Overthrow

by Arian Schiffer-Nasserie Immigrants, foreigners, people with immigrant backgrounds – they have arrived. At least in the bottom layers of the German social hierarchy, where they are disproportionately represented. They have also become the addressees of social services and pedagogical professionals. On the one hand, the latter have always demanded that their clients cope with dignity and decency in “precarious living conditions,” which is desired; on the other hand, they demand more efforts in view of the undesireable aspects of their poor life management skills. From early childhod help programs to job interview training, debt counselling to probation assistance and programs for the elderly, the addressees of the social and pedagogical professions have become – euphemistically termed – “more diverse and colorful.”  At the same time, racist attitudes towards “foreigners” in Germany, as reported in surveys, are  remarkable. Thus more than 37% of all respondents in Ge...

From the essay, " The Principle and System of Modern Poverty –  A Critique of the Current Debate over the Oxfam Report" by Malcolm H. Dunn / Joseph P. Ganahl Colloquially, the condition of poverty refers to living conditions in which a person does not have the means of life that he needs to satisfy his essential needs – social scientists call these “basic needs.” The objection that poverty is always “subjective,” so it shouldn’t be treated as a “fact” because there are different views as to when someone can be considered “poor,” contradicts itself insofar as any problematization of the concept of poverty assumes poverty as a fact, i.e. assumes the existence of poverty. Moreover, the phenomena associated with poverty are no secret: if there are people who can’t feed themselves sufficiently or have no access to clean water and medical care, they are considered poor. But also circumstances that can be observed daily in the industrialized countries, such as begging on the...

Translated from MSZ 2-1981 Discontent with the young is older than bourgeois society. Plato was already complaining that the young are “no longer like we were,” which is why he is often quoted in order to explain the harmlessness of the “youth problem.” The certainty that the young have yet to become decent members of society – and that this has to be done the same as with the older generation – is then usually outweighed by understanding for the young: “My God, they are still so young.” The fact that young people still have to become what they are not yet, this negative determination of a time of becoming, is the fundamental bourgeois error in the appraisal of the young; at the same time, it causes all sorts of silly worries, as if growing up might not work out. A “crisis of meaning” among the young is as easy to postulate as the negligence of the adult world, and one publicly worries whether “these young people will also grow into our society.” Yes, where else would they...