Christmas is the time of contemplation and a good moment to really heat up your own troops again. At the end of December it is relentless: “Shut up” some squabble on the street, “Pepper spray” exult others. Do dominoes fly at the family festival?
The Germans trundle into Christmas as if they had consumed the fourth mulled wine in the children’s carousel: there is cacophony in all of the main topics related to the pandemic. There is no organizing voice – and relentlessness grows on all sides.
When can I boost? Recently after three months, says the Standing Vaccination Commission – after a number of those willing to be vaccinated had been sent home hours beforehand. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach is meanwhile bringing the fourth vaccination into play in order to stir things up a bit. The vaccination has not lasted long so far, a friendly elderly man recently told me that he did not want such temporary help. It used to be better with polio! What does he think about the serial vaccination?
Next question: Is there a general compulsory vaccination? I have no idea, the MPs do it as they like, there is no line of government. When it comes to this topic, the lateral thinkers have a lot ahead of us: They have not changed their minds yet. The Ethics Council, however, finds it justified. The FDP politician Wolfgang Kubicki is not known, the legal scholars are still quarreling. Unclear everything.
Santa’s dictum
And the lockdown? The Robert Koch Institute recommended, a little maliciously, immediately before the federal-state conference significantly stricter contact restrictions. In terms of communication, that was unfavorable, Lauterbach grunted. The politician is overtaken by his own RKI in the race for the most urgent warning, but that’s not nice. But as a member of the federal government, Lauterbach is also subject to the dictum of Santa Claus: And he says: Now let’s make ourselves comfortable!
Is there at least one unifying message, a combative announcement, a speech delivered with verve to the people? Where is the vision for life under permanent uncertainty? Still nonexistent, the hope rests on the Christmas speech by the Federal President. Following the Prime Minister’s Conference, the Chancellor also made a press appearance – that was new, until now the flow of information was finally through the telephone of “Bild” reporter Paul Ronzheimer. But the appointment wasn’t primarily for information. It was more about a competition: Who would present the resolutions more voiceless, less empathetic and uninterested – Berlin’s new Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey or the new Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz? In this monotonous spectacle, I first saw Scholz up front, but then woke up three hours later with an imprint on my laptop keyboard on my face and therefore had to abstain from making a judgment.
Now in Germany you cannot criticize the speaking talent of those in power without someone calling out that the only thing that matters is the content. That is a mistake. Without charisma, without good text as a vessel, no matter how important the content is, it will not reach the audience. And the seducers among lateral thinkers are usually better able to inspire people for themselves. In this respect, the soulless, lazy reading by Scholz and Giffey is nothing less than a government deficit.
In the current hell of irritability, the honestly stomped-down resolutions do not get through anyway. They stand in stark contrast to the tone of the general public: Intoxicated by the frenetic applause of the “shut up” faction on the internet, prominent and semi-prominent accounts are radicalizing themselves on social media. Likes, likes, likes! Many a publication continues to turn the screw of indignation: The “Welt” recently put together a press review with comments, and its editor-in-chief Ulf Poschardt asked rhetorically whether the fourth estate was still capable of protecting fundamental freedoms. The subliminal message: all sleeping sheep, only we cheeky jumper people know what they are already up there!
The same applies to other institutions. The Federal Constitutional Court, science – nobody can get out of this pandemic without bruises. It doesn’t depend on arguments, but on the audience – when it wishes death, thumbs down. It’s all very Roman: the net debaters are squeezing themselves Turtle formations together, immobile, indestructible, and a bit silly too.
This fully automatic self-acceleration in the Empörium Internet has a tiny disadvantage: it makes turning back difficult. Anyone who deviates from the chosen course is considered a failure of the system and deserter. Donald Trump had to endure boos when he recently admitted his booster vaccination – the big old man has not been seen that hurt for a long time. Anyone who speaks out in favor of a lockdown can later admit that this was probably an exaggeration. How is it the other way around? Should triage losers really soon be making their last little cough in a hospital corridor, what then say those who have boosted their followers with the chaotic “freedom”? Isn’t the competition for ideas and the possibility of error the real essence of freedom of expression?
On the other hand: The soldierly resolve behind the lockdown and vaccination advocates is in no way inferior to the tweeting Statues of Liberty. The hitherto completely unknown Green politician Saskia Weishaupt tweeted in view of the demonstrations in Munich that the police had to “act and, in case of doubt, use pepper spray and batons. We mustn’t leave a (sic) millimeter to them!”
“When in doubt”? Silent night or not, but shouldn’t you only thrash on it, and if necessary, when you are reasonably sure? What does the member of the federal parliament have to do with police tactics in Munich? Didn’t the Green Youth recently want to switch off pepper spray as a police weapon? After the term #schlagstocksaskia trended, put out them the tweet.
And what are we completely non-radicals doing? We, who are equally fed up with unconventional thinkers’ yells, restrictions and crazy variants, who don’t know exactly whether vaccination or lockdown is okay? But at the same time we do not assume that every measure is in reality a perfidious plan of an oppressive pig system? What do we do when we meet “the other side” at Christmas?
Talk to lateral thinkers
There are quite a few authors who have wondered how to get a conversation going with conspiracy believers. There is information from the, ahem, federal government – but these tips may not come from the best place. Ask questions and avoid topic hopping, goes something like this the advice of specialist Ingrid Brodnig. Communicate appreciatively, even if it can be difficult. And, well, that a startup in Sweden came up with the epoch-making, ahistorical idea, a vaccination card chip implant to develop, one should read this once for difficult conversations.
Will such preparation help? Let’s bite into the dominoes with a sardonic smile and hope for the mentally paralyzing effects of goose, dumplings and mulled wine. The year 2022, that much is certain, will begin as annoying as the current year ends. Perhaps there are even some arguments in favor of moving the whole turn of the year to June.
That would be a really creative Corona measure.