The Battle of Fear: Politics vs. Terrorism

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The Battle of Fear: Politics vs. Terrorism

When Paris happened, I said it won’t be different. What I meant was, that the reactions to it will be the same as after every other major terrorist attack. On the one hand, I was wrong, because I was surprised by many people bemoaning the same reactions and criticizing our ignorant view on these events, which makes me hopeful. On the other hands, seeing how politicians react, how the bombing started right away, how everything became a little bit more insane and extreme, I realize that it’s exactly what I feared, only worse. I’m not the first to say that terrorism’s goal is to instill fear and what most politicians are doing right now, is taking that fear and riding on it to do whatever they want, they increase and nurture it and keep it alive. They do exactly what the terrorists want them to do.

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Why the State of the Union Didn't Matter in 1973 [1973]

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Why the State of the Union Didn't Matter in 1973 [1973]

As I’ve mentioned at the beginning of this week, I have no album or any comics from 1973 to talk about and since I won’t break out of my routine to do an additional movie, I thought of something special this time. Only last week I looked at Obama’s State of the Union speech and I wondered if it wouldn’t be interesting to look at the State of the Union speech from 1973 by Richard Nixon to see what has changed in the last 40 years.

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Why the State of the Union Doesn't Matter

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Why the State of the Union Doesn't Matter

I’m not a fan of President Obama, but I’m not a fan of any American president (or any president, I guess). So when his State of the Union address hits the news, I’m somewhat baffled. Even before I have heard or read it, I know it contains nothing newsworthy. Why would it? Politicians aren’t out to accomplish anything, to see change or only occasionally. And what does it matter, if Obama says the U.S. is still great and will only be better? (which I’ll assume will be the message because it always is). None of what he says will make any difference. It will be cheered by his fans, attacked by his political enemies (but not for content but out of principle) and everyone else will have forgotten it instantly. Still, because it is considered newsworthy, I thought I could take a look at it to see what kinds of things Obama (or whoever wrote the speech) actually is saying. You can read the whole speech here or watch it here. But I’ll work with quotes, so you don’t have to.

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Music Box: Gang of Four's "Entertainment!"

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Music Box: Gang of Four's "Entertainment!"

After Marie Antoinette I couldn’t help but wonder, why I haven’t written anything about Gang of Four’s Entertainment! before. This is one of my most influential albums that is so bold in deconstructing our society and goes beyond the “everything sucks” ideology of many punk albums. This is post-punk, of course, and while there are other political albums in music’s history, at least for me nothing achieves what this album achieves. It’s angry without being loud, it’s intelligent and challenges the listener because it doesn’t provide easy answers. It’s simply brilliant, lyrically and musically. If I ever need inspiration for change, for doing something, I put this one on and get going.

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There’s a Movement in Town

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There’s a Movement in Town

After reading about the anniversary protests in Turkey at the moment, I wondered that this has been featured so strongly in German media. Sure, Germany has a higher interest in Turkey than in most other countries but it reminded me again how one-sided and hysteria-driven the media can be and mostly is. Because at least since the Arab Spring and Occupy in 2011, protest movements have become as strong as they haven’t been since the 60s. Especially since they happen all around the world and cannot be centered on one idea but reflect the general unhappiness of people with our society. So I wondered if those protests in Turkey are really the only ones worth reporting about right now. Well, they’re not. So I googled “protests” in GoogleNews and here’s what I found on one day.

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