today we deal with the past decade and its consequences.
The dominant emotion of the decade that ends today was anger. Nothing has changed politics in western countries like the anger of a large part of the population. Donald Trump is a phenomenon of anger, Brexit , the AfD , the yellow vests in France.
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There are two reasons for this:
- On the one hand , some of the citizens no longer feel represented by traditional politicians. They were more concerned with containing anger, sometimes ignoring it. The type of nefarious populist, who has spread over the ten years, on the other hand, takes on anger, reinforces and reinforces it. These include Donald Trump , Boris Johnson , Matteo Salvini , Björn Höcke , Heinz-Christian Strache .
- On the other hand , the internet with its social networks became established in the decade. This is a forum in which anger can let off steam largely unfiltered and shape social debates.
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It is therefore fitting that the first "Word of the Year" in the past decade was "Anger Citizens". In October 2010 SPIEGEL published an essay on this new social figure. The term was controversial because it was also understood as defamatory, as a brand of the misunderstood. The term is part of the problem it names.
- Read the SPIEGEL essay here: The Anger Citizen
You can see it that way, but in the word Anger Citizen there is still the citizen in his political form, i.e. as someone who follows the political events, forms an opinion on it and acts accordingly. Part of the citizen is that he has an opinion that can change. At the end of this decade of angry citizens, the question of whether the term still captures what is happening in parts of the population, especially on the far right.
Robert Michael / DPA
"Hutbürger": In 2018 a Pegida protester became the symbol of the German angry citizen
There are some indications that the fan will replace the angry citizen. That sounds harmless, but it is actually a deterioration. Because the laws of the arena are moving into politics.
The arena, the football stadium, is a place of unwavering emotions . The pattern is always the same. The own team, these are the good guys , whether they play badly, brutally foul or win undeservedly - they have the boiling approval of their fans. There are limits to this as well, but they are broad.
The other team is the bad guys , whether they play well and deserve to win, they are reviled and hated. There are exceptions, too, but they are rare. The arena almost always confirms itself, largely unaffected by the facts.
This can also be observed increasingly in politics. Trump can lie, write stupid stuff, abuse his state power , some of his followers forgive him for everything. The main thing is that he remains the exponent of her anger. Strache's FPÖ lost votes after the Ibiza scandal, but 16 percent of Austrian voters still thought that this party belonged to parliament. These are the fans .
AFP
Donald Trump: His fans remain loyal to him
Fans are also the AfD voters, who may not think right-wing extremists themselves, but accept that part of the party's top staff has or is still doing so. The main thing is that they are the exponents of their anger. Other facts, including essential ones, then hardly play a role.
In political history, the fan is not part of democracy, but of fascism . Of all political systems, he relied heavily on emotionalization, on the laws of the arena, which also includes unconditional, unthinking following. In football, however, there is still a democratic element, because in the arena two unconditional followers meet and fight openly, red-white against yellow-black. Fascism does not allow that. Everything brown .
- Is the Federal Republic on the same path as the Weimar Republic? Read an essay about the repeatability of the story here
If an increasing number of citizens turn into fans, the temptation of fascism is inevitable. Those who can control emotions have really great power. You shouldn't bet that the populists resist it.
In the twenties , which begin at midnight, it will be important for the liberal democracies that the proportion of fans remains small or shrinks again. How it works? Take anger seriously without running after it, education, education, education, justice.
It is an enormously difficult task, but it is the most important of all.
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I wish you a happy new year, a wonderful year 2020 and a great twenties.
Yours truly, Dirk Kurbjuweit
