This week I read how the word ‘lügenpresse’, meaning ‘lying press’, which was used by the nazis to discredit any media outlets which were against them, has experienced a revival in German discourse. Those who use it are emboldened, of course, by the fact that another good translation of the term might be ‘fake news’, as used by Donald Trump. Confusing people, so that they are no longer certain what is true, is one way to ensure complicity in fascism. When they are confused, too, people often look for a ‘strong’ leader. Making our own moral choices, taking responsibility, thinking – these things seem too difficult. It is much easier to be obedient, although a cursory glance at history tells us obedience is not a virtue.
These are frightening times. Today is the launch of the Extinction Rebellion, an international movement using mass civil disobedience to force governments to respond to the ecological crisis. I have no doubt that in the future those who are arrested will be seen, like Sophie Scholl of the White Rose movement, as heroic, as will those who have taken part in Black Lives Matter demonstrations, or anti-fascism marches in Charlottesville, or anti-fracking action in Lancashire. Those of us who are not so brave must reckon with ourselves. This poem I wrote a few years ago seems relevant. ‘Amtssprache’ means ‘official talk’ and was a term used by Eichmann during the Nuremberg trials. Asked if it was hard to send those tens of thousands of people to their death, he answered: ‘To tell you the truth, it was easy. Our language made it easy.’
Amtssprache
So what would you pay to have your family safe
in that house with the garden and the clean running water –
and you walk in and hold them and kiss their faces?
Your life? Too easy, and nobody’s asking.
How about the life of an Afghan child,
a city, the birds in the sky?
Would you turn a blind eye? Would you turn off the news?
Would you run the trains to death camps?
Of course you would. You do.
You do these things.
clarepollard 