Dear Bifo,
with all due respect, I find your argument untenable and
counter-productive. I would particularly want to take issue with the way
in which you call up the spectre of "the German nation" as a key agent
in the current political and economic crisis of Greece.
As far as I can see, there is a huge propaganda operation at work at the
moment in the different countries, and findings on "public opinion"
there are communicated as part of that propaganda. In my view, the
propaganda operation is there to occlude the maze of social inequalities
in the European Union, and more importantly, to occlude the fact that
what is at stake is the legitimacy (or not) of the global financial
system that, in Greece, is represented by the "Troika" institutions. I
understood Varoufakis' stake to be the challenge of elucidating - at
least for a moment - the fact that this is the enemy that we are up
against. Schäuble and Merkel have made themselves the mere house-keepers
of a global financial system that is built on debt, - the Greek state
and large portions of the Greek people are one of its latest victim. The
World Bank, the IMF, many others have been building this system over the
past 40 years. (For you to mention the [privately owned] "Deutsche Bank"
in this context, rather than, for instance, "Goldman Sachs", suits your
polemical purpose, but your remark is little more than manipulative. And
the idea that the plight of the Greek people can be improved by removing
the current Merkel government is, in my view, ludicrous; there will be
other Schäubles, just as - in another part of the playing field -
Tsipras has been back in the talks with the Troika only days after the
clear "No" from Greek voters.)
Bifo, I cannot understand how you can reduce the necessary political
analysis of the current moment to the simplistic equation: Greek crisis
= Schäuble/Merkel = "the German State=Nation=citizens=population" =
heirs of Nazis. For me, this reduction smacks of the populism that has
been used, throughout the last century, to find scape-goats for
something (and in this case: for a global financial system), that in
itself appears too complex, too dangerous, too stable, too whatever, to
challenge.
I completely agree with you that German intellectuals, along with all
others, have an obligation to critique that system and its vicious
social effects, not only, but also in Greece. But I also believe that
just as Berlusconi was not only an Italian but a European problem, and
Fidesz is not a Hungarian but a European problem, - and both have not
been reasons to boycott these other former "Achsenmächte", - your
disgust about "people in Germany" is awfully misplaced, and even if you
feel like that, I believe that giving way to the sentiment is not the
answer that the current moment requires.
Sincerely,
abroeck
Am 24.07.15 um 12:50 schrieb nettime's msg collector:
First Message: 9th July 2015
----------------------------
To the organisers of International Literature Festival "Poetische
Quellen 2015" To the coordinators of 100 Jahre Gegenwart Eröffnung.
I thank you for inviting me to take part in the 14th edition of the
Festival in the day August 30, and to the Haus der Kulturen der Welt
in the days September 30-October 4rth.
However I must inform you that, although I accepted to participate in
your prestigious manifestations, I’m now obliged to renounce because
given the present circumstances, I refuse to visit a country whose
population is predominantly following the stance of the fanatical
persecutors of the Greek people and of the overall population of the
Eurozone.
<...>
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