It's not just about male power fantasies, it's about the big picture: Sibylle Berg's sensitive, vulnerable, amazing interview volume “Nerds Save the World”.
Of course that's stupid. You are at the top of the pyramid of power, but things are not going smoothly and unchallenged. Because there are others, even with a Y chromosome and something in different sizes between the legs. Not man, no, man is man's wolf. "For men, other men are the real threat, not women," says Valerie M. Hudson, a professor of international affairs at College Station, Texas.
A consequence of male fear is the gathering together, the men's union. And Hudson is right, just think of the recent testosterone surplus of German prime ministers or conglomerations like the CDU's "Andean Pact". So if men endanger the world - who saves the planet from the crash? Nerds, says writer Sibylle Berg.
Her book one after the wonderfully cultural-pessimistic novel salvo "GRM - Brainfuck" is an interview collection. All conversations in "Nerds save the world" were already in the Swiss online magazine "Republic" and served as a source of ideas for "GRM". Although Berg understands nerds unskilled know-it-alls with defective social contacts, here experienced scientists answer. And that in a clever, thoughtful, profound to ironic way.
Migration, media theory and a clitoris model
It always depends on who asks: "Have you already worried about the state of the world today?" - that is Sibylle Berg's starting signal. And then it's not just about male power fantasies, but also about right-wing extremism, cannabis legalization, black holes, migration, media theory or, please don't be alarmed, about a three-dimensional clitoris model.
All these nerds have one thing in common: their analyzes do not revolve around strictly delimited areas of life and research, these scientists have no outside edge. It is about world improvement, but this is free of political vanity or consideration of ideological reservations and requirements. This is precisely what makes the answers so plausible.
When you read it, you can't get out of the constant nod: if, for example, the sociologist Wilhelm Heitmeyer complains about the neglecting of the principle of “ownership obliges” with regard to neoliberal housing policy. When marine ecologist Carl Safina demands radical consequences from species extinction, including animal husbandry. When political scientist Emilia Zenzile Roig suspects the cause of human hatred in the division of the world into "superior white race and the rest". Or when masculinity researcher Rolf Pohl ponders European misconceptions that it is the navel of the world and therefore better than everyone else.
Foray through the world of the Y chromosome
Admittedly, you have to struggle a little with some answers. This is due to the technical terms and the fact that the perfectly prepared Sibylle Berg with her interview partners threatens to float away on a cloud of experts. But that doesn't happen very often. The conversation with historian Hedwig Richter is remarkable. Here the cynical to amusing, sometimes posing pessimism of the writer meets a scientist who counteracts the left-liberal despair of the world: “It is sometimes astonishing what people manage to achieve in their pitiful existence,” says Hedwig Richter. For example, building a railroad or making sure that "German reunification went perfectly". The expert even goes a step further: Would some of them not even reinforce right-wing extremist tendencies with their pessimism?
The fact that the decisive dose of testosterone and said Y chromosome is responsible for a lot of disaster runs like a red thread through "nerds save the world". This is confirmed by researchers of both sexes - and, as can be easily ascertained, by the current situation. Despite the heaviest topics, Sibylle Berg's book is an astonishingly readable, ultimately optimistic world expedition - which, although done well before Corona, reflects much of today. Some things can be challenged and provoked to an argument, that only makes it more appealing. And about other things like Valerie M. Hudson's question, it can be pondered for a long time: "If women were twice as strong as the average man, would they subordinate men?"
Sibylle Berg:
"Nerds Save the World". Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne, 336 pages; 22 euros.