Confronting Aggression

I wonder if becoming more conscious of our aggression makes it less or more dangerous. In art, we give consciousness physical form and this can lead to the expression of aggression in the name of art. Irony is often used to express aggression in a way that feels safe and Rammstein’s art is aggressively ironic.

Years ago, I, naive American that I am, asked my German husband, “Is Rammstein a Nazi band?” and he said, “No, they are the opposite. They are anarcho-socialists (left), not national socialists (right)”. A fan of the band might say that they use symbols of terror to make sure that people don’t forget about the darkness within. A critic might say that populist movements always turn against minorities, so any band which supports far-left ideologies is dangerous.

Right vs. left is easy to understand, but when the politics loop around, blending left into right, up becomes down and it isn’t clear how to escape.

There are things that we don’t allow ourselves to see about our countries and our own minds and I worry that there is deliberate blindness in many Germans about the continued existence of some very dark ideologies. I’ve met people who barely acknowledged that there were many Nazis in existence until they saw them start winning elections in the east. For some, seeing that is like learning that there really are monsters under the bed.

Despite my reservations, I still think that the collective memory in Germany is strong enough to protect against any xenophobic attempt to take control. Everyone is busy, busy busy, and I can’t believe that the instant that people are no longer busy, they all turn into nazis. The older people saw how that turned out and don’t want to do it again. The younger people only dream of becoming youtube stars. This leads me to conclude that bringing the demons out into the open, even in the form of bands like Rammstein, is a reasonable way to keep the collective memory of horror alive. It does bother me that their art pushes the limits towards becoming a celebration of horror because this intentionally leaves room for doubt about what they really think and I suspect this is more of a marketing trick than an expression of the soul. Perhaps they justify this to themselves with a belief that they can pace and lead the bad guys towards the good side, but this is a rather hopeful perspective.

People cite Rammstein’s song Links 234 as evidence that their politics are clearly left, but there again, I see intentional ambiguity – like a dog whistle for the right.

Kann man Herzen brechen
können Herzen sprechen
kann man Herzen quälen
kann man Herzen stehlen

Sie wollen mein Herz am rechten Fleck
doch seh ich dann nach unten weg
da schlägt es links

In translation:

Can you break hearts
can hearts speak
can you torture hearts
can you steal hearts

They want my heart on the right spot
but then I look below
it beats left there

The ambiguity comes from perspective. If you look at your own heart from within or without, left becomes right and right becomes left. From without, a person may be bad (fascist) but view himself within as good. It is important for us to understand how our own hearts can betray us and that is why it is important for us to be conscious of the aggression within us. A band like Rammstein could be used for good or evil purposes. It could rally the bravery and aggression of people on the march to do awful things or it could remind everyone of their inner aggression and cause them to get it under control through rational means.

Nietzche hated Nazis and refused to attend his sister’s wedding because she was marrying a Nazi, yet we all know how his words were used to inspire the Nazi party.

Rammstein explicitly states that they are a left-wing group, yet the actions of high school shooters in the US and terrorists in Russia who were fans of the band were decidedly right wing.

Perhaps, one man’s poison is another man’s cure. Some people have a bad reaction to an immunization.

(Rammstein got its name from a horrific accident at an airshow at a US airbase on German soil. Planes crashed together and almost a hundred people died.)

In a broader context, this connects to: Is “show, don’t tell” good writing advice?

In a narrower, more political context, this connects to the commentary on this short story.

This was first posted on quora.com in May 2019