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@billiglarper@rollenspiel.social · 3 weeks ago

This has led to the curious phenomenon of Germans experiencing the world through the eyes of other Germans.

Like, it's a common enough thing for Germans to do public presentations of their travels.
https://rausgegangen.de/frankfurt/tags/vortrag/
And there are of course documentaries and books - often by Germans, in German. In the context of travel.

There's actually a huge amount of expats from everywhere in Germany. Germans could ask them about their countries, invite them to share their knowledge and insights.

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Billiglarper

@billiglarper@rollenspiel.social replied · 3 weeks ago

But they normally don't. Even when language isn't a barrier.

The curiosity often doesn't run that deep, or so it seems to me. Other countries are a destination, a fancy, a threat, an opportunity, a place needing help.

But not somewhere to learn from. Not somewhere to look for solutions. Not a place where people might be more competent. More skilled. Have better ideas. Be more technological advanced.

Germans know best. There's no FOMO to be outthought. For many Germans, it's unthinkable.

Billiglarper

@billiglarper@rollenspiel.social replied · 3 weeks ago

And it shows shamefully in so many ways.

Like the hiring of foreign nurses. There's a huge shortage in Germany. And, frankly, a lot of the practices in Germany are not good.

Yet the expectation is "I hope they will be up to German standards and regulations". To think they might actually be more competent, know more, have been trained to a higher standard? Unthinkable.

Billiglarper

@billiglarper@rollenspiel.social replied · 3 weeks ago

Germany is actually quite solid in many regards. Education is good, there's money, the political system works, it's save and so on.

But in a lot of fields it's not best in class. Germans wouldn't even dispute this.

Yet there's little drive to actually look where and how other countries do things better.

"If it needs solving, we can come up with a solution by ourselves."

Billiglarper

@billiglarper@rollenspiel.social replied · 3 weeks ago

A quirk of that is when Germans run into a problem, instead of looking at what people in other countries are doing today, they look at what other Germans did in the past.

(And this is a generalisation. The the actually excellent and professional ones know better.)

Whether it's military folk looking at Carl von Clausewitz and the Wehrmacht for solutions to assymetric and hybrid warfare.

Or German leftists fixating on Karl Marx to come up with solutions to techbro feudalism and enshitification.

Billiglarper

@billiglarper@rollenspiel.social replied · 3 weeks ago

Sometimes, things get laughable.

Like German media and politicians discussing whether heat pumps would actually work in the oh so harsh German winter. A short glimpse at Norway should have answered this question for good. Yet it didn't.

Perhaps more Germans will "get it" when only enough German travellers to Norway report back that "Yes, heat pumps in winter are actually a thing". 🤷‍♂️

But that's no way to learn, progress, improve as a country, isn't it?

moin :pride_rainbow: 🇺🇦

@moin@gruene.social replied · 3 weeks ago

@billiglarper
isn't a heat pump more efficient as biger the temprature diffrence gets?

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