Book Chatter

Around 2010....Thilo Sarrazin wrote and published a book in Germany...entitled:  'Germany Abolishes Itself'. 

First to speak to Sarrazin.....he's a bank-guy and was a SPD Party player.  For seven years (2002 to 2009), Sarrazin was on the German Bundesbank board.  He is an intellectual guy and fairly knowledgeable on commerce, banking and economics. 

What Germany Abolishes Itself was about?  It was a long analysis of how Muslim migration (to a great extent being the Turks at this point in time) was not working and integration was showing problems (already in 2010, by his summary).  

Naturally, this got Sarrazin fired out of the SPD Party, and he was condemned as a right-wing guy.

So here's the thing....about four years after this book....comes the Syria-Iraq civil war, and the migration of 2-million-plus folks into Germany. 

In some ways....whatever he said in 2010.....is laying there to be examined a second time.

So, he's written a 2nd book...entitled: "Germany On the Wrong Track".  Same topics? Yeah.....economics, crime, integration problems, etc.  He's also added education problems, digitalization, climate change, oddly enough sports, and the gender business.  

His 'slant'?  Well....a minority of folks seem to be in a bully-status....dishing it out....to the bulk of society.

Here's the thing....the folks who condemned him in 2010....will likely do the same thing in 2024.  The folks who supported him  in 2010....will likely support him even more so in 2024.  But you have those folks in the middle....who never read the book of 2010....who might pick up this book, and read through the 200-odd pages, finding various things they agree with.

This book affecting the fed-vote of 2025?  Well....that's an interesting conversation item now.

Back in 2010....you had a lot of neutral folks with no opinion on the conversation.  But now? You drag up migration issues, crappy education, digitalization, climate change, and gender stuff?  People between the ages of 18 and 30...have some basic opinion and it probably doesn't align with most journalists.

This is a weird time to be around Germany, with people focused on various issues that didn't seem to exist in 2010.    On top of that....a lot of political folks don't really want to engage in controversial topics.

(Comment: my wife will confess to having read the 2010 book and described it as a torture-situation....it's a economist perception of the German world, and a serious amount of data/facts laid out.  It's not for the faint-of-heart reader)