CVs were characterized by unchangeable fixed points. The free choice of gender radically calls this into question. Today, people can partially invent their biography and have it certified by the state. Germany does not even shy away from forging documents.
Who is the creator here? “The Creation of Adam” by Michelangelo Buonarroti in the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
Actually, George Santos is the modern man par excellence. The American politician invented his own life story. Grandson of Holocaust survivors, mother dies as a result of 9/11 terrorist attacks, Wall Street career, founder of animal rights organization that saved the lives of 2400 dogs. The story is so moving that even George Santos seemed moved. Regarding the fact that his grandfather had fled Hitler and converted to Catholicism, he said: “I’m so proud. I wish I had met him.”
George Santos’ only problem was the media, which at some point pointed out that his CV was fictitious.
Santos was revealed to be a fabulist, if you want to put it nicely. One could also speak of imposters and liars. In his defense, the House Representative had little to report. He is sorry that he “embellished” his CV. Apart from that, the politician does not think about giving up his career.
The radical self-empowerment
In some ways, George Santos’ apology is the disappointing chapter of this story. After all, the conservative politician could also be seen as a figure of emancipation, a person who freed himself from his biography in order to become master of his own history. Santos’ fictions would then be an expression of radical self-empowerment: I decide for myself who I am and where I come from. My wish is reality.
Santos is just one character in a long line of swindlers and fabulists. The writer Karl May became part of his own fantasy world and at some point no longer made any difference between what had happened to himself and what had happened to his hero Old Shatterhand. He was Old Shatterhand, friend of Winnetou. Apart from that, he declared to master 1200 languages and dialects.
Schirrmacher at the cannibals
Frank Schirrmacher, publisher of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, is said to have privately spread a story that he was a kidnapping victim among cannibals in Ethiopia. And he also claimed to have a Jewish mother, as Michael Angele tells it in his Schirrmacher biography. The motives for such swindles vary. With Schirrmacher it was probably the addiction to entertainment; he could hardly assume that his stories would be believed. But the storytelling can also be pathological or coldly calculating – or a combination. They are always more or less bold explorations of the realm of possibility.
majesty of your own life
What is new, however, is that this self-empowerment corresponds to a zeitgeist that makes one’s own feelings the yardstick. Coordinates of life that were previously considered unchangeable are suddenly up for grabs, can be chosen. Above all, gender. The French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut once described the situation at American universities in this newspaper: “You can decide whether you are male, female or non-binary. You can come in through the door with a long beard and leave the room as a woman. A guy made fun of the questionnaire and gave the name ‘Your Majesty’. And in a way, this is exactly what happens: Man becomes the majesty of his existence. Everything is possible. Everything is optional.”
Desire creates reality. But not only in private. The feeling is officialized and made official. In Switzerland, since the beginning of the year, you have been able to choose whether you want to be considered a man or a woman. If you change your mind after a while, you can switch genders again. While the Swiss government does not see the time to introduce the third gender as yet, in Germany and Austria you can already register as “diverse”.
The sham election
What’s the problem with that? you might ask. Finkielkraut says: “It’s a sham election. Gender is just what we cannot choose. It’s dictated by biology. (. . .) In the individualistic and technological madness in which we live, it should really be our concern to reconcile people with their finiteness.»
However, the signs of the times are very different: the dissolution of boundaries is most evident in gender. But the ideas are also changing when it comes to other biographical fixed points.
Origin taboo and the age lie
The question of origin, one of the most natural questions in the world, has fallen into disrepute in left-wing milieus: the media repeatedly reads that the question alone is an expression of prejudice and discriminates against people. The question of origin has lost its innocence, in some circles it is becoming taboo.
In the age category, terms like metabolic age or biological age indicate that some people are unwilling to count their age from birth. They establish an alternative age. These people say they are 60, but actually they feel like they are 50 or even 40. The doctor also confirmed that they had a heart like that of a young person, which was unbelievable. – Here, too, objective facts compete with a subjective feeling. There is no official certification of the metabolic age, but at least there are doctors whose assessments you can refer to.
Date of birth: 2666
Objective truth loses relevance, instead wishes or a subjective truth are proclaimed. The Swiss writer Dominik Holzer, born in Ostermundigen in 1992, calls himself Kim de l’Horizon, a non-binary person. As such, he won the German Book Prize in 2022. Kim de l’Horizon’s biographical details are as follows. Born? In the year 2666 (in the future). Place of Birth: Gethen (a fictional planet). Studies: Witchcraft. That’s what it says on the publisher’s website.
Anyone looking for Kim de l’Horizon’s original name on the German-language Wikipedia page will not find it. The character Kim de l’Horizon erases the basic coordinates of the old biography and rewrites them. The notion of a bourgeois curriculum vitae is radically deconstructed. Because what was and is is seen as subordinate. The key is free self-creation.
Of course, Kim de l’Horizon is an artificial character, and this biography is also an existential game, provocation. However, the spirit of the times is reflected in the figure, which triggers enthusiastic encouragement and hateful rejection.
lie or pay
Germany wants to go much further in terms of self-empowerment. For example, the government is planning a ban on disclosure in the Transsexual Act, which is subject to sanctions. According to the Ministry of Family Affairs, this should prevent “transgender, but also intersex and non-binary people from being forced out against their will”. In addition to the free choice of sex, independent of hormones or sex characteristics, there is also an official historical falsification.
The so-called Self-Determination Act also stipulates that state and non-state bodies must delete previously used names and previous gender assignments. Documents and certificates should be reissued with the original date of issue. Her old life is being rewritten as if there had never been a metamorphosis.
The philosopher Christoph Türcke rightly wrote in the “FAZ”: “Authorities should be required by law to subsequently falsify documents, and violations should be punished with considerable fines. That’s outrageous.”
Post-Truthful Age in Law
The German Minister of Justice defended the proposed law with the words: “Freedom also means the freedom to be yourself.” Nobody would object to that. It becomes questionable, however, when the state becomes an assistant, even the certifier of fictional biographies. What Germany is planning is the implementation of the post-truth era at the legislative level.
Everyone has the freedom to tell their life the way they want. Likewise, everyone else should continue to have the right to point out discrepancies without being fined for it. It is doubtful that tolerance for people who change their gender entry increases when their story is taboo. And are you closer to yourself when you deny your past?
The transformation paradox
We live in strange times. On the one hand man becomes the majesty of his existence, on the other hand he becomes the slave of his identity. Because in addition to the free choice of gender, numerous transformation taboos are establishing themselves, which apply primarily to the majority of society. When white people temporarily want to be black or Indian, that is no longer welcomed. When a member of an Appenzell yodelling choir recently took the stage at a “stobete” with a face painted black, a bast skirt and a drum, the public prosecutor responsible opened proceedings for racial discrimination. The action may have been insensitive, but is it criminally relevant? In any case, there was no racist motive.
Transgender people should be able to transform themselves, but for white and straight people the rules are becoming more rigid in a progressive public climate. Nowhere is this more accentuated than in Hollywood: in 2018, actress Scarlett Johansson returned to her role as a trans man in the film “Rub and Tug” – activists had scandalized her commitment. White actors may not play non-white characters. And no women. Heterosexual actors declare that they can no longer play homosexual characters. The self-empowerment offers that have grown are primarily aimed at minorities. The general public, on the other hand, should refrain from various forms of expression.
Because accusations of discrimination, cultural appropriation, a lack of awareness and empathy lurk everywhere.
hurt no one
The feelings are the cause of all these phenomena. Richard Sennett writes in “The Decline and End of Public Life”: “Western societies are on the way from (. . .) externally directed to internally directed relationships.” We are moving deeper and deeper into the emotional epoch. Now the German government wants to make fictions truthful so that nobody feels offended. However, if someone converts to the Jewish faith, they do not yet have Jewish roots. A man can probably undergo a gender reassignment, but he is not born a woman retrospectively. When in doubt, however, one should lie so that everyone has a good feeling.