Society in Crisis: The Depletion of Democracy as We Know It

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Cardboard figure audience in the stadium of Borussia Mönchengladbach (June 2020): Simulated public

Photo: Marius Becker / dpa

It's not that easy to describe this emptiness.

It is omnipresent: the marketplaces and football stadiums are orphaned, as are the restaurants and cinemas, museums, conference rooms and memorials are also empty.

Only the intensive care units, the crematoria, the news are full.

Corona, everywhere.

All of this has a dramatic effect.

Far too many people apart from their health too.

While citizens follow the incidences and vaccination rates on their home office screens and are increasingly impatiently hoping for improvement, social life comes to a standstill.

In a global crisis of the century that threatens everyone, most people revolve around themselves. Stream series and surf the Internet, rediscover knitting between home office and homeschooling, and usually only meet others in video chats.

On the one hand, this is correct because fellow human beings pose a risk of contagion.

On the other hand, something is dissolving that is essential for the functioning of democratic societies: the public.

Those who demonstrate are either ridiculed, ignored or despised.

How badly it has been damaged after a year of pandemic, a look at what has disappeared: Dialogue forums of all kinds. Of course, in this great misfortune, it is great that digital aids

reduce

the suffering of

social distancing

.

But zoom conferences and Skype dates do not replace anything that we used to hate and love so dearly: family and folk festivals, party and church days, study groups and pub get-togethers, panel discussions and parents' evenings.

And what's more: not even peaceful demonstrations, the original form of the democratic exchange of opinions, are still possible in their previous form.

Anyone who goes out on the street is either ridiculed, ignored or despised: because the few who hold rallies in compliance with the necessary hygiene rules hardly attract any attention.

And because the others, who do not care about the pandemic or even deny it, only attract attention with anti-social impertinence.

The shutdown not only slows down the virus, it also slows down social progress.

With its ongoing debates about vaccines or "opening perspectives" for schools and companies, Corona narrows our perspective, displaces future topics that have not become less important during the pandemic: for example the struggles for more equality and against racism.

Or the uprising of young people in the face of the climate crisis.

And, last but not least, was the outrage over the move by the Prime Minister of Saxony that the Easter holiday will probably be canceled again, terrifyingly high compared to the anger over the conditions in European refugee camps or in Syria, a country of civil war?

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The Easter holiday grotesque at least proves that the mechanisms of outrage are not yet completely rusty.

However, it also leaves the impression that a questionable logic seems to apply in the pandemic: first fight Corona, then there is still enough time for humanity and climate protection.

This should be debated, but how?

At the moment, nobody is meeting for a chat in the 11,666 cafés that were last in Germany according to the Federal Statistical Office.

There is not a single regular's table in the 71,308 restaurants, and no people come together in the 4,393 bars and clubs.

In the foyers of the 809 theaters there is no discussion of provocative productions, and not even at private birthday parties one can argue about the situation of Schalke 04, the AfD or the neighbor's SUV.

Journalism is also affected by the communication crisis.

Not only are there fewer events that can be reported on, many reporters are currently doing without some research trips and encounters in view of the health risks.

Even the »Tagesschau« now regularly shows interviews that were conducted via a shaky Skype switch.

The crisis feels like a strangely timeless moment that is constantly prolonging itself.

This creates gaps that radical forces know how to use for themselves.This is most vividly shown in the city centers: when thousands of people recently took to the streets in Berlin to commemorate the victims of the racist murders in Hanau, it was a rare one pleasant exception.

Because in the past few months it was mainly large-scale rallies by conspiracy supporters and extremists that attracted nationwide attention.

How will our society have changed once the pandemic is over?

How can we prevent the communicative gaps from being permanently abused by minorities to spread agitation and sheer nonsense?

And how does society stay in touch - regardless of how many corona protection ordinances and opening debates are still to come?

The mantra of helpless politicians, which is repeated far too often, that one only has to endure a few more weeks now, is in any case of no help.

The corona crisis feels like a strangely timeless moment that is constantly prolonging itself and dragging on forever.

It has long been clear that it is not enough to endure the pandemic for a short time so that things can continue as usual.

We have already lost a year - and it won't be the same as before.

In any case, it would be helpful if we took the means of communication currently available to us more seriously.

Participants in a zoom switch should concentrate on the debates as if they were sitting across from each other in the community hall or conference room.

Instagram and Facebook should not just be dumps for animal videos, self-portraits and apartment searches, they should be used more than ever as real discussion platforms in which the same rules of decency apply as in the rest of the world.

This is not utopian, because even after twelve months of Corona, compassion and openness for others have not disappeared: In the past year, people in Germany donated 5.4 billion euros, significantly more than in the year before the crisis - despite short-time work, isolation and Worries about the future.

And those who have so much empathy that they donate also have issues that are worth arguing for.

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