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This blog discusses ideas, drafts and papers about the whole spectrum of systems theory and anything else that concerns the WissTec R&D Services UG.19.6.2020 - Text Interpretation 101 - 1:
Extracting main points:
(by Eike Scholz) Due to obvious implicit demand, that may not recognized by everyone, I will do a short series on text interpretation and reading. For this example, I tell with an example, how to to extract core meanings, form a text by properly cutting out inserted information without violating the context. I did use this technique before with an old text from Kant. In this example we will discuss Rammstein's recent song text of the song Deutschland. Youtube considers the text problematic and each times requires the user to click that he consents to hearing it, which is an interesting assessment. (Update Sep. 2020: That message is gone, now. Youtube (Deutchland?) seems to have corrected that. ) There seemed to be a German media discussion, if that song is scandalous. So this text is a good example. Applying the technique for this "lesson" is simple: Cut out all non-contractictory text, and write down and analyze the remaining text. That can be done several times with different kinds of focus. The song text is German, and I won't translate it completely. Instead I will cut out central points, as required for this technique, and translate them. The focus for the analysis, is to answer the question, weather Ramstein is a Band of German nationalists, as often implied in discourse, since they used the aesthetics of Leni Riefenstahl in Music videos as PR stunt early in their career. First lets look at the refrain. It ends with:
Deutschland! Meine Liebe Kann ich dir nicht geben.In English:
Germany! I can not give you my love.If you want, given Germany's current democratic republic constitution, you can try to interpret that against the group. But the song contains more text of course. At the end there is a bridge lyrics with
Wer hoch steigt, der wird tief fallen. Deutschland, Deutschland über allen!In English:
Those who rise high, will fall deep. Germany, Germany over everyone!The last line is a slight adaption a line in the German national hymn much used by the Third Reich. The corresponding stanza is dropped in the currently used national hymn. The adoption however does not change the meaning of the line. The correctly translated line is "Germany, Germany over everything" and the adaption creates a rhyme. The above quote is the maximal contra position as warning, that Germany is becoming arrogant again. The reaction from YouTube to that criticism is that it, allows - apparently the nationalists - to run a soft censorship mechanism against Rammstein's song. So that the message will not be heard by specific part of the German population. However, beware with attributions, with respect to who is applying this soft censorship mechanism. It may not be the Nationalists. The SED regime, that had an international communist ideological background, required the same collectivist mindset for their system to function. With respect to social signaling, this soft censorship mechanism does evidently signal the following: "Do not think for your self and follow the lead, even if the lead ostensibly lies.". To stress the point again: Be very careful with attributions to who is responsible for this. It may not be the Nationalists, but quite the opposite political movement. A literally bloody communist revolution and repeating a Stalinist cleansing, will also require a mindset of unreflected collectivist obedience. Sadly this mindset seems still to be common in Germany as has been discussed before on this blog. In conclusion the ext clearly indicates that, Rammstein will does not support the current direction of development of Germany's society and thinks that a catastrophe is likely to emerge again. From the artist perspective, the handling of this song in public, which is very well crafted btw, is thus additional evidence that their warning absolutely warranted. Given the extreme high production quality of song and music video, they obviously found financiers, that think the same. In conclusion you can with confidence say that Ramstein is not a Band of Nationalists. Their text expresses a not surprising kind of ambivalence with respect to their home country and culture. This can be worked out using the same technique. This compact capturing of the gray zones of reality is a signifier of well done art. You have to posses a special kind of lack of intellectual integrity to try to spin that song against them. To recapitulate the lesson: If reading a text, try to cut out intermediate information, without altering the context and meaning, and the meaning of the text will stand out more clearly. Further, be cautions and avoid contextomies. A remaining question is, why this soft censorship infrastructure can be used that way in an Alphabet company. This kind of usage is a total violation of the initial ethical constraints given by the Google founders. Keeping that in mind, Google seems to be retreating form military technology development, as the last stopped drone project for the pentagon indicates. Their inability to follow their own ethics, will therefore at least not contaminate the military realm.