I congratulate you on this thoughtful and thought-provoking article but after reading it in New Global Politics I feel we can go further in understanding Germany's predicament by considering how politics, as expression of national culture, evolves - and by what standard we judge it. By the implicit Western standard of imperialism, which …
I congratulate you on this thoughtful and thought-provoking article but after reading it in New Global Politics I feel we can go further in understanding Germany's predicament by considering how politics, as expression of national culture, evolves - and by what standard we judge it. By the implicit Western standard of imperialism, which requires the will to power and it's cohesive projection under the ledership of a more or less united oligarchy, Germany was never "great", the Prussian empire and then the Dritte Reich being aberrations. As descendant of a typical Germany family (in my German half) I have recognized how the defeat in WWII put paid to these aberrations culturally, the well-known "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" instilling an instinctive resistance aginst "greatness" (according to that Western model) in a sufficient part of the population that the oligarchy (it was well-developed in the Dritte Rech - and was one of it's pillars) could not re-group and assert itself - evident to this day in the conspicuous lack of intervention in major political/geopolitical matters by the captains of industry. As a result, Germany is a typical vassal without imperial aspirations - and without the culture and organization required for it. Is this a bad thing? By that implicit Western standard it is sneered at by the imperialist oligarchy - and treated as a vassal, so that German politics, especially in the geopolitical arena, is largely dependent - on that imperial oligarchy. Actually, IMHO, this is an ameliorating feature of Germany - but it indeed does not fit into this time - where you can either be an imperialist (part of the evil empire and integrated in it'sruling oligarchy) - or a vassal - or a colony - or an enemy.
I congratulate you on this thoughtful and thought-provoking article but after reading it in New Global Politics I feel we can go further in understanding Germany's predicament by considering how politics, as expression of national culture, evolves - and by what standard we judge it. By the implicit Western standard of imperialism, which requires the will to power and it's cohesive projection under the ledership of a more or less united oligarchy, Germany was never "great", the Prussian empire and then the Dritte Reich being aberrations. As descendant of a typical Germany family (in my German half) I have recognized how the defeat in WWII put paid to these aberrations culturally, the well-known "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" instilling an instinctive resistance aginst "greatness" (according to that Western model) in a sufficient part of the population that the oligarchy (it was well-developed in the Dritte Rech - and was one of it's pillars) could not re-group and assert itself - evident to this day in the conspicuous lack of intervention in major political/geopolitical matters by the captains of industry. As a result, Germany is a typical vassal without imperial aspirations - and without the culture and organization required for it. Is this a bad thing? By that implicit Western standard it is sneered at by the imperialist oligarchy - and treated as a vassal, so that German politics, especially in the geopolitical arena, is largely dependent - on that imperial oligarchy. Actually, IMHO, this is an ameliorating feature of Germany - but it indeed does not fit into this time - where you can either be an imperialist (part of the evil empire and integrated in it'sruling oligarchy) - or a vassal - or a colony - or an enemy.