Laughing at the Lockdown

Is it the age we live in? Is it the fact that I'm getting old and the world has changed so much around me that being out of step is now the new reality?

You know I have a category I put things in when I come across something I can’t get my mind around. I call it the “Otto, hast Du Worte?” category, after my beloved aunt, Tante Frieda, from Berlin, who would turn to her husband, Otto, and ask, “Otto, do you have words?” when she ran into the latest evidence that we live in a mondo bizarro.

The latest bizarre world thing to come down the pike is the effort on the part of a bunch of German actors to satirize government efforts to control the Corona virus epidemic. 

That’s it. No kidding. Satirize efforts to keep people from dying in ever growing numbers. 

Why? Ah, that’s the question. Is it because, unlike the U.S., where most things get interpreted in black and white, Germany likes a more nuanced approach? That’s how I’ve been looking at Germany recently, as a place with a more sophisticated level of discourse than we’re working with, with the ability to take a variety of perspectives on things. That’s how defenders of the effort are explaining it. They’re twisting themselves into knots, saying, “It’s not that we don’t agree with the need to be cautious and wear masks and follow social distancing regulations so we don’t continue to have spikes in Corona outbreaks which tax our ability to care for new cases. It’s just that we think the government is too authoritarian, and we’re trying to generate more discussion, so that people suffering from the lockdown get their side of the story out there.”

The effort I’m talking about is the #allesdichtmachen movement, the brainchild of actor Jan Josef Liefers. “Allesdichtmachen” translates “Shut everything down.” Liefers was joined by 53 other actors and actresses who agreed to post a one or two-minute video in which they poked fun at the way the campaign to deal with the Coronavirus was being dealt with by the government and in the media. Two other hashtags have popped up which amount to the same thing: #niewiederaufmachen - “never open up again” and #lockdownfürimmer - “lockdown forever.”

Germany is plagued with their equivalent of dumshitrepublicanism in the form of their new rightwing political party, the AfD - the “Alternative für Deutschland” - Alternative for Germany Party. It started out in 2013 as a party to represent anti-EU sentiments, opposition to the euro, to immigration, to German-government bailouts to other EU countries, and has moved more and more to the right over time. It now encourages greater cooperation with Russia, and has managed to gather enough support to become the third largest political party in the country. It’s properly described as anti-Islam, anti-LGBT and it’s difficult not to view them as the “Make America Great Again” supporters of Donald Trump in a German setting. One of their stated goals is to “repudiate Germany’s culture of shame in regard to its Nazi past.” The AfD was delighted to find their “Hollywood” types coming out with an anti-government movement like “Shut Everything Down.” Strange bedfellows. Otto, hast Du Worte?

To be fair, the artists insist they want nothing to do with the AfD; they simply want to raise discussion. The old cliché comes to mind, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” as does the adjective “naive.” I hear that wonderful old admonishment, “Good Lord, stop it - You’re embarrassing yourself!”

The story doesn’t end with the would-be satirists. An opposition group to the “Shut Everything Down” movement has formed, comprised of people who work in the healthcare industry. Best example is probably somebody who calls herself “Doc Caro” on Facebook. She has come up with a counter-hashtag: #allemalneschichtmachen - which I would translate with “How about you come spend a shift with me sometime.” Come down out of your ridiculously out-of-touch security and have a closer look at what’s going on at the front lines, where people are having tubes shoved down their throats and dying, she’s saying.

Whether it’s the impact of Doc Caro and her colleagues, or whether it’s simply the number of Germans asking, “Otto, hast Du Worte?” the resistance to “Shut Everything Down” seems to be gathering steam. Fourteen of the original videos on the site have been taken down, according to the Wikipedia site on the phenomenon.

And what do Liefers and Company have to say about that? “Wonderful!” Just what we were after all along. Generating discussion on the subject, shedding light on it, bringing things out in the open.

I’m all for more discussion, and I’m willing to continue to see this in a positive light - as Germany being more nuanced about things than the U.S. And I understand, in theory, the argument that irony, sarcasm, satire and ridicule can often be more effective methods for dealing with stupidity and wrong-headedness than an overly-earnest frontal attack.

But Jeez, Louise, do we have to poke fun at people who take issue with child molesters? With people who want to tackle poverty?

Hard to know where to come down sometimes.

And at other times?

Not so hard.