Advent season 2021

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I'm sure I won't tell you anything new when I tell you that we're in very difficult waters. But perhaps it will be news to you when I tell you that this is the case even from a soldier's point of view. Again, that certainly doesn't sound very optimistic to even the most peace-loving person, and it isn't.

This realization makes me feel good, and it doesn't make me happy, especially with my seventeenth Christmas letter, and leaves me in Bosnia after the 1990s and the first Advent marches by totalitarians in Germany in 2014n fundamentally doubt the Advent season and the idea behind it for the third time. Relics of Advent and of Christmas itself will probably only be found in far too few apartments in Europe. Christianity, the Enlightenment, the European idea and probably democracy itself are no longer the earth-shattering concepts they once were. Superstition, hostility to science and totalitarian ideas are becoming more and more fashionable here and are affecting our coexistence.

We're no longer even arguing about how to get a grip on a pandemic, we're arguing about whether there is one at all. We pull ourselves up on the tiniest of little things and bite into the ever-popular “gender stars” just to avoid tackling the real problems of our world. Recently, our federal politicians even wrote an age-old federalist demand halfway into the coalition paper, only to be able to say soon afterwards, "We are not to blame for this situation, we have not overslept the past 80 years."

The really bad thing about it is not that we Europeans no longer agree on our own values, ideas, treaties and laws - not even within the Federal Republic of Germany - nor that far too many no longer know them at all (want to ), but that we Europeans no longer play any role at all when it comes to the real problems of this world.

Neither the climate nor the world economy nor democracy will be saved in or by Europe. We Europeans will only interest the rest of the world (over 90 percent!) as long as we are seen as a worthwhile last resort for the poorest of the poor. Right now, hundreds of thousands of well-trained, well-trained, well-armed and well-equipped Russian soldiers are arriving or deploying to the EU's eastern border, and meanwhile we're demanding barbed-wire fences against half-starved migrants. A nicer picture of the state of Europe cannot be painted these days – and we should all be happy that the weal and woe of Europe has long since been decided in Washington and Beijing.

The amusing thing is not that there are actually still people here who dream of a superpower Europe, but that we Europeans always first have to clarify who is allowed to get rich from something and - especially - who is not, before we do even begin to think about solving problems. ENVY is probably the only value we all have in common, the one that still holds Europe together - Europe, united in envy.

Since I am now assuming that I will no longer experience it myself that we Europeans will be the engine of a better world, but I am quite optimistic that the Americans will save us again, I can devote myself to those people who, like If you continue to hold on to our European idea and thus also to values ​​that are still absolutely valid and will one day prevail for the benefit of all - it will simply have taken a little longer again.

“There is no ideal Christmas; only the one Christmas you decide to make as a reflection of your values, desires, affections, traditions.”

Bill McKibben, Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case For a More Joyful Christmas

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