Re: <nettime> Germany's geopolitics

[Andre Rebentisch <tabesin@gmail.com>]

My point was an observed pattern of thought (that is also common for conspiracy theories) where agency is claimed for the own camp (or the close opponent, your government, your military ally etc.). One wants them to be the bad guy or the good guy but it needs to be a main character, a driver, not a figurant, background actor.

In conspiracies theories, one does not accept a handful of Arab extremists with cutter knifes as attackers, one wants  ones own capable secret service behind it and many are then willing to buy into weird assumptions about motives and technicalities of the alleged actions.

I also raised the "Vietnam war" where no Vietnamese narration is present in contemporary discourse. And to Germans even the name of Ho chi minh alludes to German student protests.

You also find it in postcolonial debates which strongly reaffirm the hierarchy who is the colonialist and where the colonised person is racially marked. De facto West-Berlin pre-1990 was an allied colony. Yet, we don't want to see ourselves that way. Identifying as a colonialiser is much more attractive.

I am very suspicious of agency capture.

- A

(The question "which are the oligarch fractions fighting each other?" is fascinating. Geopolitics is a terrific area of analysis but the maps of these discourses are usually 30 years old.).

My guess: German government has a "Marche à vue" strategy. Second thought, for "Marche à vue"  you don't need a strategy. Which makes it all sound very agile. Good! Also abides to lex parsimoniae.

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