One of the most difficult terms for me to assimilate back when I was learning German was the word "Gegner".
Now, if you look it up in a dictionary, you'll find several possible translations into English, ranging from foe to rival to disputer to opponent.
It makes the term hard to understand as the relevant meaning is determined both by the context as well as by the colouration given to the term verbally (this is atypical for the German language which is quite pedantic about splitting hairs on even the most abstract concepts and strives to avoid any construction which is subject to being heard instead of read to be fully understood).
We have, I think, a similar problem right now in our culture wars. You're either on my side or you're a Nazi. Or a commie-pinko-socialist.
Or a fascist-Marxist-socialist, which I've actually been called before, never mind that I am none of the three and there is no possible combination of the three which can be true at the same time, and, no, the National Socialists were not socialist in any sense of the word.
We need to get beyond this if we are going to stop losing the gay marriage battles, if we are going to find a way to stop the erosion of politics into the morass. Or, if we are going to avoid what is increasingly looking like the inevitable torture and murder of our homosexual brothers and sisters in Uganda.
Yes, it is undeniable that the Uganda regime was facilitated by Republicans and fundamentalist, evangelical and conservative American Christians.
Does this necessarily mean that we must now abandon our gay sisters and brothers to their fate because the only possible relationship for people on the left and the right is as "foes"?
This little blog entry is, I think, a step in the right direction. I thought it might be interesting. I stepped out of the Ugandan thread so as not to be the focus point for our usual arguments. If anyone is interested in the article or the concept, maybe we can talk about it in this thread and leave that thread to the enormously important task of warning us that Nazi Germany is not a country or people, but a state of mind, anywhere and anywhen.
Now, if you look it up in a dictionary, you'll find several possible translations into English, ranging from foe to rival to disputer to opponent.
It makes the term hard to understand as the relevant meaning is determined both by the context as well as by the colouration given to the term verbally (this is atypical for the German language which is quite pedantic about splitting hairs on even the most abstract concepts and strives to avoid any construction which is subject to being heard instead of read to be fully understood).
We have, I think, a similar problem right now in our culture wars. You're either on my side or you're a Nazi. Or a commie-pinko-socialist.
Or a fascist-Marxist-socialist, which I've actually been called before, never mind that I am none of the three and there is no possible combination of the three which can be true at the same time, and, no, the National Socialists were not socialist in any sense of the word.
We need to get beyond this if we are going to stop losing the gay marriage battles, if we are going to find a way to stop the erosion of politics into the morass. Or, if we are going to avoid what is increasingly looking like the inevitable torture and murder of our homosexual brothers and sisters in Uganda.
Yes, it is undeniable that the Uganda regime was facilitated by Republicans and fundamentalist, evangelical and conservative American Christians.
Does this necessarily mean that we must now abandon our gay sisters and brothers to their fate because the only possible relationship for people on the left and the right is as "foes"?
This little blog entry is, I think, a step in the right direction. I thought it might be interesting. I stepped out of the Ugandan thread so as not to be the focus point for our usual arguments. If anyone is interested in the article or the concept, maybe we can talk about it in this thread and leave that thread to the enormously important task of warning us that Nazi Germany is not a country or people, but a state of mind, anywhere and anywhen.