Sinking voter participation, people leaving the church in droves, TV ratings and newspaper sales in decline. Many people no longer feel that the mainstream political and media offerings in Germany address them. At the same time, people are increasingly stressed by multiple crises and increasingly broken systems of basic needs: transportation, education, administration. The legacy of four decades of neoliberal mismanagement of the state is now visible in the erosion of material and mental infrastructure. In instances where police, doctors, first responders or train conductors are attacked, the political rituals seem cynical. There is growing disappointment in politicians who have lost sight of their voters, as children no longer get a proper education, public pools and hospitals are closed, and public spaces are squalid. This is especially the case when a key issue like fighting climate change isn’t under control. Instead, antiquated views are fought out in the government, simulating concepts in endless, successive summits, and compensating for the existing lack of ideas with an excess of moralism. All of this is supported by a media system that is more interested in political showmanship than in society's success.
A book about the neglect and arrogance of a political and media class that seems indifferent to the dangerous growing distance between the citizenry and national politics, and that has long since lost touch with the social reality in the country. And a source of encouragement for all the outraged so that they no longer remain silent.
"What a soothing intellectual openness in disturbing times!" - Cicero, Mathias Brodkorb
