First Amendment Instincts

I had figured in advance that I would have to suppress a few habits and instincts here in Germany. My instinct to speak the language I know best was the obvious one, with my tendency to be slightly shy around new people and to speak up without thinking also being considered. But you can't predict everything. And an instinct I didn't notice existed has become the largest creator of bitten tongues in my life here.

You probably haven't noticed it either, but chances are, if you're an American and at all politically conscious, you have what I have. I call it my “First Amendment Instinct” and it activates whenever I see or read about a breach, of letter or spirit, of the first amendment to the US constitution. It elicits in me an immediate raising of the hackles, and a warming of the rhetorical bombasts that, in the US, would be used to knock the offending idea back into the stone age. Fortunately, here in Germany the language barrier reminds me not to speak my mind, so no real outbursts have occurred.

But this reflex is being called into action more often than usual here. This is because Germans have no First Amendment Reflex. They have the freedoms allowed by it (mostly... but more about that later) but they don't have the prickly, defensive, slippery slope mentality about them that most Americans do. They don't view the government in the same what-could-go wrong light that Americans of both parties do. (though often on different issues)

An example: Every German has a “Personalausweis”, or personal identification card, that is used much like a driver's license, for alcohol age control, but also a bit like a Social Security number: It identifies you for all your interactions with the state and banking system. Systems like this have been proposed from time to time in the US. One may be moving forward now, for all I know. They are incredibly controversial, seen by the civil-liberty minded as an unforgivable attack on privacy. Yet German 16-year-olds are extremely eager to get one, because it means they have the ID necessary to go to bars and drink. “Why don't they see the danger too‽‽” the civil libertarian part of my brain keeps screaming, thankfully in English

The example that finally got me talking to my host family is more central, though. There are in Germany, like every western European country now, extreme right nationalist anti-immigration parties that advocate all sorts of dumb things: Closing the borders to immigration, reducing freedom of the press, racial discrimination, etcetera. In Germany, of course, several of these have taken on the trappings of National Socialism, taking up the forbidden(ish) symbols of the bad old days, the “Hakenkreuz” and such. There are people who talk the exact same nonsense in the US, probably a good deal more, but they never get to say anything because our two party system keeps all but the most mainstream out of power. In a parliamentary country like Germany, (or pretty much the rest of the democratic world) though, they have maybe a seat in the parliament, and thus a (small) seat at the table.

Now, in the US, I, and certainly some of you derive a sort of masochist pride reading their tracts, because though it's complete filth, and I oppose it completely, they have the right to say what they want, and I'm proud of that. That's not the feeling in Germany, according to my completely representative sample of a conversation with my host mother and the elder sister, who's back from Madrid. There is a process of some sort in Germany for banning a political party, and they wish that the government would get on with it and ban these intolerant apes (not their words) for advocating the removal of constitutional rights. People in Germany seem to have the freedom to say anything – except to advocate curtailing that right. This is an interesting concept: In the US, do you have the freedom to advocate the removal of freedom? In the US, this has never been seriously tested, since we have never had room for enough parties for those types of bigots to form their own. But my First Amendment Sense is tingling, and it says: Yes! Freedom of speech cannot be abridged without clear and present danger – and I mean clear and present!! Step away from that book pyre!

So how do the Germans do it? How do they live a free and happy life without continuous protective bombastic volleys against the encroachments of the state? It talked a little bit to Ryan Knight about this, and his response was this: Having seen Fascism nearly within living memory, and though opposing it totally, they can comfortably give their government more power without worrying. they know what fascism looks like and this isn't it.

I like that explanation, thought I think there's more to it: I will leave you with my succinct observation on the German people, one that I think I will be coming back to in subsequent posts: Germans do less stupid shit.

Goodnight and good luck,

David Loring