When public events of great consequence — such as the Nord Stream Pipeline bombing — are met with silence from both government and media, the silence itself becomes more terrifying than any atomic bomb.
It is interesting how people remember things differently - I really do not think that there was silence from the public or government in regards of the Nord Stream bombings. Yes, there weren’t any demonstrations or riots on the street, but silence?
Well, silence is not the correct word, I agree. But the reaction was kind of mild, when you think about that it was a terrorist attack on seemingly very important infrastructure and thus on Germany’s sovereignity. And that holds especially true after it became clear that it wasn’t the Russians but someone who wanted to influence Germany’s stance on Russia’s invasion. Nobody cared.
I mean, Germany is obviously not in the position, but the US basically devastates whole regions for less. Thus it can be argued, that the reaction was comparably “silent”.
It still is quite strange for him to focus on Nord Stream. Yeah, it was important infrastructure. But it was switched off for quite a while due to sanctions against russia before the attack. So not great, but there was no immediate impact for people.
I could understand if he was focussing on silence in regard of the Ukraine war or even Gaza, but Nord Stream is strange
I think he took it as an example, because it was basically an direct attack on Germany. So the example is crass, as in “if it doesn’t fit into the mainstream story, we even ‘ignore’ direct attacks”.
While the silence on the Gaza genocide holds just as true, it is not a direct attack and thus not such a strong example for the point.
Immigrant refuses to learn the language of the country he moved to and goes on to feel unwelcome. What a shame. As an immigrant living in Germany myself I’d recommend he go somewhere else.
if this was the article, i totally understand zeit.
ai wei wei is boring and prude. i never warmed up for his superficial art. basically jeff koons but with a selfrightous moral highground.
but i always thought he would offer something else. he is a well known human rights activist after all. then i read this lazy observation. maybe i thought there has to be more to the man than his art, he is worldwide known as a critic of nations and governments after all.
so i looked into his positions and “art”. the only word that sounded sincere was that he doesn’t understand art. the other stuff is a common ground, free from controversy. yes there is war and human rights are ignored, but ask yourself the following: if you asked chatgpt for it’s positions on human rights or an idea for controversial art - would the answer differ much from ai wei weis works?
