Germany is burning – and is extinguishing it with fear and self-pity.

Sometimes I wonder if this country has collectively decided to go into mental hibernation—with no intention of waking up again. Seventy percent of Germans feel overwhelmed, they say. No wonder, when everyone's running around like panicked chickens whose moral compass has been traded for a disposable mask. Germany is in a period of upheaval. Unfortunately, not the exciting kind of upheaval that breeds innovation. More like the kind where a drain that's been clogged for decades finally overflows. Brains are overflowing, people are going crazy, and some self-proclaimed messiah shouts, "I know how it's done!"—and the masses, grateful as a Labradoodle, pant after him.

This state has managed its people so perfectly that many no longer even know how to spell responsibility. Parents don't educate, teachers don't function, politicians constantly explain how "personal responsibility" works while simultaneously centralizing every last bit of responsibility. And when people are actually supposed to take responsibility themselves—oh dear!—they can't. Decades of conditioning have become deeply ingrained in the nervous system: first be obedient, then perform, then function, then burnout, then keep functioning.

No wonder fear is the number one drug. It's cheap, readily available, and perfectly suited for political manipulation. The Middle Ages, the Church, politicians, NGOs – virtually every manipulative player in history works with fear. Germany today? It's got a subscription to it. The education system: We're ruining our children, but at least it's systematic. Anyone raising children in this country needs courage. And humor. And probably a hip flask.

Schools don't produce thinking individuals, but rather rule-abiding instruction manuals in human form. Reading? Writing? Social skills? No time! We have curricula! Children are supposed to function, not exist. And woe betide anyone who proposes reform. Then they say: "But then the children will become stupid!" Spoiler alert: That's already happening – live, daily, nationwide. Germany treats children like little project workers: lots of control, no relationship, zero trust. And then people wonder why, at 18, they don't even know how to get on a subway without having a psychosomatic breakdown.

People are so deeply entrenched in roles that they've lost their authentic selves somewhere between elementary school and their first job. They say yes even though everything inside screams no. They let their dignity wither away to avoid "standing out negatively." And then they wonder why they're as empty inside as a Berlin pedestrian zone at three in the morning. No wonder psychopaths and narcissists end up in politics and management. Anyone who betrays themselves often enough will sooner or later end up exactly where self-denial is part of the application profile.

Of course, Germany is afraid of artificial intelligence. This country is afraid of anything it can't regulate with Form 37B. The truth is: AI doesn't threaten humanity. Humanity was disposed of here years ago, along with courage, creativity, and the ability to think a thought through to its conclusion. AI will take care of the rest. So? How do you save this country? You don't. And that's not a surrender, but the most honest diagnosis in decades.

You can't save people who don't like themselves.
You can't save a country that trains its children.
You cannot save a society that accepts fear as its basic emotion.

There is only one thing you can do: save yourself.
Feel you.
Get you back.

Anything else is self-mutilation.

Germany is burning.
But maybe only the old patterns are burning.

And that would be the first truly progressive thing in a long time…

Germany is burning – and is extinguishing it with fear and self-pity.