The Nazis used all sorts of really cool names to describe themselves: Herrenvolk (master race), Übermenschen (literally “overmen” or even “supermen” as opposed to “Christian”) or Christlichen Adel Deutscher Nation (Christian noble German nation). But my all-time favorite is Kulturträger (culture bearer). Yes, the political movement which was born in refined atmosphere of German beer breweries and whose top leaders loved to repeat the motto “whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my gun” (a paraphrase from a play by Hanns Johst which actually read Wenn ich Kultur höre … entsichere ich meinen Browning) – did see themselves are bearers of culture, meaning “real” culture, as opposed to the putatively “decadent” “un-German” non-Nazi culture.
The culture-bearers are gone nowadays, replaced by another breed of masters – the democracy-bearers to whom we are all supposed to be eternally grateful for “defending our rights” and “serving” “our” country.
And if NY cops are known as “New York’s finest”, then the US “servicepersons” (men, women and LGBT) are, of course, the “best soldiers in the world” (nevermind that their actual combat record tells a very different story). If the cops are “our” “thin blue line” standing between “us” and all those evil criminals, then the US servicepersons are the “thin green line” standing between “us” and all those evildoers and terrorist who want to kill us for our freedoms. Cops “serve and protect” at home, servicepersons “serve and protect” us abroad.
Today is their day – the day of the Democracy-bearers whose “sacrifices” we must never forget and to whom we ought to be eternally grateful.
Happy Democracy-bearer Memorial Day everybody!
