This post originally appeared in The Freedom Scale. Thanks for the awesome collaboration!
This is the series about my search for liberty and purpose. You can find all articles of this series here. Subsequent parts will follow soon.
Ordering My Thoughts
Before we explore alternatives, let’s reconsider why I want to leave Germany. I’ve been asked many questions about that, and, to be honest, I haven’t always been able to articulate my aversion to Germany in a distinct manner. Although I, therefore, contemplated the situation multiple times and always found similar factors pushing me away, I never made the effort to write them down and really sort my thoughts.
When I did finally write them down for the first time, over the past few months in digital conversations, I had already been thinking about leaving Germany for years—a progress triggered by the reaction to covid. In this article, let us explore and organize my thoughts on the situation in Germany, which is similar to other Western countries.
The State
Summing up the largest tax expenses here and social-welfare contributions (not including what is clandestinely inflated away), I work about 1/2 to 2/3 of the year for “the government,” “society,” or whatever you want to call it. Whenever I create something of value that somebody else is ready to pay for, I spend 1/2 to 2/3 of the time I work working for everybody else. And sure, I actually use some of what is created with my “contributions to society”—health insurance is crucial, and infrastructure is non-optional too. However, a free market would provide higher-quality products and services for lower prices.
Now, as if taking my money was not already enough, in addition to robbing me, my German government meddles in my life everywhere: “You can’t grow this plant!”, “You need a permit for that action!”, “You must install solar panels there!” If I had to pay the mafia for protection, at least it would leave me alone. The German state, however, micromanages the lives of 80 million people—sometimes a bit less, sometimes a bit more, but when the next chance to crack down on the population’s rights appears, we may not be allowed to leave our houses and quasi-forced to inject some medication again. Maybe movement licenses (Newspeak: vaccine passports) will be reintroduced.
The People
Most countries have their stereotypes; so does Germany: Germans are direct, but strangers are treated formally; risks are avoided; order, structure, and rules take an important role. (Although those can be found in various intensities, they are generally true.) Even though these characteristics aren’t inherently good or bad, the stereotype of order, structure, and rules stands out when we regard a German’s obedience to authority. Order, structure, and rules are important. After all, order is required to not get lost in the weeds; structure is required to work effectively; and rules are required to live together harmoniously. Germans are generally diligent in keeping with that theme, which I like. However, when there is a crisis and “the experts” declare we need to do this and avoid that, Germans don’t question. Even if the stories are wrong over and over again and one must recognize the deceit of the media, there is little distrust because “the experts can be wrong sometimes and there could never be any bad intentions at play.” Accordingly, many folks here are very ready to snitch on their neighbors.
Furthermore, very few people in this country can even comprehend living without a strong state. According to my (non-scientific) estimate, the percentage of people in Germany who know what “libertarian” means is in the low-single-digit range, maybe even below 1%. The strongest kind of liberty that Germans know is the party FDP, a classical-liberal party that always fights the 5% hurdle to get into the parliament and, during the covid time, championed vaccine quasi-mandates.
Western Standards
With all those issues, I am aware that my description of the situation includes some complaining on a very high level. In this world, there are human beings afflicted with physical disabilities, there are human beings living in extreme poverty, there are human beings living under straight-up tyranny. I’ve heard comments like “You can talk!” or “Our lives are way better than our ancestors’!”, and I realize that my pointing out of these issues is complaining about first-world problems.
But the fact that I am in a privileged position, as everybody who is born under “normal circumstances” in the West is, does not mean that I should stop here and not strive to improve the situation. Au contraire, a privileged situation comes with the obligation to become your very best self and give back. Each month, part of my income goes directly to various good causes around the world. Regularly, I donate blood to the German Red Cross. Nonetheless, living in Germany is a constraint, and, in this country, I cannot become my best self. I won the birth lottery and started from an advanced position, growing up in the West, with a well-protected childhood, and I will make the best out of this situation.
The Future
If the circumstances were improving, I might have preferred to live through some uncomfortable years, but that is not the case at all. Germany, like every other country, has some serious issues (e.g., an aging population), but the people that contributed so much to human progress (e.g., printing press, automobile, programmable computer) would be able to find a way to solve them. However, with a strong state that is meddling in our lives everywhere and doesn’t let people make their own decisions, I don’t see this happening. Instead, decadence is running rampant—we don’t have any existential problems anymore, so we create our own.
Germany is also committed to the totalitarian WEF agenda. The politicians here implemented strategies to achieve the “Sustainable Development Goals” and managed to elevate power prices—both for electricity as well as gasoline—to be among the highest in the world by shutting down nuclear plants and relying on unreliable “green” energy, only to buy electricity from nuclear-powered France. Presence is shown at the yearly meeting in Davos as well as G-20 summits, and strong regulations build a public-private bridge. Moreover, I already fear the next crisis. In the last decades, crises have appeared about every ten years: dot-com, housing, covid, and it has become clear that Western governments’ mantra is: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Like in most nations, the German politicians aren’t able to serve the population well, but act very sophisticated in finding ways to step on everybody’s neck. To sum up: The present looks grim, the future looks dire…
Think for yourself and question everything, my fellow liberty people!
Those 17 sustainable development goals come from John Lennon’s Imagine, no countries, nothing to kill or die for and no religion too. The WEF appears to be the mouthpiece of the UN, which coincidentally owns the World pHarma Organisation which coincidentally owns the Whuhan lab.