Observing German(s)…

But then again, anything that has to do with touchingly romantic notions about revolutionaries “toppling the German state” in the 70’s and 80’s when their parents had their chance but failed to do so in the 30’s and 40’s is always big medicine here. This kind of stuff sells wie warme Semmeln (like warm rolls, as in hot cakes), at least with the German 68er crowd.

And that’s what it’s all about here again, again and again. The psychological need for Germans to compensate for something they can’t compensate for, the childish wish for the next utopia that never came and never will and, of course, the burning desire to make lots of money with a film like this.

Hollywood will love it, too. Especially today, I find, in this day and age of ours. This type of timeless study is right on the money, so-to-speak. Now, more than ever, we need to understand how terrorists think, how they feel, realize what motivates them and then empathize with them. Before they, well, ride off into the sunset, I mean.

“Mehr Heldenverehrung geht nicht.”

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Other than all the disgusting violence, I mean (I can’t stand these
Tarantino movies). And who cares if we will all have to endure
Tom Cruise speaking with a German accent while playing a
German character among other Germans in Germany. We
would have to endure his reallife non-accent otherwise.

The only really offensive thing might be the unabated fascination
everybody still has with Nazi Germany, and its inevitable
association with the Germany of today. But hey, I guess a
German Batman wouldn’t work, either.

Wir (alle) haben es wohl nicht anders verdient.

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Let me think about it… Nah. Maybe some other time.

Ich sammle auch Kunst, die ich nicht verstehe. Finde ich in Ordnung.

Kommentare auf Deutsch? Klar.

Anyway, returning from the grave isn’t easy for anyone I’m sure, but to do so just to slam religion like that (Hello? The afterlife?), well that’s certainly a first. But he was Einstein after all and if anyone can pull this one off, I guess he can. Not having much to offer for the traditionally faithful, he found the Bible to be childish, the idea of Jews being a chosen people silly (although they were a bit “protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power” - this was in 1954 like I said) and that although religion provided believers with a certain protective self-deception perhaps, it did not necessarily improve their morality.

None of this seems all that E=mc² these days, does it? What I find more refreshing is his attack upon atheism. Describing himself as an agnostic, Einstein scoffed at atheists as being people who do the same intolerance religious fanatics do. “They are creatures who - in their grudge against the traditional ‘opium for the people’ - cannot bear the music of the spheres.”

Maybe that’s why evolutionary biologist and world-class atheist Richard Dawkins was among the bidders for the letter (he lost out, of course, atheists are real cheapskates you know). He probably wanted to have the thing destroyed.

Meine Ansichten sind zu gewaltig für unseren bzw. euren begrenzten Geist.

Kommentare auf Deutsch? Logisch.

And I don’t care if the lead singer looks like Hermine from the Harry Potter movies (the first or second one maybe) only all in black and an evil-type version of her even though he’s actually a dude, although probably not quite officially yet because I think he’s just ten. Kids these days.

That’s right. Germany’s Tokio Hotel hopes to expand it’s “already-rabid fanbase” and make it big in America (and not in Japan first as you might think), once they’re big, that is. And some Americans are actually helping them, dad gum it, but like now already. They just went on Conan O’Brian for crying out loud, for instance. What is that?

It’s not that I don’t like their music or anything it’s just that I don’t like their music or anything (as if I could). They should go back to the hotel in Tokio where they started out (its spelled Tokyo by the way, Jungs, or can be) or Buxtehude or Entenhausen or wherever it is they came from as long as it’s nowhere near Berlin, and leave my country alone.

And work on your German while you’re at it. That’s right, I said German. Their English isn’t all that bad.

“That German band with the weird lead-singer chick.”

Kommentare auf Deutsch? Logisch.

PS: Thanks for the androgeny link, Joe.

That he doesn’t know why the Israelis have built the wall in the West Bank is perfectly understandable (he doesn’t want to understand, that would only make him sad), and that the US Americans only want to oppress Mexico by building the one along their border to that country is an established establishment fact (Canada is next, by the way), and that there are many, many, many much more such walls out there of this nature than he or his friends or most of the rest of us are even aware of is also understandable (hmmm, makes you wonder why he picked out Israel, doesn’t it?), but die Mauer itself? He really doesn’t know why it was built? I’ll give him a little hint: It was built to keep people in.

But to be fair, Herr Wiedenhoefer has explained why he is so concerned and why an exhibition like this is so absolutely positively necessary right now. “The UN said border walls are illegal,” he said in an interview. “People need to take notice of this.” Well there we have it. Now if the UN ever gets around to making suicide bombings and illegal immigration and all that other nasty stuff some of us insist upon relating to illegal border walls like this illegal, too, well, that will be a great leap forward for mankind or something. Think of all the exhibitions we will be able to do then.

“We don’t need no education.”

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