Statusangst

While writing the blog about status angst,  I came across a book by Alain de Botton with the same title. He defines status angst as "We are afraid of failing to meet the criteria for success set by society and consequently losing prestige and respect."

Red Baron was rather inspired by an article by Christine Holthoff on t-online titled Angst vor dem Abstieg. She writes that Germans have angst about losing their socio-economic status. Only we Germans?

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German sociologist Hartmut Rosa explains, "The future today is nothing but a defensive struggle on a downward slope. Against the Russians. Against climate change. Against economic decline. Against the AfD. Against migration. That creates hopelessness and anger, and it will add voters to right- and left-wing populist parties.

Germans fear the loss. Whereas my parents rightly believed that their children would be better off than themselves one day, today, parents fear the loss and feel it the other way around: their children will be worse off.

This phenomenon is called status angst, the worry that one's own economic situation is at risk and that social decline is permanent. Those who fear that they could lose something become skeptical of democracy and move toward the political fringes. This explains why more and more middle-class citizens and young people are voting for the AfD and Sarah Wagenknecht's party. It also explains why those parties are strong in East Germany, where the people have already experienced a downward spiral in their lives.

Most of my country fellows are dissatisfied but are not doing so badly. Sociologist Rosa explains the strange discrepancy, "Our perception of whether we are living in good or bad times depends less on what we have and more on what we are moving towards."

And here, communication comes in. "Bad" things should be seen from Angela Merkel's 2015 angle: "Wir schaffen das (We'll make it)."

Is the future all renunciation, bans, and war?

We must reflect on our abilities and resources with which future challenges could be met. The more confident we are to overcome a crisis, the less threatening it becomes.

Instead of focusing on renunciation and bans to fight the climate crisis, it would be more helpful to emphasize what is gained when fewer combustion engines pollute the air, when cities become greener, or what individuals save when they use heat pumps instead of gas heating.

Instead of creating the impression that migration is bad and a burden, we should consider that without an imported workforce, branches like the nursing professions would collapse. At the same time, the statutory pension insurance scheme will have more contributors thanks to immigration from abroad.

Facing Russian aggression, terms such as "war capability (Kriegsfähigkeit)" and "new military service (neuer Militärdienst)" will make look the future consisting of war and rearmament. Instead, it should be emphasized that this is necessary for our long-term goal: A more peaceful world.

Our government should give people the feeling that, yes, although there are a lot of problems, we'll manage them because, firstly, we know where we want to go and, secondly, by what means.

Germany, the nation of poets and thinkers, is brooding and worried. It was never a country of ease and is permanently darkened by its Nazi history, its dense forests, and gruesome fairytales. We lack the savoir vivre of our southern neighbors.

The cheerful summer of soccer in 2006 showed that, at times, we can be like that, too. In the summer of 2024, Germany lost against Spain in the European championship. No cheering, but realizing that our southern neighbors play better soccer, too.

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