Here I have posted a number of papers which I have written over the years addressing civil rights issues – mainly but not exclusively in Germany.
On Civil Rights – or the Lack Thereof
Discovering Absurdistan
Germany is an odd place. If you want to be successful in that country, you better not show the national flag, sing the national anthem, or proclaim that you are a patriot. Because being patriotic is being nationalistic, which gets dangerously close to being a Nazi, which equates being the evil incarnate. And there are more absurd things you better not do in that country, or else you might find yourself in prison faster than you can think…
Censorship in Germany? Never! Unless…
Germany is proud of its surrogate constitution, the “Basic Law,” which solemnly guarantees a wide range of civil rights, freedom of speech among them. But did you know that this very right is completely revoked in the paragraph following the one granting it: “This right finds its limits by the prescriptions of general laws […].” In 2009 Germany’s highest court decided that even non-general laws aiming at certain opinions are acceptable. In other words: Everything can be outlawed in Germany, provided you have the influence and power to do so. As a result, numerous books are burned and authors jailed in Germany…
Censorship of the Internet
The Internet has also been called the Weapon of Mass Instruction. No wonder that all authorities strive to get this anarchistic, truly democratic medium under control. Here is what the Europeans are doing about it: censorship, plain and simple.
