Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The Human Chain
In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that while between 10 and 15,000 people peacefully protested the Nazi demonstration in the inner-city with their human chain, across the river, thousands of left-wing activists tackled the Nazis head on, at the location they had decided to move their march to. The lefties stood on train tracks, built barricades out of garbage, turned over cars, and attacked buses to block the arriving neo-Nazis. Their efforts are probably the real reason no neo-Nazi rally was held in Dresden this year. Check out this video for a little footage of the madness:
I, for one, question fighting violence, hatred, and extremism with violence, hatred, and extremism. I subscribe to the American freedom-of-speech ideal that allows anyone the chance to say anything, and assumes that what's right will float to the top. I'm finding many Europeans don't feel the same way about freedom of speech. The "bad" people and the "bad" ideas are often forcefully silenced here, sometimes by the law and sometimes by the other side, the "good" people and the "good" ideas. It's hard to disagree with people who want to force out neo-Nazism, a pretty obvious bad guy, but ultimately who's deciding what's good and what's bad? Of course, in a country where Nazism was once one of the ideas that floated to the top, maybe they've learned something here that we in America haven't yet — that trusting the open marketplace of ideas is a dangerous and flawed path.
At any rate, it appears that something like 20,000 Dresdners left the comfort of their homes on a frigid February day to defend their city's honor. And regardless of whether you agree with all the methods, I think anyone will have to admit that that's a pretty impressive statement.
JEM
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Your video made me cry. I am pretty proud of you. I am glad your display didn't involve fire, or tipping of cars. I think you have a great gift for journalism. And on a side note, WAY TO GO DRESDEN!
ReplyDeleteJaz, that is so cool! Way to take part in it.
ReplyDeleteTja, das mit der Redefreiheit ist genau das Problem dabei. Aber wo gibt es überhaupt wirkliche Freiheit? Alle (auch notwendigen) Maßnahmen zur "Bewahrung der Demokratie", zur Terrorismusbekämpfung, etc. richten sich im Endeffekt auch immer gegen die Freiheit des Einzelnen. Dagegen kann man nichts machen.
ReplyDeleteAber es gibt ein deutsches Volkslied, das heißt: "Die Gedanken sind frei" - die Guten, aber leider auch die Schlechten.
...nur so ein paar Gedanken dazu...
Guter Beitrag!
Livia (=
That was great Jaz! It was very moving. You've made Dresden feel like my German home away from home.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Dad
flot gjort jaz! (beautifully done) thats pretty amazing! 20,000. dresden, you're alright in my book.
ReplyDeleteWow, Jaz. I had no idea. What a great experience. Your report was powerful and moving.
ReplyDeleteas far as freedom of ideas go - I think the people of Ammon took an interesting approach in dealing with unpopular evil ideas as recorded in Alma 30. I'm not sure whether that's more similar to the Dresden peace chain or to the folks who got a little violent.
ReplyDeleteIn 2001 I witnessed a standoff between neo-Nazis and anti-Neo Nazis on the German equivalent of labor day in Mannheim. There were only I guess about a thousand or less on each side. The anti folks stood in the street most of the day with the police separating them and the neo-Nazis, and the police were deciding whether to forcibly remove the antis to let the neos march. The antis won as at the end of the day the neo nazis left and the police never broke them up.
It was the most exciting P-day of mission that was for sure. I was serving in Worms in the time. We didn't know beforehand any of this was going to happen on that day. I'm glad we chose to hang out in Mannheim that day. The group of missionaries I was with unwittingly rode into town in the morning with a big group of neo-Nazis on the train in the morning. I didn't realize they were neo-Nazis, although I didn't notice the train was filled with an unusually large amount of freaky-looking people. As we exited in the train we were herded over with the group of neo-Nazis to be frisked, where we realized for the first time who we had been riding with.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Dresden update. It was exciting to read about.
oh and when i typed "the police never broke them up" i meant that the police never forcibly removed the antis in order to allow the neo-Nazis to march.
ReplyDeleteoh and this update of yours was also exciting to watch and listen to
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing this split screen view of Dresden. I agree that maybe the Dresdners have learned something about not letting the weird ideas float up and stay at the top.
ReplyDeleteoh and I meant to type "did notice the train was filled with an unusually large amount of freaky looking people" and "as we exited the train"
ReplyDeleteI agree that freedom of speech is a core value of democracy. But fascism isn't considered to be an "opinion", at least in modern germany. Due to the historic experience of course, don't forget that Hitler didn't get in charge thru a coup but thru regular election. Later on he abused emergency laws, made for state of emergency/war, to override the constitution and democracy.
ReplyDeleteEver since germans reason their strong measures against right wing extremism with the conclusion that democracy has to be able to defend itself against its enemies and that its eternal enemies - fascism is per definition nondemocratic - cannot use their democratic rights against democracy itself.
But there is a thin line between defending democracy and democracy becoming fascism itself by attempting too rigid to fight fascism, I agree.