{"id":1110,"date":"2005-05-07T01:05:48","date_gmt":"2005-05-07T08:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2005\/05\/gunter_grass_still_beats_the_d\/"},"modified":"2005-05-07T01:05:48","modified_gmt":"2005-05-07T08:05:48","slug":"gunter_grass_still_beats_the_d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2005\/05\/gunter_grass_still_beats_the_d.html","title":{"rendered":"GUNTER GRASS STILL BEATS THE DRUM 60 YEARS LATER"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/A>Speaking of things German, like the Berlin Holocaust Memorial<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> …
\nNobel laureate Gunter Grass has much to say about democracy, freedom and capitalism<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> in post-World War II
\nGermany on the occasion of the “Reich’s unconditional surrender” 60 years ago tomorrow:
\n

<\/P>
\n


\n

[T]he ring of lobbyists with their multifarious interests … constricts and
\ninfluences the Federal Parliament and its democratically elected members, placing them under
\npressure and forcing them into disharmony, even when framing and deciding the content of laws.
\nConsequently, Parliament is no longer sovereign in its decisions. It is steered by the banks and
\nmultinational corporations — which are not subject to any democratic control.
\n

<\/P>
\n

What’s needed is a democratic desire to protect Parliament against the pressures of the
\nlobbyists by making it inviolable. But are our Parliamentarians still sufficiently free to make a
\ndecision that would bring radical democratic constraint? Or is our freedom now no more than a
\nstock market profit?<\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

<\/P>
\n

<\/P>
\n

Sound familiar? Substitute “U.S. Congress” for “Federal Parliament,” and “Congressmen and
\nwomen” for “Parliamentarians,” and you’d think Grass was writing about the United States. He’s
\nnot of course. His essay mainly concerns the as yet unbridgeable divide that still exists between
\nEast and West Germans.<\/P>
\n

But when it comes to corporate influence, lobbyists and the corruption of democracy by
\nunrestrained capitalism, Grass might as well be writing about us. The Web cover line for the
\nessay, which appears on today’s New York Times op-ed page, is: “After 60 years, Germans still
\nhaven’t learned to be free.” It’s too bad the same may be said for Americans after more than 200
\nyears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking of things German, like the Berlin Holocaust Memorial … Nobel laureate Gunter Grass has much to say about democracy, freedom and capitalism in post-World War II Germany on the occasion of the “Reich’s unconditional surrender” 60 years ago tomorrow: [T]he ring of lobbyists with their multifarious interests … constricts and influences the Federal Parliament […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-hU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}