Living Out Craziness?

Yesterday they marched again, the anti-vaxxers, Corona deniers (Coronaleugner), lateral thinkers (Querdenker), or was it rather a merry walk in glorious sunshine instead?

Since 2 p.m., about 1200 demonstrators against the Corona measures had gathered on the square of the old synagogue. Around 3 p.m., approximately 3000 people started marching. Last Saturday, there were still 4500 participants; at the peak of the demonstrations at the end of January, there were up to 6000.

©FreiSein Freiburg

The demonstration marched peacefully; right-wing symbols were not seen on the posters and banners. The most significant bone of contention for the demonstrators was compulsory vaccination and coming in, second the displeasure at the restrictions on fundamental rights imposed by the Corona measures. "For freedom, humanity and reason" was the inscription on the first banner of the demonstration.

©BZ

Occasionally, participants also carried the Canadian flag to express their solidarity with the truckers in North America who had blocked their capital Ottawa.

In a previous blog, Red Baron had posted that many of the participants of those Saturday marches were just poor little lambs who'd lost their way, but this was too short an argument.

German sociologist Jan Philipp Reemtsma confirmed my other ulterior thought in an interview. He cited the following arguments of anti-vaxxer demonstrators in Constance in times when public gatherings are rare, "When you can't go on vacation together, you go to demos together. There's something positive about getting back together," and "Here I meet people who say what I've always kind of meant."

©FreiSein Freiburg

Red heart-shaped balloons carried in Freiburg rounded up the impression of a friendly crowd happy to be together again.

Reemtsma's harsh comments on Corona marches, "It's about recreation and communing in excitement. Getting away from everyday life. Childlike happiness of irresponsibility."

"Social trust is the assumption that everything will continue as before. In the pandemic, people see their concept of normality shaken, i.e., their social confidence. Corona and the anti-Corona measures have thrown many people's everyday lives out of balance, although sometimes only in a little way. 

Now some people develop surprisingly great feelings of insecurity, and they compensate for them by finding roles for themselves in which they feel safe. Look at the demonstrations: You see people who are sure of themselves. They believe they are in the right and everyone else is in the wrong. That creates stability. Into the microphone, they shout 'lying press,' and among themselves, they are cheerful."

"These demonstrations offer all people to live out the craziness they have cultivated on a small scale, now as a considerable common experience. The microchip implanters are there, and those who believe a global elite is manipulating them. Everyone feels comfortable with each other; the main thing is to belong and tune into the same sound. Certain states of excitement unify mentalities: People quickly become eerily similar; they talk the same, they speak in the same way, they write the same sentences, and so on. Excited, even angry people begin to resemble each other. You can think of that as a bit creepy and eerie, and it is."

Views of a sociologist.
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