:

… die Mauer wurde den Deutschen im Westen zum Spiegel, der ihnen Tag für Tag sagt, wer der Schönste im Lande ist. Ob es ein Leben gab jenseits des Todesstreifens, interessierte bald nur noch Tauben und Katzen.

—Peter Schneider, »Der Mauerspringer«, (Darmstadt: Hermann Luchterhand GmbH & Co KG, 1982), 13.

Wie die meisten blieb ich zunächst nur von Jahr zu Jahr, aber wahr ist auch, daß mir schon nach kurzem Aufenthalt in Berlin jede westdeutsche Stadt wie gefälscht vorkam.

Tatsächlich mag ich an Berlin, was diese Stadt von Hamburg, Frankfurt, München unterscheidet: die Ruinenreste, in denen mannshohe Birken und Sträucher Wurzeln geschlagen haben; die Einschußlöcher in den sandgrauen, blasigen Fassaden, die vergilbten Werbegemälde an den Brandmauern, die von Zigarettenmarken und Schnapssorten sprechen, die es längst nicht mehr gibt.

—Peter Schneider, »Der Mauerspringer«, (Darmstadt: Hermann Luchterhand GmbH & Co KG, 1982), 7.

Chris Hedges, Scheerpost:

“If trauma entails a disconnection from the self, then it makes sense to say that we are being collectively flooded with influences that both exploit and reinforce trauma,” Dr. Maté writes. “Work pressures, multitasking, social media, news updates, multiplicities of entertainment sources — these all induce us to become lost in thoughts, frantic activities, gadgets, meaningless conversations. We are caught up in pursuits of all kinds that draw us on, not because they are necessary or inspiring or uplifting, or because they enrich or add meaning to our lives, but simply because they obliterate the present.”

Trauma also drives many to flee into the arms of those who are orchestrating the abuse.

Systematic and repetitive trauma, whether by a single abuser or a political system, destroys personal autonomy. The perpetrator becomes omnipotent. Resistance is accepted as futile. “The goal of the perpetrator is to instill in his victim not only fear of death but also gratitude for being allowed to live,” Dr. Herman writes. This trauma lays the foundation for the most insidious characteristic of all tyrannies, large and small. Total control. Prolonged trauma reduces its victims to a state of psychological infantilism. It conditions them to plead for their own enslavement.

Compare with April 2018.

Numbers tiny, especially when compared to the February demonstration.

From the Tiergarten side the only distinction from any normal day of protesters on Pariser Platz was the sound truck.

:

700 Menschen demonstrieren in Berlin für den Frieden und wollen die antimilitaristische Bewegung aufleben lassen

Estimates in February were 40,000 to over 50,000.

Walther Reuther

Joachim Prinz

„When I was the rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin under the Hitler regime, I learned many things. The most important thing that I learned under those tragic circumstances was that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence.

A great people which had created a great civilization had become a nation of silent onlookers. They remained silent in the face of hate, in the face of brutality and in the face of mass murder.“

Bob Dylan

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kirkpatrick Sale, CounterPunch:

[A]ll the talk about “climate change” directs the world’s attention away from what is the real central problem: the effect of unmitigated capitalist growth ravaging the resources and systems of the earth and its atmosphere.

Ω Ω Ω

It seems likely, alas, that global overheating will continue to disrupt the earth’s systems at greater and greater catastrophic levels for the foreseeable future.