Kommentare bisher:

[1]
"You talkin' to me?" :) Regardless: yes, there's a lot of food for thought there.

I haven't been back to Germany in quite a while now, but I think the general implication in the piece cited by Reynolds is off base: whatever happened in some cinema in Munich was (a) probably misinterpreted, (b) a small sample even if it wasn't and (c) apparently written by a known anti-German axe grinder. Reynolds and most of his reader mail eventually more or less came to that conclusion.

That makes pseudoco's comments all the more interesting and honest. I think he/she (henceforth he) makes some good points, but some revealing ones as well.

I'll confine myself to one that I know a little bit about, as an ex-Southerner: "US southerners ... whistling Dixie and waving the Confederate flag aren't necessarily racist rednecks who want to reintroduce slavery." That's true, as far as it goes. But it's also true that these are generally not the Americans who are, shall we say, on the frontlines in fighting racism or acknowledging the warping effect that slavery then and racism now have had on blacks and whites alike. (Not that I'm some kind of paragon either.) You'll generally find that "Stars and Bars" wavers et al deny that slavery was even a principal cause of the American Civil War.

Which it definitely was. Like it or not, a real evil lay at the heart of that war, and it was removed, and it's annoying as hell to the people on the losing side that it was so. It's also annoying to some people on the winning side that ending slavery was officially *not* Lincoln's first goal, but became a means towards the end of preserving the United States in a more viable, (because) more just framework.

I think there are similarities between the German vs Allied memories of WW2 and the South vs. North memories of the Civil War. I think pseudoco makes it just a touch easier for himself than I think he ought to, but on the other hand I definitely understand the reactions to "finger wagging" admonishments about historical burdens. I can still react similarly to people "putting down the South," even though my parents weren't Southerners, and I just grew up there.

A bit of a wandering response. I'll think about it some more.

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[2]
you're right, there are some revealing points in pseudoco's piece.
One of the things i can't quite quantify: how strong is the resentment of the losing side of a war a couple of generations later? I've seen some reservations from Southerners towards Yankees (e.g. in Austin, TX), but it's hard to tell how much of it is caused by the leftover feelings from the Civil war and what part is just your basic difference of mentality.
The same goes for Germany. I don't believe there's a lot of resentment against the former Allied Forces, especially since a big part of the population experienced the end of WW2 as being liberated and the years afterwards with the rebuilding of Germany as the best thing that could have happened to us.
As you also pointed out correctly, there's the problem of numbers: single observations of Nazi behavior (or Redneck racism or whatever), are just that, a sample that doesn't tell you anything about the whole population. There still are Nazis in Germany (although of a different flavor, less based on ideology) but they are a minority that is not tolerated by the people and the government. There is still racism in the US, but it is only cultivated by a minority and is not tolerated by the people and the government.

It's just so easy to rely on stereotype to dismiss other people's ideas. Point in case: the current war. If you are against the war you are Anti-American - at least that's what they want to make you believe. Of course there's the problem of the media nursing simple ideas like that to sell more infotainment, but now i'm wandering off the main topic :-)

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[3]
and here's a little something you might find amusing: i used to have a confederate flag in my car back in Germany in my late teens. Not because i was a redneck/racist, but because i loved a lot of southern rock music :-) I guess I was a bit ignorant of the history and only years later did i find out about the implications, especially since some neo-nazi groups adopted the confederate flag.
http://cagle.slate.msn.com/news/flag/main.asp

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[4]
As far as I know the Civil War in the US was fought to preserve the Union and NOT because of slavery as such.

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