Sentences that you hardly ever hear anymore: “Frog mi something lighter” or: “I don’t know what to do!” There is no longer. Nowadays everybody always knows everything. Or he googles it quickly and can have a say right away. Yes, that’s the case even in Bavaria, whether it’s an epidemic or gas prices, whether nuclear power or warfare.
Prime Minister Markus Söder recently said on television that nuclear power plants should perhaps be allowed to run longer, 70 percent of his fellow citizens agree. It doesn’t matter that the operators say it doesn’t work because you can’t just switch such a nuclear power plant on and off. One is directly happy that Söder has so far given little advice on the war. Although Bavaria is probably more familiar with the Ukraine than any other federal state: there has been a Bavarian house in Odessa since 1991, and there has even been an official office of the Free State in Kyiv since 2018. Such background knowledge would be good in principle: What is currently felt and meant is often frightening.
A surprising number of people are crowing and roaring at the top of their lungs, demanding heroism and daredevilry, and would like to send the Bundeswehr to the front immediately. Even professional newspapers tweet questions like, “Are we ready to go to nuclear war?” This is a debate that was similar to that of 40 years ago. However, it was agreed at the time that nuclear war had to be prevented at all costs. Maybe because there were still people back then who had literally experienced wars firsthand or had to watch others die miserably (the word “dying” is too banal for that). Today, on the other hand, the conscientious objector from the 20th century is amazed: the few who still seem to think war is bad are now high-ranking military officials and NATO.
But who listens to experts anymore? It is enough to be a know-it-all, oh what: know-it-all! And yet everyone watched for months as hundreds of thousands of soldiers marched on the border with Ukraine, and everyone just said to themselves: He’s not going to…? Now we’re all talking cleverly. So it’s almost reassuring that the homepage of the Bavarian office in Kyiv has been saying for a few days: “This page is currently being revised due to the current situation.” Basically, that means nothing more than: “I don’t know what it is!”