November 19, 2005

Back to the Prussian three-class system of voting!

It pays to follow the Islamist media. This little gem is from IRNA, Islamic Republic News Agency:
The European Union Wednesday called on the Islamic Republic of Iran to resume talks to resolve the nuclear dispute and to forge a better relationship between the two sides.

''We urge Iran to come back to talks on long-term arrangements on the basis of the Paris agreement,'' Douglas Alexander, the British Minister of State for Europe told the European Parliament in Strasbourg during a debate on Iran Wednesday evening.
Alexander, whose country holds the current EU Presidency, said a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear programme should include an agreement on long term arrangements.
[...]
Angelika Beer, German Greens MEP and chair of the EP's delegation on Iran urged the Iranian leadership to play a positive role in the international community.

''Iran is a fascinating country with a young well-educated society,'' she said.

''We should not make the mistake of cutting off contacts with the civil society and slamming the door. We need to speak of rights and peaceful solution to disputes''...
...thus spake Beer and nobody laughed.




Fascinating with a young, well-educated society indeed. Hey, why don't watch a fascinating and well-educating stoning to death video!

That would be the same Angelika Beer who finds the delivery of two submarines to Israel "irresponsible", wouldn't it?

While spending her well-paid retirement in the European Parliament as a representative of the Greens, Beer, former "chairperson" of the Green Party, muses that Germany thus "jeopardizes her position as a neutral partner in the Middle East".

"With the unanimous decision of the old and the new government of Germany to deliver two more Dolphin-submarines," Beer informs us, "they torpedo in an irresponsible way the negotiations of EU 3 with Iran about their nuclear program."

By the way, my translation improved the original: «Mit der einvernehmlichen Entscheidung der alten und neuen Regierung Deutschlands, Israel zwei weitere Dolphin-U-Boote zu liefern, torpediert sie in unverantwortlicher Art und Weise die Verhandlungen der EU 3 mit Iran über dessen Nuklearprogramm.» WHO do "torpedo"? Can only be the old and the new government of Germany (plural), because they form the sentence article. So that should read then "sie torpedieren", "they torpedo", NOT "sie torpediert", "he/she/it torpedoes". But who cares about grammar as long as the spirit is right. And here, it is SO right, it makes me throwing up yesterday's breakfast!

I am not talking about that hypocritical, perverted "special relationship with Israel" Germans love to claim, which is more a sort of German masturbation icon tackled as, to paraphrase Wolgang Pohrt, with the typical German obsession with responsibility, comparable to a convicted child molester who thinks that his "experience" does qualify him specifically for a job as kindergarden teacher. No, I'm not talking about that.

I am not talking either JUST about the fact, that, in a case where the only democratic country with the rule of law in the Middle East stands with her back to the wall (or rather the sea) against the, to quote John Derbyshire, "howling, jeering forces of barbarism", a case of six million in a sliver of land against 22 million (give or take a few million, I am not petty) ready to kill at the spur of a moment as soon as that tiny slip of land shows a chink in its armour, that in such a case the phrase "neutral partner" rings a tiny wee little bit hollow.

I am not talking either about the fact that this deal was heavily sponsored by the German industry and those guys are not known for giving presents.

What I am talking about is that I'd wish back the times when the representatives of the people had a modicum of formal education and stood for their own, and, albeit egoistic, nevertheless SANE interests and not for some warm-and-fuzzy-feeling-of-one's-own-goodness-in-the-belly at best, a dangerous totalitarian ideology at worst. Beer is qualified to type legal documents or to clean a physician's instruments and should be allowed to make suggestions how to improve the filing system and that is where, in a sane society, her influence would end.

I say the times when political influence was limited to a person's actual importance and children had to present their fingernails for inspection on a regular basis had their decisive advantages!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Editrix, your comments here and elsewhere reveal the extreme double standards that the tiny Jewish state is held to against the "howling, jeering forces of barabarism" {such a poetic phrase from the British writer Derbyshire or is it truly Derbystein to remember a great blog posting from before !}

I am afraid this American doesn't fully grasp your reference to the three classes of Prussian voting but the context makes it plain that not all estates should hold equal sway in today's democratic system where too many of the functionaries are better suited-and in today's world perhaps better paid- to cleaning medical instruments or to performing paralegal functions {truly great imagery from a poet or should that be, in today's politically correct world, poetess or poetrix ?} and that is the problem as many are elected but too few are DESERVING to rise properly through the ranks.

As certain peers of Parliament might once have been fond of proclaiming, in high and august tones... "Hear, hear to the right, honourable member from North Umbria Stead South by way of Regal's Crossing beyond Hampshire Village...Such eloquent statements indeed !

The_Editrix said...

Allen, what a perceptive comment.

I think it is America's weakness and strength that they hardly ever understand the system of the three estates, which is only sketchily mirrored in Karl Marx' "class system". After all, the Estate System was one of the things in "Old Europe" the founding fathers wanted to escape. Imagine a society, which is not based on merit, not even on wealth (although wealth was usually part of the deal), but on birthright privileges only. Of course, the Prussian three-class-voting system was based on wealth (tax payment) too, a working merger of capitalism and the old estate order.

When I am rambling about the cheap, uneducated, populist stance that has replaced true "conviction" and knowledge, I am asking myself why, at least in this country, there has never been made an effort to educate the less fortunate, like the English did with scholarships at elite schools. No, "elite" has become a dirty word here. Instead, an entire education system and society has been dumbed down and power and influence thrown open to the cheapest common denominator and those with *elbows*.

Does that make sense?

Anonymous said...

Yes, it certainly does seem logical. The "dumbing down" you made mention of in the political arena was said to be a means- however lofty and well-intentioned-of bringing in more citizens to play an active role in the political process. But the USA has seen the excruciatingly long electoral process become, instead, a marketer's forum alone and most people probably cast their votes based on looks and carefully-edited sound bites and "witty" slogans and that is the crux of the problem here. Maybe this is the result of our creating too many easy citizens without a strong sense of our history and our values

Voters should be those who have read and thought seriously enough about the candidates and the issues to not be so easily manipulated into voting for this crucial choice like they are chosing a box of Muesli for their morning meal from the corner grocer. A good candidate should appeal to the voter's sense of the future and that future is actively being formed today and the candidate must take the time to explain the importance of the issues. We always need leaders who have a sense of the days beyond tomorrow. And that is why Ronald Reagan was said to have been elected here-to reinforce the founding principles of freedom at home and abroad coupled with a commitment to free enterprise and that is why Angela Markel was elected chancellor in Germany- to attempt to bring Germany back to its economic period of very strong growth and more conservative values.

We always need leaders who are able to stand on principles and who don't seek to appeal to ephemeral and low-minded considerations. That remains the ideal but the process has become diluted by slick and silly slogans and slicker and sillier politicians.