According to Der Spiegel, the greatest threat to German democracy isn't the proliferation of nuclear arms nor the radicalization of young Muslim immigrants, but the rise of "white trash."
These people, apparently "watch television for half the day, eat fatty foods, and enjoy smoking and drinking -- a lot." (n.b. apparently 8 percent of the German population account for 40 percent of the nation's alcohol consumption). "While he may be a family man, his families are often broken. And on Election Day, he casts a protest vote for the extreme left or right wing party, sometimes switching quickly from one to another."
However, "the main thing that sets the modern poor apart from the industrial age pauper is the sheer lack of interest in education."
The only thing I'm confused about is why this guy is such a gloomy guss. The advent of German white trash should be celebrated, not mourned. If you take all of his criteria into account, he has just about described every swing voter in the American electorate, and shouldn't our electoral process be emulated whenever possible?
The article is here.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
White Trash: Threat to German Democracy?
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3 comments:
For a growing number the available education and rewards are not worth the time and effort spent. Maybe they are the new secular societies who, like the Amish and Mennonites before them, question the value, validity or relevance of such things as string theory or space elevators. It is quite understandable if some still feel more of an attachment to mother earth and reality or the person standing beside them rather than the one calling on the cell phone.
Another of the secular state's most deeply-held concepts -- welfare for any who ask for it -- is being exposed as a chimera. And yet the centralizing trends that make this possible -- more power flows to Brussels every year -- continue. This top-heavy edifice will collapse in time and Sharia law will replace it.
I like this part:
The destitute laborer of old had something that today's poor no longer have: He knew who the enemy was; he had a class identity; he often even had a well-developed culture. He sang songs, fought his political fights, founded associations and idolized social theoreticians, even if he didn't fully understand them.
I mean, clearly what the disenfranchised of Germany need is an Enemy - that's worked out so well for the Germans in the past.
I generally support and believe in education, I think it's a good thing. I'd rather people were intellectually curious and went to school. But the fact that they don't doesn't fill me with this guy's dread. I have to ask what the problem is. If these people are able to eat and are sheltered, isn't that better than destitution?
And the comparison to the US is not appropriate. There is no comparable welfare state in the US, no safety net.
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