In my library there is still an antiquarian book on the character of the keys: a very scientific analysis of all the existing keys of the major-minor system of the Western world. This was a very popular way of looking at things in the 19th century, which in this way brought together a wealth of beautiful adjectives that supported the hypothesis that the composer’s choice of key already essentially determines the character of the piece.
I would like to make a small side note: what was considered scientific back then is no longer even considered debatable today.
As a small thought experiment, I would like to take the opportunity to transfer the character of the keys to the character of the current pandemic response.
As a reader of international newspapers, I find it fascinating how such a universal problem is tackled with completely different mentalities.
It turns out that one and the same illness is seen very differently depending on the culture.
You immediately end up with a characteristic of the peoples that has not developed that much over the last hundred years.
I still remember the gloating in Europe about the initial impotence of the Americans at the beginning of the pandemic. I had to say to many people at the time: “Wait and see.”
And lo and behold: the qualities of the Americans have once again shown themselves to be at their best during the crisis:
Initiative, improvisation, inventiveness, entrepreneurial spirit.
And just like the Japanese after Pearl Harbour, many people rejoiced too soon.
To continue the somewhat provocative analogy to the Second World War:
The Germans are always wonderful at implementing a plan that you know. They are in love with detail and take great pride in the infallibility of their own system. And that goes well until something comes up. But woe betide you if !
Then nothing works anymore. Nobody does anything unplanned on their own responsibility. Everyone waits for the Führer’s order, which never comes. And then, unfortunately, it was already Stalingrad.
Once you have a functioning system in Germany, it is virtually invincible. This applies just as much to soccer as it does to mechanical engineering and the economy and culture in general. What is unfortunately completely lost in this phase of invincibility is the individual voice, the place for simply being beyond the merciless demands of the machine society, which strikes at the individual without ceasing.
We have experienced this in all the years since reunification:
5 countries that used to be one country have had their souls surgically removed so that no local pub or youth club remains. A gigantic reserve for an aging population that can only meet in the parking lots of ALDI supermarkets. An all-German cultural life that mindlessly repeats the same plays over and over again in the insane hope that a changed design of the program booklet can cover up the helplessness of its own role in society. Despite decades of insight into how to organize transport differently, every year more and more people commute longer and longer to work by private car, in a veritable mobility frenzy that leaves life and living hollowed out and empty.
Now we are experiencing how this whole system is gradually collapsing and all the unanswered questions about meaning and value in the individual and society are breaking open. The void that opens up will be frightening for many people. One realization that may then come is that intellectual life in the Federal Republic of Germany has been atrophied for a very long time.
Of all people, the ones who have always been looked down upon for their apparent slowness and disorganization are proving to be the most resilient. Despite all the political disputes that Italians in Rome, for example, are accustomed to, there is an extraordinary calmness in the crisis. A people that survived the invasion of the Germanic tribes and the decline of empires in such a way that historians still have to argue today about whether and how the Roman Empire fell at all, knows how to put a pandemic in relation to other crises.
Not least the Russians: I still remember the words of a Russian dancer at a room party in a theater in St. Petersburg: “We Russians don’t start wars, we end them.” A tough but proud and warm people who are used to extremes in history and climate. Even if more people die here, it is accepted with a mixture of fatalism and stoic realization that life is hard.
Despite all the prejudices and unjustified fears that are buzzing around the world at a time like this, it’s amazing how people can cooperate across all cultural and linguistic boundaries, whether it’s about news in general or something as complex as developing a vaccine.
One of the greatest evolutionary advantages of our species remains the independent change of perspective. Being able to change your position and look at a problem from a different perspective by observing other people’s behavior or by thinking for yourself. Perhaps even discovering a solution to another problem in one problem.
Small Europe in particular has benefited for centuries from the exchange and diversity of solutions and cultural characteristics. This has always been the strength of the continent, which has therefore always been a continent of ideas that flourished in the smallest of spaces.
Let us all hope that these abilities will not leave us !