the-wall

Warning: the following contains satire.

The agony of (not much) choice

As a German citizen by choice, I get to vote soon, and I’m wondering who for…

What? The very same candidates as last time? Good job not much has changed in the world since then; it’s nice to have someone you recognise in…wait, one was sacked and the elected representatives of the people had no confidence in the rest? And they’re standing again??!

If I lost my job and then immediately reapplied…I’d be laughed out of the building (no, I wouldn’t be allowed into the building), so what on earth do they think they’re doing? Possibly:

  • They have lost grip on reality, had they had it in the first place(?)
  • They just love seeing their huge faces around town so
  • There is no one better in their respective parties (😱)
  • Their parties have given up hope for this round and are hanging them out to dry; better luck next time…

Hope it’s the last point, which would suggest some vestige of intelligence (however Machiavellian). The other points would just mean more of the same: slow-wittedness, egotism and mediocrity. The last things Germany needs at this hour.

So, who’s left? Er, the left with their regurgitated slogans about rich versus poor. Most people are neither rich nor poor, so most people don’t vote for them. Seneca wrote,

Do you ask what is the proper limit to wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary, and, second, to have what is enough.

I would place myself in that category—wealth-neutral—which includes neither the super rich (wealth-positive) on their yachts, nor communists (wealth-negative, especially when it belongs to others).

And what’s with the CDU-guy, who I cannot possibly vote for now he’s “onboarded” the AfD?

Caveat emptor.

Migration, the political football

While migration is a thorny issue (I wouldn’t let any Tom, Dick or Harry into my house), cynical point-scoring on the issue stinks to high heaven. They were doing it long before Brexit in the UK and has migration ever stopped there…? Migration has been going on forever, its cycles are hundreds of times longer than our four-or-five-year political cycles and it simply cannot be “solved” by any one government or nation state. Migration is about people, and borders, walls, prisons etc. increase their longing for freedom. I’d want people longing for freedom in my country. They might need some help but they do good and give back in the end (net positive ROI, see below).

Bad actors need weeding out through effective technical and organisational controls that are absent emotion and politics. So, Politicians: drop migration as an issue, leave the charged statements (which are meaningless because you have to rule in coalition and achieve cross-party consensus on border policy anyway) and electioneer on things the state actually can control in the long-run, like education and skills, encouraging ethical business practices and fixing bridges. A highly-skilled workforce, working for virtuous companies with best-in-class infrastructure and transport—that’s a Germany most people would want to see. Oh, and without net inward migration probably impossible to achieve.

So why the alarmist appeal to emotions? That’s right: it’s a trick to gain power (and a bloody old one, too). Nationalism or populism as an antidote can only be a superficial veneer, and a dangerous one at that:

  1. It casts a shadow in a world which craves light
  2. It’s zero-sum: you’re in or out. Solving migration at point A will just increase the problem at point B.
  3. Cronyism and profiteering go up and the people it purports to represent continue to bleed (but they are numbed to it for a while because they feel “great again”)
  4. it defines itself by its enemies—a refuge of scoundrels and tyrants—and that is everyone else and you could be next.
  5. it causes a race to the bottom where the most outrageously populist wins (see the tech industry’s recent fawning before Trump and the shedding of its liberal facade).
  6. Even more egotism, even more mediocrity. As my dad used to say, “Empty vessels make the most noise.”

It’s a tragedy when people suffer and lives are cut short by unnecessary violence. But crime is about opportunity and biography and has nothing to do with where you were born. If you raise the drawbridge, the people left inside can and unfortunately will still do terrible things to each other.

I’m a migrant, for goodness’ sake. And, yes, I got help from the Jobcenter in the beginning, took a ridiculous Integrationskurs and endured weeks of shame and embarrassment learning the beautiful German dative and genitive cases. Germany has got back much much more than what it invested in me: not only thousands in taxes and the many and varied types of insurance contributions but four awesome kids who will do likewise, if they don’t get super-rich and relocate to their yachts. Generational blessings do not factor into political (or any other) discourse; implying that you will one day be dead is probably not a good vote-winning strategy but it would finally be an honest one.