With a hat-tip to our reader and commenter “Whitewall”, here’s a depressing item:
German Defense Minister Seeks ”˜Reconciliation’ with Taliban
It is difficult to read this without thinking that such a story simply cannot be true: that it is completely beyond all credibility that anyone not a child or an imbecile could possibly imagine that an organization dedicated to implacable jihad in the name of Islamic theocracy would actually bind themselves to a secular, or even “moderate”, Constitution; that any such concession they might make would be anything other than tactical taqiyya.
Yet here the story is. And here is another female European “leader” — a defense minister! — singing Kumbaya as her nation opens its veins.
12 Comments
Their “boomers”:
The Long March of the German 68ers: Their Protest, Their Exhibition, and Their Administration.
Gracie M. Morton, East Tennessee State University
Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
History
Date of Award
12-2007
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Stephen G Fritz
Committee Members
William Douglas Burgess Jr., Colin F. Baxter
Abstract
The postwar children coming of age in the late 1960s in West Germany mounted a widesweeping socio-political protest against what they saw as the strangling silence of their parents, the Nazi generation. These protesters, referred to as the 68ers for their pivotal year, continued their struggle in following decades, incorporating an important and controversial exhibition, and finally culminating in their own administration thirty years from their defining moment. Using such diverse kinds of information as parliamentary debates, interviews, and contemporary criticism, this thesis explores the impact of the 68ers’ initial protest and the influence they ultimately had on their nation and society. The 68ers changed the face of German society by forcing a dialogue with the past that made a full exploration of the Nazi generation possible in Germany. They also incorporated gender politics into their protest and forced a social revolution that allowed a woman to be elected Chancellor.
She’s a decade too young perhaps to be a “boomer,” but I guess she’s afflicted by the 1968 ideology. That sounds like an interesting thesis Whitewall: have you read it?
It is an important question, Malcolm, whether women are – generally speaking – cut out for very high-level politics. Obviously women can be great leaders, with Thatcher, Meir, Elizabeth I, and others being only a few examples. Yet one wonders if they’re the exception to the rule. Perhaps at the military level especially, men are usually more appropriate. Another instance of the power of biology.
It’s a very important question. Women (again, generally speaking!) are by their nature empathic, nurturing, and cooperative. This suits them perfectly to their necessary civilizing and fostering roles within families and cohesive societies. It becomes a liability, however, when confronting those who are ruthless, violent, and exploitative — a liability that is amplified to lethal proportions in an ideological climate of naive and pious universalism.
At the risk of complete social excommunication, I will say also that this concern is as pertinent at the ballot-box as it is in high office, for the obvious reason that the one thing leads to the other.
I dunno about that Malcolm, matter of fact (well my opinion anyway) I think our first female President performed better’n her husband did. Edith Bolling Wilson.
Well … except for maybe that suffragettes shit.
Well, I did say “generally speaking”.
Off-topic but I was wondering, isn’t One-Eye from Orange county CA?
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-oc-sanctuary-20180327-story.html
Well now. Lookee here:
http://federaleagent86.blogspot.com/
Who owns Blogspot?
Jason, no I haven’t read the entire pdf as it runs for about 100 pages, but the abstract above reminded me of the ’68ers phenomenon which I had come across a few years ago somewhere. This mindless atonement syndrome that has gripped modern Germany is going to be the death of them unless younger adults get fed up and take action.
JK, that blogspot link does seem to have vanished.
JK, our commenter the “One Eyed Man” lives farther north, in the Bay Area.
Oh yeah right Malcolm, I forgot (somehow) he did mention sometime back how much he enjoyed the Castro District for taking his lunches.
I ought be forgiven though, my personal geographic awareness of the state is, pretty much, limited to Coronado, Miramar, NASNI, Twentynine Palms, and Yucca Valley.
Oh and one more, the highway that heads east. The Southern route.