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

[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...