Basic HTML Version
PAGE 12
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 9, 1983
nicht bei Juden' ['Don't buy from Jews' ] because the Jewish
Unrechtstaat [ unlawful state ] pursues aggressive policies in the
Middle East, bombs nuclear power stations, occupies foreign land,
murders the inhabitants with military terror...the 'money mafia
of the world' has struck again."
The calendar goes on to make a special appeal to readers to boy
cott Jaffa oranges--first because they are grown by Jews, second
because they are chemically treated. "Kauft nicht bei Juden"
was, of course, originally � Nazi slogan.
It would be grossly
unfair to tar Petra Kelly and her friends with this brush; in
their green there is far more pink than brown. But like their
predecessors, of whom they remain ignorant, they are professedly
utopian and therefore impatient with the parliamentary system and
intolerant of compromise. It cuts little ice with them to cite
Churchill's remark that parliamentary democracy is the worst
possible form of government, except for all the other forms men
have tried from time to time•...
What is needed is to show the rebellious younger generation that
West Germany is not a "satellite" or "colony" of the United
States, that democratic alliances are not totalitarian empires,
that the way to change lies in Parliament, not in the strQ.ets.
A commentary in the April 18, 1983 edition of THE NEW YORKER placed the
generation gap in West Germany in rather simple terms.
The job, then...will be to get members of•••"the successor
generation".••to overlook the experiences of their own lifetimes
in favor of the happier experiences of their parents. In the
words...of Mr. Stephen Szabo, who has written an influential
paper on the problem for the Rand Corporation, "We've got to
close the memory � between older Europeans--whose image of
America was shaped by Care packages, Marshall Plan aid, and the
Berlin airlift--and their children, who have been influenced by
Vietnam and Watergate."
The Reagan administration believes it has achieved a victory by beginning
to deploy new intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe. But evidence
mounts that it may be a Pyrrhic victory. NATO is drifting further apart as
the u.s.-west German consensus--the very heart of the alliance--weakens.
Now, even some very influential conservative politicians and opinion
molders are advocating other solutions to preserve European security. In
general, they envision the lessening of ties with Washington while develop
ing a "separate relationship" with Moscow, encouraging the u.s.s.R.'s
economic development to make it less bellicose. One West German politician
calls for "an autonomous Europe" of "two self-governing halves" (East and
West) to "provide the foundation for a secure world peace."
(To be continued)
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau