Writer's Block: Day of German Unity

[author_by_night]

[Error: unknown template qotd]Yes, waking up one day to find out you can't see your sister because a government-made wall has been built in the middle of the city is simple. Fearing that you'll be arrested under suspicion of communism is simple. Thinking the world will blow up is simple.

I'm twenty three, so I can't feel any nostalgia anyway, but from what I know, nothing was simple.

I mean, I guess there were ways in which the time period itself was more simple. A can of coke could be bought for five cents, and you didn't get sued for asking a loud customer to leave your store.

You know what, though? If it means a black man can run for president, if it means my friend's dream of being a doctor won't be taken away because of her gender, if it means people in Germany won't be shot for wanting to see loved ones on the other side of the wall, well... I'll take paying extra for a can of coke.

Yes, we have a long way to come. The world is still a mess. But those times were in no way, shape or form more "simple."

Honestly... what happened to Writer's Block questions making sense? Though at least the other ones were generally inoffensive.

Comments

[rinoamint.livejournal.com]

well said

[govcampbell.livejournal.com]

What the question is trying to get at is the simplicity of a world where answers were black and white: communist, or capitialist. The Soviet Union was the enemy, you knew where they were, mostly what they were up to, and if it came to conflict, wars were fought by armies in uniform, and easliy identified.

Now, we don't really KNOW who our enemies are, when they fight, they do it in civillian clothes, and all things are shades of grey. And we don't really know who we're fighing, why they're fighing at all, or how to fix it.

I agree that socially, we've come a long way. And I'm pleased that we freed eastern Europe from the tyranny of communism, but there is a small part of me that longs for the simplicity of international relations that we had in the Cold War.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Okay, maybe I can understand if they mean international relations... but even then, I still have to disagree. Nobody knew who enemies might be back home - there were communism witch hunts.

And if that is what they meant, I dunno, they could've worded it better. I'm still not clear if that is definitely what the question meant.

[rhiannonmr.livejournal.com]

I lived in Germany during the 80s. Loved the country, but not the reason I was there. Believe me, nothing about that time was simple. The underlying fear that someone might just be crazy enough to launch nukes was always there, especially with Reagan as our president and some of the old fossils running things in the USSR.

I miss Germany because as I said I did love living there and it's an experience I will always value. But no I don't miss the east-west tension thing at all.

[timeofnoreply.livejournal.com]

I agree - what a stupid fucking question to ask people.

My father's best friend was married to a West German woman. He saw the Berlin Wall come down in person, and said it was the most amazing moment of his life, to know that it was all over, and nobody would be killed in the name of communism. He was so happy his wife could see her family who was stuck in East Germany.

Simplicity? It only seems simple now because we're not distracted by the Cold War.

[farting-nora.livejournal.com]

I was about 3 months old when the Berlin wall went down, so I don't even remember it at all.

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

It reflects a less than nuanced and rather idealized view of the past, and is, I think, US-centric.

Perhaps things seemed simpler for the US during the cold war, at least on the international stage. There was a clearly identifiable "enemy" in the form of another nation-state.

Your comments reflect the complexity of the cold war when we move beyond this perspective.

[ani-bester.livejournal.com]

Ummm wow, yeah I think your answer addresses things best. I don't see how the Cold War can be considered simple.

I talk to my dad and he was terrified over the nuclear war and his terror from what he says seems on par with my fear of war and such right now.

And certainly allies were not any simpler.
Nor was the US any more innocent. We had our hands in everything jsut like now. Nor was there less fighting. Random wars were erupting, just like now.

I don't get it.

You know what, though? If it means a black man can run for president, if it means my friend's dream of being a doctor won't be taken away because of her gender, if it means people in Germany won't be shot for wanting to see loved ones on the other side of the wall, well... I'll take paying extra for a can of coke.


Here here! It drives me NUTS when people do not seem to realize how far we actually have come. As you say, we still of miles to go but we *do* seem to be moving forward!

I have a male cowrker who always wish things could go back to "simpler" times like the 1890's and then looks to me like I'll agree and I always say "no honestly, if you want me to choose between having the right to vote and the evils of the federal reserve . . . I'll take the right to vote, also the right to not be men's property, and I also enjoy that these days rape is actually thought of as a a real crime and that my doctor can not induce an orgasm in me as means of treating perceived medical illnesses like PMS *twitch*"


I think with the idealization of early eras that we get from Hollywood people forget how much worse it sucked for a lot of people even just 60 years ago let alone 100.


What I do wish though, is if we insist on killing each other, I wish that would could loose some of the weapons of mass destruction, (esp. biological and nuclear ones), and go back to killing each other with matchlock guns and knives. -_-

But that would have to go back further than even WWI

[stubefied-by-gd.livejournal.com]

Um, I think they were just referring to the differences between the Cold War and the current War on Terror, not the entire era.

The Cold War was a lot more clear-cut as to who the enemy was, where it was, and why. Also there was a lot less killing. Thus the "cold" part. Just a couple of world nuclear powers staring each other down for a few decades.

[katieay.livejournal.com]

The Cold War was a lot more clear-cut as to who the enemy was, where it was, and why.

That's not true for Germans.

[stubefied-by-gd.livejournal.com]

"For Germans" because everyone who lived there then and everyone who lives there now had and have equal experiences? My dad grew up in Germany in the 40's and 50's, but 1) I'm sure his experience wasn't universal and 2) I wasn't talking or thinking about him when I wrote that, obviously with no offense intended because he's my father. And that was my point. The original question-poser doesn't need to be attacked as offensive for not thinking of every possible perspective or over-interpretation. They were posing food for thought, and from a writers' personal-experiences point of view, (and basically American one, I'd guess) not as a social-political-historical debate (because if that were the purpose of the Writer's Block, it would have imploded months ago).

As you can probably tell from this, I'm sort of anti-getting offended for more than about thirty seconds and (perhaps stupidly) pro-attempting to smooth over perceived offenses when possible. When I see "the Cold War," I kinda don't think about racism and girls not being doctors or about five-cent Coke, all of which were relatively-to-really early in that period, not to mention not really anything to do with the war itself. And I didn't know many people did, so probably neither did the person who posed the question, and I was explaining what they probably were thinking about -- not attempting to slight any other national or political perspective. I'm sorry if you read it that way.

[katieay.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about the over-simplifying of the Cold War by Americans in relation to your comment which I quoted, rather than anything to do with Amy's post. Since the topic was German reunification, I was referring to the fact that in Eastern Germany and to an extent in Western Germany, it was never clear-cut who the enemy was. Not when neighbours are employed by governments to spy on people.

Obviously not everyone had the same experience and I wasn't offended by what you said, but I live here now, and I know that saying anything back then was clear cut is over-simplifying the Cold War. Just because Americans knew they were fighting the "commies" and Communists knew they were fighting a democracy, Germany was held hostage by both.

[anna-in-the-sky.livejournal.com]

Re: stubefied_by_gd

I don't think it was just Germany, either. If you look at the McCarthy-era communist witch hunts in the US, then it certainly wasn't as clear who the 'commies' and thus the enemies were. Same goes for the MI-5, the British secret service. For a while in the 1960ies, they were so paranoid about the whole service being undermined by Soviet double spies, that the service barely functioned anymore.

That being said, I think the writer's block question was intentionally phrased to provoke this kind of discussion and didn't actually mean to oversimplify the Cold War. Hence the 'seeming' simplicity...

[anna-in-the-sky.livejournal.com]

Well stated. It's said to see even a lot of people here in Germany reminiscing about the 'good old days' when everything was supposedly more simple.

Nothing was simple in those days. Having family on the other side of the wall wasn't. Fearing that every second, some lunatic on either side might launch a nuclear weapon wasn't. Being afraid of each and every person around you being a spy reporting back to the government certainly wasn't. I wish people didn't forget so easily. The world isn't and never has been a simply black or white place.

[katieay.livejournal.com]

Isn't the "Osi" nostalgia insane here? It drives me nuts that we're forgetting so easily and it hasn't even been 20 years yet.

[anna-in-the-sky.livejournal.com]

Yes, thinking of "Ostalgie" was exactly what provoked my comment!

[tina-berlinbear.livejournal.com]

I am old enough to have been there, when the Wall was built (I'll never forget that day, even though I was just 6) AND when it finally came down again.

I cannot find any simplicity in the times of Cold War - even though we had to get used to it, if we wanted or not.

I still am elated, when we drive out of Berlin through any street we want, not having to go through ridiculous "face-controls", being searched for "forbidden material" and having to pay money for "money-exchange" - as if we weren't visiting our own country and people, but entering a Zoo or such like where you have to pay entrance fee.

Many of those "Ostalgia" people are moping about "injustice" "2-caste-society" and that the "good old times were better" - forgetting that we "Westerners" had to work for our "Paradise" as hard as everybody, not having the "grilled chicken fly into our mouths" like many of them thought about the west.

Many things could have gone better - but we "Wessis" (especially West-Berlin) have been loosers at least as much as many Easterners say that only they are.

It is so good, that we are together again. The problems have grown bigger everywhere - but I at least do cherish the freedom to go where I want and to think and speak out what I think without having to fear oppression or even worse.

Did you wathch the movie "Das Leben der Anderen", which won an Oscar last year, on TV. That was GDR's reality - how can they forget what an ugly dictatorship that was? Many of those "moping" people had privileges at those times, and, yes, living was easy and cheap. But woe to everyone who dared to swim against the stream! Maybe some of those "Oastalgics" should read their "Stasi-Akten". Maybe they would "tumble out of all clouds" when they see how even those true to the SED, and some of their officials where spied out and "dancing on a fine line " between good life and desaster.

We kept close contact to our relatives in the GDR, and even had friends there, during the "Wall-times". We've seen their reality and ours, and the "golden pictures" many of them had od the West. One very good friendship died shortly after the Fall of the Wall - a very ugly affair involving Stasi activities against us from a side we'd never have thought of.

Ostalgia? Simplicity of the Cold War? No thanks! Those people really don't know what they're talking about - or choose to block off the bad sides, which were so many, but some subtilely hidden.

When I hear people say "Not everything in the GDR was bad" I ahve to agree - but there was a lot of bad, and It would be a terrible sin to forget that.