Thought #462: Downward Comparison & Historical Responsibility: Why People Kick Down – and Where Germany Failed

For Ukrainian people who now live in Germany – how I see their situation: I see it like this: they are an enrichment for us as a society, because they bring experiences with them and bring views with them that we can make good use of here. Quite simply because Ukraine has developed dynamically since its independence and has achieved a lot in a shorter time than Germany.

Germany has a completely different history from Ukraine. We were able to profit from the economic boom for many, many decades, the Americans helped us with the Marshall Plan, we have more resources – at least in part – and we were able to reunify. That means the East German part had the strong West Germany. (→ Thought #460)

The phenomenon of „downward comparison“: why people kick down

In every society there are people who kick down, so to speak. In every society there is, sadly, a top and a bottom: there are the people who have a lot of resources – access to money, but also access to networks, to contacts, to information. And these people are at the top, because they have more decision-making power. They can decide things, they have more freedoms. And then there are people who are below them. And then of course there are also people who get pushed further and further to the margins and who have less and less freedom, whose freedom of movement gets restricted more and more in every dimension.

And in sociology and psychology we have this phenomenon, it's called downward comparison – and we have it in every society. Germany is no exception. And now it's like this: through external circumstances, geopolitical difficulties, but also climate change and maybe other factors too, the fight for resources has got fiercer inside Germany as well, within society.

And that's why more and more people in Germany are now looking down. And down there are the newcomers. It's always like that: when someone comes into a society from outside, they're the outsider at first, because there are differences above all in language, in culture and also in the value system. And that means more and more Germans are now deciding and saying: „We don't want the Ukrainians in our country any more. They should go home. There should be peace now. We've had enough of them. They're taking our resources away. There's no money left for us and everything is being cut, but for Ukraine we have millions, and we don't even know where those millions trickle away – they're all corrupt.“ That's putting it very bluntly, very simplified and populist, the way sadly a lot of people think. We can't influence that. Sadly, that's how it is, it's like that in every society.

„What matters to us is that the rouble keeps rolling“: our historical responsibility towards Russia and Ukraine

But if we analyse it properly, then we have to differentiate, and then of course we see many factors that also play into this. And for me, what's decisive is that we as a nation missed it, back then when Putin came to power – we missed recognising that Putin is a war criminal and doesn't act like Gorbachev. We closed our eyes to that – systematically. That was our historical responsibility. We as a nation, East and West, should have seen it from the start, and maybe we did see it, but didn't want to admit it.

It's a bit like what's happening in Gaza: there too we close our eyes and say it's none of our business. Let Netanyahu – he may be a war criminal, all the independent organisations say so – but we don't care, because we're on the side of the Israelis, after all.

And with Russia people also said: „Okay, we'll close our eyes. Maybe he's not all that nice to his political opponents, but that's just how it is in Russia. Russia is a bit different, we mustn't interfere there, those are domestic affairs. What matters to us is that the rouble keeps rolling, that VW can build a new plant there in Kaluga, that Deutsche Bank can make its dough there, do its business there, that all the big companies – Siemens and whatever they're all called – can more or less join in there, and that the shareholders get a decent dividend. Chemical industry.“ That came first for Germany.

And that's where we failed historically, because we should have recognised that this has to be about other values: about humanity, about human rights. And Putin trampled those underfoot from the very beginning – it's all documented, it's all proven! But nobody in society was ready – or too few, well, I'm exaggerating now: too few people in society were ready to see it and to say: „Hang on a minute, this is a KGB officer! This isn't a reformer like Gorbachev at all! This man has completely different values. Can we really trust him? And is Nord Stream 2 really such a good idea, or is it maybe the blackmail of Ukraine and Poland?“ So all the way up to Merkel, the whole of society failed there in the end.

Universal human rights instead of looking away

And we had another chance then, in February 2022. Then too we should have prepared ourselves already, and then NATO failed, in my view. And we still haven't responded accordingly. We say: „We're too weak, we can't stop Putin. We've done everything we can, sadly more isn't possible. And that every day people there are raped, discriminated against, harassed and killed in Ukraine – sadly we're too weak, we can't prevent it, Putin is simply stronger than us, the Ukrainians have to get through this now.“

That's still our stance, and in my view that's a damning verdict on us. So I'm ashamed, I'm genuinely ashamed to be German, because we failed completely, historically. Because we allowed a chancellor to stand up and say: „Putin is a flawless democrat.“ We shouldn't have allowed that.

And that's why I'm now all the more committed to people. For me it's not about political decisions, it's about people. Above all it's also about children and women. And I don't care whether they're Ukrainian women, Russian women, Afghan women – every human being, every person has the same rights when it comes to life. That's called universal human rights, which we agreed on. And which we as a nation, sadly, forget too often, for too long.

🤖 Reflection quiz on Thought #462

Three questions to keep thinking. Choose an answer – you will then get an explanation and a prompt for self-reflection.

1. What does the term „downward comparison“ describe in psychology and sociology when the fight for scarce resources in a society gets fiercer?
   A) A purely statistical comparison of export figures between German federal states.
   B) Comparing yourself with people who are worse off to steady your own threatened self-esteem – up to looking down on immigrants.
   C) Foundations deliberately supporting people on low incomes.
   D) Cutting red tape in the recognition of foreign professional qualifications.
2. Which economic and political decisions does Torsten name as examples of Germany closing its eyes for decades to Putin's KGB past and his violations of human rights?
   A) Breaking off all trade relations with Russia as early as 2000.
   B) Banning all German industrial investment in Eastern Europe after 1991.
   C) German companies' business in Russia (the VW plant in Kaluga, Siemens, Deutsche Bank, the chemical industry), Nord Stream 2 despite the warnings from Ukraine and Poland, and Schröder's „flawless democrat“.
   D) Introducing a European energy independence tax in 2004.
3. What follows from universal human rights for Torsten?
   A) That every human being – whether Ukrainian, Russian or Afghan women and children – has the same rights when it comes to life.
   B) That human rights apply only to citizens of EU member states.
   C) That human rights may only ever be considered after economic interests.
   D) That every country can decide for itself which groups of people get fundamental rights.