gone, he says, and so is idealism. Everybody is Economically Correct, and nobody wants to lose his job. As he sees it, we live in the Age of Opportunism. The young people, he says by way of example, don’t understand those who died in the fight against Hitler. They ask why those people didn’t just save themselves.
I like Jens. He’s a smart man, a thinker, a man of honor, and a real gentleman. You won’t find many like him around anymore, if at all. God, or nature, whatever you believe in, doesn’t manufacture any more Jenses. In today’s world of journalism, most are very PC. Not so Jens. He couldn’t care less. He’s an idealist, a word that today is wholly despised. In today’s journalism you don’t write what you think, if you think at all; you write what sells. This is not Jens. He belongs to a different era, an era that exists in legends. Once upon a time, when journalists wrote honestly, there was a man by the name of Jens . . .
I sit next to Jens, and while I listen to him I feel as if I am in a different place. Not in Germany, and not in the West. The intellectual Western world today preaches only one thing: tolerance. That’s all they have to sell. Everybody is wonderful, and that’s it. All cultures are great, end of story. What they think, deep down, you can’t really tell. Maybe, just a possibility, deep down they think nothing. Maybe deep down is just an empty hole. Tolerance is the code, the flag. And that’s it.
But Jens tells you what he thinks. His words are harsh. He has no tolerance, not even of his own people. He believes. You can agree with him, or you can disagree with him, but at least you know what he thinks and where he stands. This is so not Western! I’ve been talking to quite a few people in this country for the last few days. I’ve asked them what it means to be German. For the most part, the intellectuals among them were upset with me for asking this question. “You Americans,” some of them said, “like to generalize everything!” Intellectually speaking, this statement is one huge paradox. But let’s leave it. What is interesting is this common thought of “We are all the same. All peoples are the same.” That’s all they know. If this is intellectualism, I am Bavarian.
Yeah. I feel like I’m in another place, in a different world. But where? No, not in Israel. That country is very Western-thinking as well. Shallow. I feel as if I’m in the Arab Middle East. This Jens makes me feel so. Maybe I
am
in the Middle East. Maybe this German-accented English speaker across the table from me is in reality a sheikh. Sheikh Jens bin Mustafa. I go often to the Middle East. I talk to the people there and I am delighted to listen to them. No, not because I agree with them or because I disagree with them. Has nothing to do with it. It’s because they are not empty inside. They might have no “tolerance,” but I still respect them. Tremendously. They have something they stand for. It’s not empty inside. I have had many honest dialogues with the “intolerant” people of the East but to date not a single one with the “tolerant” people of the West. The reason is very simple: The tolerant people of the West are the most intolerant people you can imagine. They are so afraid that you will uncover the emptiness inside them that the moment you start arguing with them their first instinct is: Kill him!
That said, I feel depressed after leaving Sheikh Jens. I need time to think, to collect my thoughts. But not here, not in Hamburg. It’s a beautiful city, Hamburg, but the atmosphere here, the human atmosphere, is a bit too cold for my taste. I’m not making a generalization. It’s just what I feel.
I keep my thoughts to myself. I don’t tell the natives what I think of them. It’s too dangerous. Hamburgers are very emotional about their city. Mention the word
Elbe
and these cold people suddenly become very warm. A man can talk to you about his wife as if she were a tree,
I like Jens. He’s a smart man, a thinker, a man of honor, and a real gentleman. You won’t find many like him around anymore, if at all. God, or nature, whatever you believe in, doesn’t manufacture any more Jenses. In today’s world of journalism, most are very PC. Not so Jens. He couldn’t care less. He’s an idealist, a word that today is wholly despised. In today’s journalism you don’t write what you think, if you think at all; you write what sells. This is not Jens. He belongs to a different era, an era that exists in legends. Once upon a time, when journalists wrote honestly, there was a man by the name of Jens . . .
I sit next to Jens, and while I listen to him I feel as if I am in a different place. Not in Germany, and not in the West. The intellectual Western world today preaches only one thing: tolerance. That’s all they have to sell. Everybody is wonderful, and that’s it. All cultures are great, end of story. What they think, deep down, you can’t really tell. Maybe, just a possibility, deep down they think nothing. Maybe deep down is just an empty hole. Tolerance is the code, the flag. And that’s it.
But Jens tells you what he thinks. His words are harsh. He has no tolerance, not even of his own people. He believes. You can agree with him, or you can disagree with him, but at least you know what he thinks and where he stands. This is so not Western! I’ve been talking to quite a few people in this country for the last few days. I’ve asked them what it means to be German. For the most part, the intellectuals among them were upset with me for asking this question. “You Americans,” some of them said, “like to generalize everything!” Intellectually speaking, this statement is one huge paradox. But let’s leave it. What is interesting is this common thought of “We are all the same. All peoples are the same.” That’s all they know. If this is intellectualism, I am Bavarian.
Yeah. I feel like I’m in another place, in a different world. But where? No, not in Israel. That country is very Western-thinking as well. Shallow. I feel as if I’m in the Arab Middle East. This Jens makes me feel so. Maybe I
am
in the Middle East. Maybe this German-accented English speaker across the table from me is in reality a sheikh. Sheikh Jens bin Mustafa. I go often to the Middle East. I talk to the people there and I am delighted to listen to them. No, not because I agree with them or because I disagree with them. Has nothing to do with it. It’s because they are not empty inside. They might have no “tolerance,” but I still respect them. Tremendously. They have something they stand for. It’s not empty inside. I have had many honest dialogues with the “intolerant” people of the East but to date not a single one with the “tolerant” people of the West. The reason is very simple: The tolerant people of the West are the most intolerant people you can imagine. They are so afraid that you will uncover the emptiness inside them that the moment you start arguing with them their first instinct is: Kill him!
That said, I feel depressed after leaving Sheikh Jens. I need time to think, to collect my thoughts. But not here, not in Hamburg. It’s a beautiful city, Hamburg, but the atmosphere here, the human atmosphere, is a bit too cold for my taste. I’m not making a generalization. It’s just what I feel.
I keep my thoughts to myself. I don’t tell the natives what I think of them. It’s too dangerous. Hamburgers are very emotional about their city. Mention the word
Elbe
and these cold people suddenly become very warm. A man can talk to you about his wife as if she were a tree,
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