Angst @ School
by Ulrich Biele
mabprodig@yahoo.com

Credit The Libertarian Enterprise

Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag and start slitting throats.
—Henry Louis Mencken

Well, on Monday 20th, a young boy, just eighteen years old, who had just finished junior high school, succumbed to this temptation, injuring thirty-seven people, among them a pregnant teacher, finally killing himself. As a modern man, he had posted a farewell-letter in the internet, explaining that his major motivation was revenge. He felt like a loser and wanted to pay back all hatred he had received during his short life.

Internet. This vile source of right-wing hate propaganda, kiddie porn and senseless violence!

Firearms! Readily available, protected by antiquated laws and the vicious gun lobby of the USA—

Wait a minute. I am not talking about an incident in the United States of America. This happened in Emsdetten, Germany, where things like this can't happen. No way. Our firearms law is one of the strictest in the world, and people under the age of eighteen can't get firearms except shotguns after having passed their sixteenth birthday and the Hunters' Examination, (Jägerprüfung), which has the same degree of preparation and effort to pass as has a high school diploma. If any well-checked person under the age of twenty-one applies for a handgun license, this poor wretch has to be evaluated by an experienced and licensed psychiatrist, thanks to a shooting spree in an Erfurt school four years ago.

So, this can't happen any more. To make this twice as sure, pump-action shotguns with pistol grips have been outlawed in order to make violence at school virtually im-pos-sib-le.

Of course, the incident was completely analyzed by eggsperts who have never set a foot on the crime scene, but who are well-known on the TV screen. The young man was a loser, of course, one of the new German under class, which has recently been discovered by the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which needs a new clientele, since their usual clientele has eroded away, feeling sold out by the very politicians who created this new under class.

The poor wretch was a gun nut, of course, with problems to establish a functioning relationship with the other sex, a lonesome madman, mad at the world which rejected him once too many, an internet addict whose screen name was "Resistance X", and living in a rural area, where jobs are scarce and utterly unavailable for less-than-average-skilled youngsters is not exactly a recommendation.

In German public schools, there is an atmosphere like in a battle zone. Collective harassment does not only concern foreigners, but anyone who happens not to be member of a strong social group. Gangs, drugs, aimless violence, our public schools offer the full nine yards of humiliation and deprivation anyone can imagine. The major motivation to work in such a system as a teacher is that this is a public servant's duty, which means that you can't get fired for bad performance and you can draw a pension no matter if you teach children or just administrate ignorance.

Especially the lower grade public schools, where more often than not a two-thirds majority does not speak German, are not suited to help children find their ways into life. Turkish, Russian, Vietnamese, Serbo-Croatian and various African languages can be heard in German schoolyards, but you must be an incurable optimist to expect a German teacher to speak an understandable English. Knowledge in Turkish, our largest minority, is not considered necessary for a teacher, at least not by our government. Especially in larger towns, Turkish children make up to eighty per cent of the pupils, and many of them do not hear their first German word until they enter school. More and more pupils leave school without being able to read or write. But who cares as long as the teachers get their pensions.

Four-plus million people out of eighty-two million gross population are officially registered as unemployed in Germany, some six million families are fed by social welfare, and a good school report has long ago ceased to be a guarantee for a job and a life on your own feet. Is it really a miracle that more and more children and young adults just drop out and either seek their fortune in drug trafficking or just resign and surrender their lives to the welfare state?

This young guy would neither. Two years ago, he announced his suicide in the internet, on a counselling site. He explicitly lay down his plan to walk on the schoolyard during the first pause and shoot all those whom he hated, especially teachers. His predecessor, who had shot sixteen people in Erfurt four years ago, had done the same, so these professional counsellors should have been alerted when this boy asked for help. Of course, nothing happened. These counsellors are either unpaid volunteers who offer their service in order to have a cozy feeling around their own heart or, even worse, public servants who just sit away their hours in order to receive a pension when their time is done. So why should they listen to a call for help?

To hold smart speeches on TV, without having a clue what really had happened is much more suited to advance your career than to do your job when nobody is watching.

Of course, the case is clear—a lonesome gun nut internet junkie and computer game ("Counter Strike") addict had blown a gasket and all we need is much stricter legislation and more psychological surveillance of notorious pupils.

Of course, home schooling is illegal in Germany and everyone who tries to spare his children the humiliations of public schooling must go to jail.

It does not matter that our schools fail to educate children. It does not matter that the many regulations our state imposes on us, do not serve any productive purpose at all and have not done so for at least forty years. It does not matter that our strict and tricky firearms laws never ever had any effect on violent crime. It does not matter that social welfare is no solution to a suffocated society where life is almost one hundred per cent regulated. It does not matter that drug prohibition does not save lives but destroys them in large scale. The pensions of our public servants are safe. Our politicians have everything under control. Our leaders tell us what to think even if they have no idea what they are talking about. And, what is best—they help us to evade the necessity to ask questions.

George, we're coming. . .

Ulrich Biele, TANSTAAFL Consulting, München, Deutschland
TANSTAAFLConsult@aol.com

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