Chapter 94 without you there would be no them

I watched "The Lives of Others" again. In my memory, this is the only movie that I took the initiative to watch a second time.The reason for re-reading it is very simple: the first time I read it, I swallowed too much, and I didn't pay attention to a key question, how did the "bad guy" become a "good guy".To be exact.I would like to know from which crack the collapse of a decaying mansion begins. The plot of "The Lives of Others" is well known: in 1984, East German secret policeman Wiesler was sent to spy on a playwright Georg. As a result, he not only failed to collect the writer's reactionary words and deeds as planned, but was moved by the love and courage of him and his girlfriend , Finally, the betrayal organization secretly rescued him.

Watching it a second time with a clear awareness of the problem, I regretfully found that the director didn't answer my question at all: the "bad guy" didn't "become good", he was always good.Not long after the movie started, when his boss, Crubitz, said that he wanted to bring down so-and-so through monitoring, he asked: "Is this why we joined the organization in the first place?" A person who even asked why could be a good secret policeman.He was moved to tears when he heard Georg play Beethoven.One who asks why, and one who is sentimental.So the biggest problem of the film does not seem to be how "bad guys" become "good guys", but how "good guys" allow themselves to do "bad things" for so many years. Wiesler worked as a model worker for the secret police for 20 years before becoming the hero of the film.If he can work as a model for 20 years without shame, then he should be able to continue working as a model; if he can be so easily moved by the listener, then it is impossible for him to work as a model for 20 years.

There seem to be only two real "bad guys" in the movie, one is the minister Hempf, and the other is the police chief Crubicz.Just two people can change the fate of so many people, and the reason is that "they" have turned "you" into "them".They recruited countless secret police in the name of defending the country, they developed traitors among artists, they forced Christa to inform, they kept Georgs silent... Without "you", "they" are nothing but a bunch of clowns. But who are "you"? "You" may take your children to your parents' house on weekends to enjoy family happiness, "you" may call 911 for help when you see a car accident on the road, "you" may be angry when you see bad guys bullying good people in TV dramas, but you are in While doing all this, he would also climb to other people’s attics like Wiesler did—of course not only attics, but also at the door of the suspect’s house, unit, and between the lines of his speech—and say: Look, this bastard, even took The suicide rate of the GDR is making a fuss, arrest him!

"What do they believe?" I once tried to discuss this with a friend: "How do they convince themselves that a person who says something honestly should be arrested?" Really, how do they convince themselves This matter is confusing first, and frustrating second. How can they turn around and say to their children after wiretapping, harassment, stalking, attacking and persecuting honest and upright people: Son, you have to be a good person. That friend said: "There is no need for belief, it is an instinct to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages." I thought moral sense, shame, and guilt were also human instincts.

Perhaps it is for this reason that Wielser is too idealistic; as part of the state apparatus, he refuses to be completely mechanized, and he still has a sense of shame.The movie even described him very pitifully, living alone in a cold bachelor apartment, being scolded as a "bad guy" by children face to face in the elevator, and the prostitutes he hired didn't even want to stay for half an hour longer.But in real life, those "you" who become "them" may have a better life than anyone else: they talk and laugh happily at the dinner table, are proud of their relatives and friends, and have success in business.It is precisely because of this that you are still rushing to become them.

If the film shows a realistic portrayal of East Germany in 1984, it is not surprising that five years later the dramatic changes.When the kids in the elevator can humiliate the secret police and he is left speechless, it can only be said that society has changed its mind.In fact, judging from the plot of the story, the means of control in East Germany at that time were so poor that they relied entirely on coercion: listen or not?If you don't listen to me, I will let you have nothing to eat.When the ruler's means of governing have become so impoverished that only coercion remains, it is near its end.We have said since childhood that the material base determines the superstructure, but perhaps historical materialism occasionally gets distracted, and the material base will also be abducted by the superstructure.As for how the superstructure changed its mind, how the 20-year-old secret police suddenly changed from "them" to "us", the movie doesn't explain clearly, and I haven't found the answer. It seems that I have to keep looking.