German Angst - Fear and Loathing in Berlin
(picture taken by me in panic striken Berlin, August 2016)
First of all I want to emphasize I highly respect Jeff Berwick and Luke Rudkowski. I have met both in person at Anarchapulco and Bilderberg 2016 in Dresden. Both are true enthusiasts for Liberty, as I am, and they both feel the urge to "wake people up to freedom" just as honestly as I feel doing.
That being said, when I read the latest headlines they were making, I felt the urge to answer back, but am not quite sure why yet and I want to explore it writing about it. @dollarvigilante just reported on the growing tensions concerning Russia and Germany:
"We have recently written about how Angela Merkel in Germany has encouraged her citizens to begin stockpiling food and provisions to protect themselves in the event of an “attack”. https://steemit.com/money/@dollarvigilante/putin-prepares-for-nuclear-war-just-week-after-germany-prepares-for-attack
A few days earlier @lukewearechange was asking:
"Why Is Germany Telling Its Citizens To Prepare With 14 Days Of Food and Water"
I was like, wait a minute? I am here in Berlin and I can't see any signs of emergency and panic and these articles might give a wrong impression on what's going on here. There was no panic whatsoever around me. I actually even had learned from Luke and Jeff about these emergency preparations. I read the german reports about it, and they were all very sober and borderline boring. I think it is because to a German, it feels perfectly reasonable if its government prepares for potential disasters and she/he does not necessarily deduct the disaster to be impending, just because you prepare for it. "Man weiss ja nie - You never know." as the germans say. Even I as a voluntarist can see the point. I haven't met a scared German yet because of that.
The last time I witnessed panicked Germans was in my hometown of Munich during the shootings, even though I was not even there. But I happen to be still in the team whatsapp group of a Bar not even that close to the shootings where I used to tender and the atmosphere must have been nightmarish. I witnessed live how my friends got into the hysteria of rumours about multiple shooters and fake videos swirling around and how they closed the whole restaurant .
(Paul Weber, "Das Gerücht", "The Rumour").
A whole city of well over 1 million inhabitants was in total lock-down because of a lone shooter. That's what happens if you drill the Angst of weapons from earlierst childhood into the souls of the people and if you train them to rely uniquely on the Polizei for defense purposes. I know what I am talking about, because I am just as irrationaly scared of weapons as my fellow Germans, it's just that libertarian reasoning enables me to still think about it.
That's also the reason I'm considering not going to the Oktoberfest pretty much for the first time in about 30 years. Not because of Putin or ISIS. But because I simply do not want to experience a stampede of panicked Munichians because of some prankster blowing a loud firecracker somewhere.
I am still trying to get this thoughts across in discussions with non-libertarian Germans (99.99% that is), but it is incredibly hard to do and I totally understand that. The first time I actually really "got it" myself, was when I was talking over the internet to a fellow Ron Paul supporter in the USA during the 2008 grassroot campaign. I was trying to explain and justify why "we germans" were so horrified at the idea of everyone running around with a gun, that we'd rather leave weapons to the government (and I was thinking of a Ron Paul government when I said that). He answered that americans were totally lost to understand how "we germans" could have let our weapons taken first by Hitler and then by the Communists and still did not get it.
He had a point.
Today, I am convinced that Germans actually could be just as reasonable and sober gun holders and protect themselves, as they - in general - see no problem in allowing people racing down the Autobahn at 200 km/h or pour liters of beers down their throats chanting silly songs in crowded tents, even if they themselves might not want to do so.
I just have no clue how to get them scared about the idea of Statism first.
Maybe you have some ideas, @dollarvigilante and @lukewearechange :-)
Really very strong post @fabio!
I would also like to reiterate that the homepage of the German government has hosted lists for emergency preparations and food stockpiles for years. Lists so thorough and "German" that preppers worldwide regularly cited them.
Great read my friend!!
Isn't fear, what makes people want a strong government in the first place ?
Correct, that's why I was not completely serious. On the other hand, a healthy dose of horror at the realisation of the Stockholm syndrome behind the german confidence in statism might not be that bad either. Worked for me.
Awesome post !
Thank you for writing this. I am reading lots of FUD only intended to sell us useless stuff by making us panicking (you basically can't survive with gold and silver in case of a disaster, can you?) and we don't need any more of such nasty "everybody please panic NOW" crap. Very nice to read that response - there is a certain sense of fear in the air and several money makers are abusing this widely.
Well, that really depends on the type of disaster... In case of a nuclear bomb exploding over your head, gold and silver will most likely not be of much help.
Other than that, I can imagine quite a lot of situations where it would be useful.
It is definitively not a bad idea to have some gold and silver. Man weiss ja nie ;-)
Exakt.
Und es funkelt und glitzert noch dazu!!!! :D
Well, it's at least better than having money on your bank account. But what J. Berwick and others do is nothing more than abusing fear for making profit.
Sure, there are no signs of emergency and panic yet. But could it be possible in the near future? I tried to explain here that "the preparations" are not a german thing. Its a pure NATO strategy.
Well, duh. Statists do what statists do. I know that and I appreciate you spreading the info. I am just trying to find a humorous unconevntional and fearless response. NATO is just yet another stupid acronym I refuse to get scared about.
Yeah....I totally understand you.
Maybe I panic to hard but these times are pretty harsh. The world around us never was so fucked up as today. It's pretty tough then to find a humorous response. ; )
Thank you for leaving the link to this article on my post about American gun culture.
I really appreciate the opportunity to hear about world events, movements, and developments from the perspective of people who live in other countries and different cultures. I think that's one of the really cool things about Steemit--you get to read and consider all of these different points of view from people all over the world. In long-form!
I can understand how it would be difficult to let go of your hoplophobia that was drilled into you from all sides at an early age. Plus with all of the recent terror events and the media calamity they have engendered. I admire your resolve to separate emotion from reason in this case, and I empathize with your desire to help others to grasp what you have finally begun to see so clearly--that the main danger to our lives and freedom is not from guns or gun owners or even from ISIS. It's the state that poses a constant threat and obstacle to humanity.
If you ever find yourself in North Carolina, look me up and I will take you shooting. :)
Thank you so much for your thoughts! I completely agree with you about the exchanges with different cultures and it is precisely because I have actually talked to some "gun nuts" that I began to change my mind.
The Carolinas seem to be really cool, I've met a guy from South Carolina at Anarchapulco, who has a lot of guns. It is still pretty exotic for me, but he also was very nice and only crazy in a funny way (to me it, having 12 machine guns is crazy just like having 3 cars) . I've also met a lovely couple who have a shooting range and school in Jackson Hole. Very nice people and I'd feel very safe living among them. Actually even safer than here where only the German police "has my back".
On the other hand, as to visiting the US, I am more afraid of all your insane government agencies from TSA, to CIA, NSA, FBI, DEA....etc etc etc...than by the "gun nuts" I personally met.
Yes, all of our acronym agencies are really scary. Having traveled internationally, it is always a bit of a shock when I come home and experience the airport shakedown. All the more reason to "arm up", I suppose. At the gun store, we are expecting this fall with the lead-up to the presidential election to be the biggest sales period we've ever had. Our leftist politicians are the best unintentional gun salesmen in the world, and it's because of them and all of the jackbooted acronym agency thugs that people decide to go ahead and buy guns now, rather than putting it off until the ones they want are illegal. I fully expect gun ownership to exceed 50% of the population within the next year.
P.S. I was at the first Anarchapulco. Sorry I missed meeting you, if you were there.
I missed the first but never gonna miss one again! :-)
Just the right and differentiated answer needed to be given here by @fabio. Thank you. Jeff Berwick spreads irresponsible FUD with a distorted view of reality (for instance here in Germany). How can so many seemingly responsible and rational supporters vote on this post so highly (there are quite some wales and founders amongst them). I am shocked and my confidence on the mainstream and governance of steemit is severely affected by that.
I agree with you.
Really great post!