The Message by Rammstein

Much has happened since the appearance of Rammstein’s song We’re all living in America in 2004. Then it looked like a gradual taking over of the world by the United States, this through dominance in IT, culture, medias and political hegemony. Now Russia has become resistant, and China is emerging as a serious competitor. Finally, President Trump is frightening away politicians and people all over the world except for leaders which need him as an ally.

Now Rammstein has released a new song with a symbol-laden video, this time focusing on Germany. By some the song plus video is misinterpreted as an only commercial or postmodern play with symbols used devoid of their meaning with he only purpose of creating sensation and getting attention. Was that the case, some of the content could be criticized for being too important and painful to be used in such a way. But no, the song+video is a monumental work full of content and message. The misinterpretation is no doubt partly due to the fact that many of present days artists are producing works which are only empty surfaces which do not point to deeper messages. 

The video focuses on mostly dark periods in more than 1000 years of German history. German history from the battles with the Romans 2000 years ago until now. The work looks like a correction to newly emerging German nationalists like the right-wing populist party AFD whose leader Gauland: said  “Hitler und die Nazis sind nur ein Vogelschiss in über 1000 Jahren erfolgreicher deutscher Geschichte”, “Hitler and the Nazis are only a bird-shit in more than 1000 years of successful German history”. 

In fact the song and video could be seen as a narrative about the sins of the whole Western civilization and the ambivalent feelings these (should) give rise to. Germany can be seen as the quintessence of the Western civilization, its most sublime and its most evil sides, from Goethe to Hitler.

In reality a comparable video could be written for other modern democracies. The United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and other nations each have their lists of dark moments and cruel acts in their internal history, in their European wars and in their colonial wars. The same concerns the United States.

 

Of course nations in our civilization should not feel permanently guilty over their crimes. There have indeed been heroic deeds, and there have been marvelous achievements in art and science. There are good reasons to be proud. But the song and the video by Rammstein is a welcome counterweight in times where nationalists in many countries engage in childish self-glorification and only focus on positive events and great achievements. 

If we follow the way of our predecessor civilizations, the next 70-100 years will  see fights for spheres of interest and hegemony between the big powers, internal fights within powers and brutal proxy-wars. All this in a world getting more chaotic as rule-governed internal and international politics decline. New nationalistic self-glorification can only make this worse. Forgetting the crimes of ones own country removes the inhibition against committing new crimes. Do we want to add a crescendo of further decades of darkness in a continuation of the video by Rammstein?

Rammstein’s “Deutschland” is a voice from mature modernity, the period which is ending now if we do nothing. A warning voice from a period where it was normal to have nuanced views, higher ideals and attitudes, important messages to convey.

We have entered a time where attitudes in the public and parts of the political world are becoming:

1) Based on only few pieces of evidence.

2) This “evidence” is often false or chosen or even constructed on the basis of prior attitude. Or on just a headline you happen to see on the Internet.

Generally seen, judgements and attitudes are based on scales or vectors. In a nuanced word-view reflecting the real complexities around us there are several or even numerous of these scales or vectors. Now we see:

3) People and populist politicians use word views with fewer and fewer scales. More complex phenomena are simply being projected on to, measured with the few remanning scales. Thus elite = Washington = taxes = socialism = gun control = abortion = Obama-care = Iran nuclear deal =  anti-Israel = wholly bad. And all the opposites including MBS are good.

4) On the few remaining scales the centers become depleted meaning that there is no in-between, no middle ground. Attitudes are polarized. 

If we only have attitudes based on this sort of thinking or have no attitudes on things which really matters, we are easy prey for the new polarizing demagogues, or we will just let them have their play.

And if you do not understand Rammstein or they seem to express one thing you don’t like, they are the Devil.