Crikey! Well, I don't know if people want this sort of stuff blocking
their screens but it does - even in the present context of the world
about to be engulfed in some odd sort of military behaviour - seem
to be important and has touched a few raw nerves. Bill, I don't deny
the article has racist elements to it but it really is overdoing it to
talk of the Stuermer etc. The very fact that it was in the Guardian
and not the Sun - let alone the Stuermer - is actually extremely
significant. I'll lay down good money that there is not one Guardian
reader in the country who thinks the Germans are like that or who
will be swayed into anti-German sentiment because of what Julie
Birchill says. If it had been in the Sun then that would be a different
matter but even if it had been, everyone would have taken it for the
joke it was. I hope this isn't too controversial but apart from the
actual tone of what was written I think that what a lot of people
have objected to is that these apparently plebian and ignorant
ideas have crept into the hallowed, nice, safe, sacrosanct,
LIBERAL pages of OUR Guardian. Unverschaemt! How many of the
contributors here have said things like "in the Guardian of all
places". It is a joke. The very things Bill seems to have got hot
under the collar about, i.e. what they have for breakfast and how
they behave in swiming pools shows how inappropriate the fuss is.
Anyone who knows Julie Birchill knows what she is up to and she
has succeeded. It would be much better if we were to write letters
of protest to the everyday and far more serious racism against
asylum seekers and muslims in the pages of the Mail and the Sun
and the Express etc rather than bothering with JB. If anyone wants
to know what real racism is they should have been in a taxi with
me last friday night when people were shouiting disgusting things
at the obviously muslim driver. This is not to downplay racism in its
anti-German form, I just wonder if the reaction is - to use a current
phrase - proportionate.
Now, the Biggie. Self-loathing and Martin Walser. Bill, I didn't mean
that those critical of anti-Germanism are demonstrating self-
loathing, what I objected to was the slightly haughty and elitist tone
of saying that the average Brit (or maybe just the English, Pol, but I
doubt it) is so irredemably stupid that the only thing is to retire and
emigrate to somewhere where one never has to come into contact -
or be identified with - ordinary people and their "dreadful"
newspapers and opinions. How many times have we heard that
from our German colleagues and friends, most of whom love
England precisely because it is not Germany, while we love
Germany precisely because it is not England. We have this dream
of the Germany where everyone is political and cultured and
intelligent etc. when what we mean is that the sorts of people we
mix with and meet in Germany are like that. What Julie did was go
on some sort of package holiday with ordinary Germans,
something which , presumably, none of us would do in a month of
Sonntagsreden. That is what I meant by self-hatred. And yes Bill, I
do actually think that Martin Walser got it just about right. He
wasn't asking for an end to self-criticism, just the counterproductive
dynamic of national self-loathing. We all have to come to terms
with where and what we are.
Peter
Dr Peter Thompson
Germanic Studies
University of Sheffield
Sheffield S10 2TN
Tel 0114 222 4907
Fax 0114 222 2160
http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/D-H/gs/
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Die Wissenschaft gibt dem, welcher in ihr arbeitet und sucht, viel Vergnügen, dem welcher ihre Ergebnisse lernt, sehr wenig.
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