Bête Noire Moment

 Tim Rohn wrote up a column for Welt, and the title is: "I Don't Recognize Germany Again."  It's worth a read (either via Welt or N24 TV news).

Basically, he lays out the landscape and projects that German society is currently walking down a path.  In my view....it's a path with massive dismay, hefty frustration, continual fear of the unknown, anxiety over the nightly news, and doubt over leadership decisions.  In simple terms, it's not the Germany that most of the older generation folks grew up within the 1970s/1980s/1990s.  

You see this anxiety business a good bit with German teens associated with the Greta folks ('Fridays for the Future').  If you don't fall into line with their beliefs....you are associated with the 'hopeless crowd'.

The chatter over ending all in-country flights (like flying from Hamburg to Munich).....has a number of people shaking their head over how this would reach the level of seriousness that it occupies today.

Covid-this and Covid-that episodes line up almost nightly now.  Ban-rules get introduced and then evolve on a week-by-week basis.  

I would imagine somewhere out there.....various Germans now hitting the mute-button nightly with the 8 PM news program off ARD at least once each night....because they really can't handle more fear, or more propaganda.

I'm reminded of the French term....bête noire, which means more or less....there's this 'black beast' that you can't handle or approach, or sit in the company of....because you associate it to be feared, disliked or perceive it eventually harming you.

In this case, the German society is dragged along on this 'trip' (my best term for it) and this is like one of those 1980s cheap tourist buses.  Somewhere in the initial period, you reach this bête noire-moment....realizing this trip is not going as planned, and your gut tells you to get off the bus before it reaches a final destination.

All of this....the climate change talk, the storms, the continual presentation of Berlin politicians as 'Jesus-characters', Covid, ban-rules anxiety, recession chatter almost daily, and almost no end to disasters in the mix....make for a wonderful bête noire-creature.