Check out this video (accessed only from the Web site of Die Zeit) of journalist Jens Jessen exhorting viewers to Forget America (Vergesst Amerika!).
For non-German speakers, Jessen explains that the United States is in a weakened state thanks to broad array of problems – including the Iraq War fiasco – and so can no longer be considered as a model for Germany. But America’s woes have a silver lining for Germans, since now they can address problems in a way that makes sense within a European, or specifically German context without constantly glancing across the Atlantic at Big Brother. Long Live Old Europe/ Es lebe das Alte Europa!
What is disconcerting about this video, however, is the painting of Vladimir Nicolai Lenin in the background (visible above to the right of Jessen). What is Jessen trying to say with this image?
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Lenin was a real moderate in the historic upheavals that shook Europe long ago. He’s basically the opposite of “populist” Neo-Nazis like Huckabee and Giuliani. I think it will take several generations for US-Americans (and other Anglos, to a lesser degree) to not appear as vile primitives when viewed by people from countries with a history of social development.
Yes, well, plenty of us don’t want to follow the amerikanische Beispiel in America.
“Lenin was a real moderate”
Yeah, right, his Cheka only murdered 200,000 through summary executions. I guess in the context of the 20th century horrors that is “moderate”.