Do those demonstrating really believe what they call and write? “Peace, freedom, democracy!” Was the slogan on Wednesday evening in Munich’s pedestrian zone. “People no longer want to be discriminated against,” writes a reader from Dresden, and the fact that he may not be a zealot can also be interpreted from the fact that at the end he wishes “you have another good week”. Indeed, something would be gained if these opponents of corona policy were to be credited with the fact that they are convinced of what they say – just as it is in itself a value if others have the same integrity until proven otherwise assumed that one also claims for oneself.
Only: That doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable in this case. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier reminded in his Christmas address that this is the common land of all, that “we still want to live together even after the pandemic”. For the second time in six years, society is going through the rigors of a major conflict. The hardships consist on the one hand in the fact that two camps are irreconcilably opposed to one another, on the other hand in the fact that there is disagreement about the form in which a conflict must be resolved.
The refugee debate and the Corona debate are about very different things – and from the fact that right-wing populists and extremists at Corona are trying to repeat their successes from the years since 2015, one thing should not be concluded: The protester is a weirdo who also picks up on the AfD. But what can hardly be overlooked: Both topics reveal the same phenomenon – in different milieus – namely the fear of losing control. That the neighborhood will soon only consist of Arabs. That you get injected something that will make you sick even more.
What to do: put trust or believe in great evil?
Big crises can hardly be overlooked for the individual, basically there are only two possibilities to reduce their complexity for oneself. Either you are of the opinion that the actors do not give cause for fundamental mistrust – so you trust them, according to the motto: Who else should get things under control again? Or one is fundamentally full of mistrust when it comes to their competence and integrity. Often people are filled with it who basically do not feel recognized or noticed. “In order to regain control of reality, ‘explanations’ are sought for the processes”, writes the sociologist Wilhelm Heitmeyer – complexity is reduced by these people by imagining a large conspiracy, from the state, the media, the pharmaceutical industry or God knows who.
What follows from this? The latter sometimes assume that their end justifies their means: attacking police officers, pulling in front of the house of a health minister, demonstrating in the pedestrian zone without a mask. That is probably the prize question for 2022: How do you find your way back to a form of conversation? And on what content basis? That you can argue about a virus at all – for all those who get vaccinated and follow the rules, this very thought is slightly bizarre. Understand each other want, that is probably what has to be done first.