Re: <nettime> Franco Berardi 'Bifo': I refuse to visit Germany [two

[Andreas Broeckmann <ab@mikro.in-berlin.de>]

Dear Bifo,

with all due respect, I find your argument untenable and 
counter-productive. I would particularly want to take issue with the way 
in which you call up the spectre of "the German nation" as a key agent 
in the current political and economic crisis of Greece.

As far as I can see, there is a huge propaganda operation at work at the 
moment in the different countries, and findings on "public opinion" 
there are communicated as part of that propaganda. In my view, the 
propaganda operation is there to occlude the maze of social inequalities 
in the European Union, and more importantly, to occlude the fact that 
what is at stake is the legitimacy (or not) of the global financial 
system that, in Greece, is represented by the "Troika" institutions. I 
understood Varoufakis' stake to be the challenge of elucidating - at 
least for a moment - the fact that this is the enemy that we are up 
against. SchÃuble and Merkel have made themselves the mere house-keepers 
of a global financial system that is built on debt, - the Greek state 
and large portions of the Greek people are one of its latest victim. The 
World Bank, the IMF, many others have been building this system over the 
past 40 years. (For you to mention the [privately owned] "Deutsche Bank" 
in this context, rather than, for instance, "Goldman Sachs", suits your 
polemical purpose, but your remark is little more than manipulative. And 
the idea that the plight of the Greek people can be improved by removing 
the current Merkel government is, in my view, ludicrous; there will be 
other SchÃubles, just as - in another part of the playing field - 
Tsipras has been back in the talks with the Troika only days after the 
clear "No" from Greek voters.)

Bifo, I cannot understand how you can reduce the necessary political 
analysis of the current moment to the simplistic equation: Greek crisis 
= SchÃuble/Merkel = "the German State=Nation=citizens=population" = 
heirs of Nazis. For me, this reduction smacks of the populism that has 
been used, throughout the last century, to find scape-goats for 
something (and in this case: for a global financial system), that in 
itself appears too complex, too dangerous, too stable, too whatever, to 
challenge.

I completely agree with you that German intellectuals, along with all 
others, have an obligation to critique that system and its vicious 
social effects, not only, but also in Greece. But I also believe that 
just as Berlusconi was not only an Italian but a European problem, and 
Fidesz is not a Hungarian but a European problem, - and both have not 
been reasons to boycott these other former "AchsenmÃchte", - your 
disgust about "people in Germany" is awfully misplaced, and even if you 
feel like that, I believe that giving way to the sentiment is not the 
answer that the current moment requires.

Sincerely,

abroeck


Am 24.07.15 um 12:50 schrieb nettime's msg collector:

> First Message: 9th July 2015
> ----------------------------
>
> To the organisers of International Literature Festival "Poetische
> Quellen 2015" To the coordinators of 100 Jahre Gegenwart ErÃffnung.
>
> I thank you for inviting me to take part in the 14th edition of the
> Festival in the day August 30, and to the Haus der Kulturen der Welt
> in the days September 30-October 4rth.
>
>
> However I must inform you that, although I accepted to participate in
> your prestigious manifestations, Iâm now obliged to renounce because
> given the present circumstances, I refuse to visit a country whose
> population is predominantly following the stance of the fanatical
> persecutors of the Greek people and of the overall population of the
> Eurozone.
<...>


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