Don’t you think it’s arrogant to constantly accuse people of being stupid? To judge them for their physical and social conditions? Because being labeled as “stupid” is the maximum social death sentence.
Sorry, you misunderstand me, I don’t want to demote anyone. I just want to remind all of us, including myself, of our own limitations. We often fly so high in the clouds of our own views that we lose sight of almost every detail around us. Above all, the view of the weaker, the smaller, the view of those who have no voice or lobby. And for this it is right and proper to remind ourselves of our lack of empathy. Also our insensitivity towards ourselves. We often behave completely thoughtlessly, insensitively, arrogantly, disinterestedly, inattentively towards ourselves and our environment, not to say: stupidly. Without consciousness. Above all, without awareness of our wishes and longings, our resulting actions and their consequences.
There are people who benefit when we are not aware of them, and they will do anything to keep that from changing because they have an advantage of power and money. Politicians in many countries, especially those with autocratic/populist governments, exploit, live off and cultivate the unconsciousness of their citizens. So do religious leaders, the military, industry in the form of large manufacturers and retail chains, the advertising industry, parts of the mass media and above all social networks – they address our weaknesses and base instincts, they act on our unconsciousness – they benefit from ours Stupidity. This makes us susceptible to simple messages – and therefore manageable. The level of our consciousness is the most important commodity, and our seductibility stems from it.
The mass media in particular, such as the radio stations, which reach a large number of people every day, bear a great deal of responsibility. What is the use of the so-called educational mission, which is fulfilled daily by Deutschlandfunk, if most people only listen to the format radio of the big stations, in which conspicuously stupid acting moderators with annoyingly exhibited good humor present silly introductions or infantile call games, the whole thing rebeds of algorithmically sorted music? This is modern mood management to get the hard-working listeners through the day and to forge them into their circumstances.
The possibility of provoking the listener to think every now and then or presenting them with something really new in rare moments is never considered. If I happen to come across one of these unpleasantly good-humoured moderators on an overland trip, I usually have the feeling of being taken for a ride, I feel like I’m in a parody in which adults are treated like small children. The horrible suspicion arises that most people really like listening to these stations and programs, that they feel comfortable and secure, that they think they are taken seriously and that they feel at home.
I keep thinking about a picture from a vacation in France a few years ago: the Atlantic coast, in summer, the so-called “Silver Coast”, hundreds of kilometers of fine sandy beach, mostly deserted – and then suddenly two blue flags, a few meters apart . And around these two flags lie hundreds of people. And between these two flags they all go into the water – when the lifeguard gives his signal. They carefully swim out a few meters and then dutifully lie back in the fleshy bed on the beach. When the red flags are flying, no one goes into the water.
What people don’t notice is that the endless sea lies to the left and right of the flags. This is how I feel about the musical landscape in Germany: people everywhere listen to music on the radio, in the car, in the office, in the workshop, all day long – and always and everywhere the same few hundred titles, on the oldie radio those from before, in the Chart radio those of today. As if there were nothing more. As if there wasn’t a whole ocean of music, big, deep and wild, to dive into, refresh yourself in, drown yourself in. If only they knew about it. If someone would tell them. If someone would teach them.
I want to swim and dive as far and as deep as I can. And I’d like to burn the blue flags.
I’m always amazed at the intelligence of animals, I admire them for the cleverness with which they master their lives. Of course, measured in terms of pure “brain power”, we humans are much more intelligent than animals. But only in human contexts – and it is precisely in these contexts that this wonderful ability, this clear advantage, fizzles out, and our actions often appear completely absurd to the outside world. Why do we humans only behave in such an exceptionally superficial, small-minded, banal and stupid way as soon as we are in a group, when we as individuals – thrown back into nature – can be as beautiful and wise as wrens? Just why? Yes why?
Then, when I stop at a gas station on my cross-country trip and see all the everyday travelers in the bistro reading their breakfast book, the four-letter newspaper, I know that all the excitement is for nothing, because there is simply nothing to be saved. For too long the industrious gardeners of stupidity have been sowing and weeding their beds, and this seems to be the time when their seeds will finally sprout.
Author photo by Kerstin Behrendt