my daily being. I could not visit my family or cross the border into West-Berlin. The fact that both books are extra relevant today, is a reminder of the frailty of our human condition and the terror we can bring to one-another.
The real misery settles in when peoples fear and anger take root collectively. It is a breeding ground for political manipulation and part of the marketing strategies of powerful empires and rulers - be they global corporate oil companies or some fundamentalist totalitarian knuckle-heads.
What makes my Orwellian experiences in East Germany a good preparation for future things to come, is that I developed a radar for propaganda wars -- that round up public support for strikes against so called enemies and nuclear threats. Been there done that - bought the T-Shi(r)t...
The Western world is preparing for World War Three and Obama is part of the machinery now. The underdog is dead and the dissident got assassinated. Mission accomplished.