Dark Side

Dark Side of Globalization
Regarding "No, I'm Not" (Jan. 24, 2001) by Jürgen Kaube.

This article is a breath of fresh air in what American political scientists used to call the "smoky back rooms" of candidate selection. The McDonaldization of politics is what Friedrich Merz should be worried about: It is the emergence of 'Kultur Lite', not the eclipse of 'Leitkultur' that is the problem. Recently, the Bild-Zeitung was in a tizzy over the fact that none of the ten candidates for "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" could arrange four phrases from the Lord's Prayer in the proper order.

What profiteth a society if the faster its food gets, the dimmer its memory of substantial values? This is not a German problem; it is the dark side of globalization. If our attention spans are reduced to shorter and shorter election cycles, then no increments of material abundance will amount to more than a hoot and a holler.

By Patrick D. Hazard, Weimar

This letter does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editors of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung – English Edition.