Annus Horribilis

A few weeks ago the language part of my course came to an end and I began the orientation module, a 60-hour programme devoted to German culture, the country’s legal and political structure, and German history from the rise of Nazism through to the end of the Cold War.

 

Part of the course involved a visit to the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Unter den Linden where we were given the task of locating particular exhibits and answering questions about them. In the section devoted to World War II I noticed an anti-Jewish propaganda poster from the 1930s.  I’ve seen such images before of course and felt thankful that such hatred was a thing of the past. Now though I’m not so certain, and seeing that poster I couldn’t help but recognise parallels with today’s political climate.  A few days before, UKIP had unveiled a Nazi-inspired poster, the purpose of which was to fuel hostility towards refugees and migrants. Later that day MP Jo Cox was murdered by a white supremacist shouting ‘Britain First’.  The following week Britain voted to leave the EU, not over concerns about TTIP or the EU’s pandering to capitalism, but because of racism and xenophobia.

I felt shell-shocked waking up at four on the morning of 24^th June and reading that Britain had voted ‘Leave’.  It seemed that overnight my position had shifted; I suddenly felt very sensitive about the fact that I was British. Travelling to the Volkshochschule on the tram later that morning I felt ashamed. I’m sickened that the victory was secured by the prejudices of the very worst elements of our society.  The kind of ‘proud’ Brits who, when in continental Europe like to assert their ‘superiority’ by singing about World Cups and World Wars and strutting around wearing England shirts as if the national team was actually something to boast about.  

The British media must take a large share of the blame for all of this, particularly papers such as the disgusting Daily Express with its alarmist anti-migrant headlines. I still can’t figure out exactly how front pages that shriek about migrants ‘stealing our jobs’ or bringing crime waves to the streets of Britain avoid charges of incitement to racial hatred.  The BBC too has played no small part, consistently referring to refugees as ‘migrants’ and providing a platform for nasty Nigel Farage to spout his repugnant views. Such exposure has resulted in Farage and his party being accorded undue respectability and has given a green light for racists to voice their ‘concerns’ about immigration whilst imagining that talk about ‘taking the country back’ does not constitute racism. (One thing I learnt within hours of the Brexit vote was that bigoted racists really don’t like to be called bigoted or racist).

Increasing support for far-right politics is not just a British phenomenon either; there is to be a second general election in a year in Austria because that country’s constitutional council nullified the result of the last one in which the far-right candidate was narrowly defeated.  Pegida and AfD are gaining in popularity as is the awful Marine Le Pen, and the USA is facing the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency.

It seems to me that the world is in self-destruct mode at the moment with all of the rights that have been secured over the course of the last century at risk of being lost.  Workers’ rights, gender equality, LGBT rights and protection for racial and religious groups – freedoms which were often achieved after great personal sacrifice – would all disappear should the far-right become politically powerful again.  And yet some actually want human rights legislation to be scrapped. Decency and tolerance are regarded with the utmost suspicion and, thanks to the Brexit vote, racist attacks have multiplied five-fold.    

It’s been a very difficult and depressing couple of weeks. Almost daily there has been a new cause for despair. Sometimes I wonder if it’s all a nightmare and I will wake up to find that it’s still 2015 and none of this year’s awfulness has happened.