There’s an old metaphor in military affairs—one that apparently goes back to Plutarch—about the disaster that occurs when competent soldiers are led by incompetent officers—namely “Lions led by donkeys.” The adage was popular in Britain during the First World War, when it became evident that most English soldiers were brave and competent, but frequently reduced to cannon fodder by their terrible leadership.
Since it became a unified country under Bismarck in 1871, Germany has frequently been led by donkeys. Kaiser Wilhelm II was a donkey and Hitler was a psychopathic rogue donkey. Now the much-abused citizens of Germany are being governed by a faltering Rainbow Coalition of Donkeys.
Guys like me who have a longstanding fascination with German culture, music, philosophy, and engineering can only regard what has happened to the poor Federal Republic with great sadness.
I thought of this adage this morning when I read an essay by fellow Substack author Eugyppius, who just published a marvelous essay titled German fascism crisis escalates as Elon Musk publishes a devastating 600-word editorial explaining why he supports Alternative für Deutschland.
The reaction to Musk’s perfectly reasonable editorial strikes me as the most remarkable outpouring of stupidity I have seen since the cancellation of Stefan Mickisch, one of Germany’s greatest musicians, in 2022.
Hellbound and Down 