EA specter is haunting Germany – the specter of activism. At least that is our impression after following the discussion about the Causa Ferda Ataman in the past few weeks. “Left-wing activist should become commissioner for anti-discrimination” was the headline in the Berliner Zeitung. The FAZ judged: “The commissioner system is activism.” So are we in danger of the state being infiltrated by activists and that we will soon have federal commissioners chaining themselves to trees in the Hambach Forest or setting police cars on fire?
It is true that we have not seen Ataman occupying forests or at a demonstration against the G20. But she said things that made some FDPlers, “Bild” editors and potato growers upset and gave the impression that the use of certain terms is now being made a criterion for recruitment. For example, Ataman was accused of having used the term “potato” for Germans as a “Spiegel” columnist and having criticized the term “clan crime”. And the verdict is complete: dangerously close to identity politics.
We are also accused
We must now be careful that our own column is not understood as an activist manifesto. After all, we too occasionally share concerns about identity politics. In fact, we have been accused of being activists at one time or another. And that, although we are already too old and stuffy for that anyway! We look back almost nostalgically on our respective activist times. Be it peace demonstrations in Israel or protests against tuition fees in Frankfurt.
But maybe start again. Why has it actually become an insult to be an activist? Last year, the activists Raul Krauthausen and Benjamin Schwarz tried to find out in a book how “constructive activism” can succeed. You realize that activism is a full-time occupation. What’s more: “For activists, it is sometimes difficult to imagine a world without the problem they are working on. It accompanies you all year round, every day, around the clock. They are so deeply involved in the matter that there is no way out in sight for them.” If these are the criteria for activism, then we will definitely fail the activist test. Small things determine our everyday life too much.
Many types of activists are presented in the book, be they inclusion activists, climate activists, anti-racism activists or, attention: democracy activists! It is striking that we are dealing with people here who tend to stand for left-wing political issues. No coincidence, as the authors define activism as commitment to a specific political goal that is progressive and not misanthropic.
