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"This is one of the traits I admire the most about German culture; awareness that government can abuse its power." This trait can be found all over the former
by inglor_cz 2y ago
"This is one of the traits I admire the most about German culture; awareness that government can abuse its power."
This trait can be found all over the former Soviet Bloc, because we have had enough experience with either one or two homicidal authoritarian regimes (the Nazis and the Communists). That experience was paid in a lot of pain and blood.
Places like Sweden, the UK, Canada, Australia or the US, where governments within living memory weren't as oppressive against their own population, have a lot of naive people, "well, they mean it well".
- marcus_holmes 2y agoAustralia is quietly incredibly authoritarian. The rules are really important, and government is encouraged to solve social problems by creating new laws.
- sebastianz 2y agoI agree but I fear this is now fading too. '89 was 35 years ago, and for all generations younger than mine (i'm 40) this part of history will be much more abstract and 'out of living memory'.
- inglor_cz 2y agoYes, such is the nature of the world, that it buries horrors under layers of time. In some ways, such healing is necessary, even though it comes with risk of repeating the same mistakes. A week ago, I was in Zaragoza and there is a Goya Museum there. His prints of the horrors of the Napoleonic Wars are absolutely terrifying and ghastly. Today, the French and the Spanish people are on friendly terms. In a hypothetical world where the witnesses of such horrors still lived, those nations would probably be a lot less friendly and more resentful.
- deutschepost 2y agoThanks to the themes which are covered in German history lessons, it will never truly disappear. I can’t remember a single lesson which didn’t cover one of those themes.
- pjmlp 2y agoYet many students aren't paying attention, given current voting trends.