LL-L "List" 2003.09.09 (13) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 09.SEP.2003 (13) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
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From: Anja Meyfarth <anja-meyfarth at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L "Introduction" 2003.09.09 (04) [E]

Moin moin!

Ron wrote:

> By the way, I was just told that, apparently in print in Germany, someone
> has alleged that LL-L is a vehicle for Nazi propaganda (!).  I am waiting
> for a copy of this and will refute it if this is possible and worthwhile
> (i.e., not beneath me/us).  ...  I have heard of such baseless assumptions
a
> couple of times before, and each time it was from someone in Germany.
This
> leads me to believe that some people in Germany have not gotten very far
in
> their personal development during the last 50-60 years, that even the use
of
> a "technical," innocuous, universally used word like "Germanic" can
trigger
> this sort of over-reaction.  We might be able to gauge the severity and
the
> motivation of this latest incidence once we study the wording.
Lowlanders,
> I hope you will shoot such baseless allegations out of the water should
you
> ever come across them.

Well, some Germans have great problems with thinking clear - not matter on
which political side they stand. I remember, in one of my firsts years at
the university I sat in a seminary about collective memory discussing how
long oral tradition would hold. I said that oral tradition in Iceland had
lasted at least some hundred years (from the landing there until Snorri
wrote down the sagas). Reaction was that I was called for germanophil -
obviously anyone who is studying anything connected with germanic culture
and/or history is under suspect. It makes me really angry because such a
suspect is shortsighted at least. Even speaking Low Saxon nowadays can
provoce stupid persons to think that you're part of the nazist movement.
Arrrgh... But stupidness cannot be healed, not even with better arguments.

Greetings from Kiel,

Anja

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From: R. F. Hahn <lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net>
Subject: List

Thanks, Anja.  I agree that little can be done about actual stupidity, but I
find it a very depressing comment that this level of immaturity, this kind
of "throwing the baby out with the bath water" attitude, is still so
prevalent even at German universities, even if those folks were freshmen.  I
thought it would had petered out after our _Sturm- und Drangzeit_ in the
1960s and 1970s.  Hopefully, those folks learned a thing or two in their
subsequent years of study.

I suppose that an interest in non-power, thus mostly "regional" languages
and cultures could be misinterpreted by the immature as "nationalistic."
But obviously they are missing a step or two there.

None of us can claim to have reached mental nirvana.  I have to admit that
I, too, belonging after all to the said postwar generation, have my buttons.
For example, I have a hard time dealing with Wagner operas, mostly because
of the role they and some of the associated people played under the Nazis
(aside from the fact that neither the music nor the stories appeal to me).
However, languages and cultures don't come with this sort of baggage, as far
as I am aware.

Having said this, I hasten to admit that in the life of LL-L I have several
times been approached by far(-ish) right-wing organizations of the
Netherlands, Belgium and South Africa (so far never of Germany, Britain or
the Americas), who seemed to have misread our purposes in like manner and
were hoping to have their seeds fall on fertile ground.  While I try to keep
censorship to the bare minimum, I have consistently ignored such contact
seekers and will do so in the future.

Perhaps we ought to make our purposes clearer, stress our internationalist,
inclusive spirit more clearly?  Or would this mean having lunatics dictate
our actions?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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