A German journalist deplores the fact that health checks in shops have brought out the rigid and authoritarian nature of his compatriots. It would only be a step to become a nation of little leaders.
Harald Martenstein has nothing against the vaccination pass in force in Germany, controls and even less vaccines. Corn the German journalist explained to The time that the incessant checks carried out by his compatriots bring out what is most unpleasant about them. He found that the “Covid controllers” have multiplied, and that “Most of these people are not used to being controllers”.
Until now, many of them have welcomed customers, guests, visitors, the stores depend on financially and with whom they have to be careful. Even when customers were completely abusive, you couldn’t get angry and aggressive. Now, customers are first and foremost people who need to be vetted, possibly turned away and coerced if they don’t follow the regulations. The balance of power at the door is reversed. Some feast on it. At the door of restaurants, they demand: ‘Certificate of vaccination!’ Just that, not a word more. Then they provocatively study the evidence for a long time, nod their heads without looking the supplicant in the face, wave their hand which should mean ‘after me’ and walk over to the table. ”
Harald Martenstein deplores that the sanitary conditions have transformed his country into a nation of small leaders who feast on their new authority and grant their benevolence with as much pleasure as they feel in repressing. A box bouncer-type mastiff who took care of him in a restaurant in Berlin, for example, “Knew that acts of grace belong to the refined enjoyment of power”. Fortunately, this is not the case for everyone, and some “Covid controllers” take no pleasure in it and are even a little lax in the application of the controls.
For the German journalist, these excesses are specific to Germany and say something about the deep character of his fellow citizens. He feels more comfortable in Italy, Austria, Spain or Switzerland, where similar checks are imposed but with a smile or, at least, with politeness. “Now Germany is showing its other side again, the pinched. The fact that we now overwhelmingly control each other on behalf of the state does not benefit us. Perhaps some of the friendliness, service attitude and politeness is lost forever. You can certainly survive without all of it. It’s a bad surprise, however, that a new era of renunciation ushers in, among other things, renouncing to be kind ”, constate Harald Martenstein.
Source
It is the reference German publication, an authority across the Rhine. This (very) large journal of information and political analysis, cutting-edge and demanding, is also distinguished by its model and its highly sought-after iconography. Tolerant and liberal, he
[…]
Read more