Prices will rise, politicians will philander, you, too, will get old.

[oloriel]

Ye Valar, and I am saying this before even looking at the first extrapolations, because I have, as usual, spent most of my day doing building stuff, at the moment I'm just glad the so-called Superwahljahr ("super election year") is over now.

For the non-Germans, this year got its title because it featured three elections (European; local; national), so we got three times the campaigning (you wouldn't believe how mad the campaigning for the local election of all things was in my sleepy backwater town), three times the annoying snail-mail election spam, three times the stupid talks and promises, radio and tv spots, posters with smiling faces you wouldn't even trust with your garbage ... and now, either way, it's finally over. Now we just get to wait for the results. Dare I look at the extrapolations?

... black - yellow. (That means a coalition between the Christian Democrats and the Liberal Democrats, i.e. the two "big" conservative parties on the spectrum, although they'd probably both still be on the left-hand side of the American Republicans. I am too tired now to explain German politics, but I'm sure there's a wikipedia article somewhere.)
My grandmother called and was triumphant; I have seen the first entries on my flist going something along the lines of "the world is ending" and "this is no longer a country worth living in" and "all solidarity and liberty are going to diiiie".
So I feel almost bad about being entirely unshocked, and doubting, honestly, that the world is going to end.

I was born in 1983, so for the first 15 years of my life the country was ruled by the Christian Democrats. I admit that my memory of most of these years, especially of the political aspects, is not entirely clear, but I don't remember that it was exactly horrible. This may sound naïve, but somehow I can't imagine that the four years are going to be entirely dreadful, no longer worth living in, etc.
(Actually I feel reminded of an extremely Catholic girl on deviantART who, after Obama was elected president, said "Now I know the world is going to end" and "I wish I were dead so I didn't have to see these days". I would have thought that the left-ish crew on my flist wouldn't be as silly as that, but apparently I was wrong. Nota bene: You don't need to be religious to say crazy stuff, any kind of conviction will do. I mean, this is not about agreeing or disagreeing with political opinions. This is about "Waaah, this 4.6 billion years-old planet is going to stop turning now of all times because a party I don't agree with got elected. I wish I were dead." Overreacting much? Or "Now we can bury all solidarity"? Seriously? All? We are talking about the conservatives, not about the inhumane! )
You know what? I suspect we'll survive. (Unless of course the world will end in 2012, in which case I'd hope the German government - either option - wouldn't be accountable.) I certainly understand the disappointment, I understand anger, too, but frankly there's enough mud to be slung in any direction, and as long as neither the far right nor the far left win, I'm sufficiently relaxed. It'll all boil down to the usual: It could always have been better, and it could also have been worse, and we can, as always, grouse about the government.

Amusingly, I am not in fact a fan of either of the winning parties, but if this is indeed the result of the election, this may mean that I need no longer fear that my husband will definitely loose his job (or have to move to Sweden or Finland or Canada, all of which are nice places but we kind of have a house here that'd be hard to transport) in ten years' time.
Alas, the conflict!

Speaking of the house, things you do not want to find while laying new pipes:

Surpraiz tunnel! I iz in ur fundaments, undermining ur houz.

- - -

Random observation: This year saw the lowest turnout since before WWII. This surprised me, even though I was sick of all the election hassle. Why? Because if anyone among my friends, acquaintances and relations didn't go to vote, I don't know about it. On the contrary, pretty much everybody I talked to through the past few days said something along the lines of "You're going to vote tomorrow/on Sunday too, aren't you?" Duh, yes. So are you, right?
So the 72,5 % turnout really did make me go "Huh, really?". This time it's not geek blindness, this time it's intellectual blindness?

Comments

[satismagic.livejournal.com]

According to that Mayan or whatever calendar, the world is only going to end in 2012, right?

So I don't think it will be possible to blame German government. ;-)

(And I seriously hope that the last two HP movies will be out before the world ends, because DAMN I'd hate to have the world end without having watched them.)

Apart from that? BWHAHAHAHAHAHA! Those hysterics make me laugh so hard, they are that ridiculous.

For the record, I haven't voted at all because I'm still in the place where all bad alternatives are so vile that I can't live with voting for any of the available choices.

(I had considered the Pirates' Party, though.)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Yup, it's the Mayan calendar (and I think some Cabbalistic calendar, too - and going by the "6000 years" thing, the apocalypse should be happening around now, too ;)) - but any cataclysm has to be triggered by something. Be it the dawn of the gods, the quantum butterfly, or the black-yellow coalition. ;)

For the record, I haven't voted at all because I'm still in the place where all bad alternatives are so vile that I can't live with voting for any of the available choices

*gasps* You're ruining my perfect 100%-of-acquaintances-voted turnout! You of all people! *shock! horror!*

(That's another interesting point, btw. If my flist were in any way representative, the Pirates would likely have gained the absolute majority...)

[satismagic.livejournal.com]

*smirks*

At least I was election supervisor again (or whatever the correct term is in English...can't be arsed to look it up now).

But yes, second time that I abstained in national elections. I'm a person of principles; there comes a time when the best of all bad alternatives is just too awful for me to live with it.

I'm definitely going to keep an eye on the FDP...if they'll live up to their promise of being more than just a party for capitalism above everything.

[chili-das-schaf.livejournal.com]

I was very surprised, too. Everyone was talking about election, even people who never were remotely interested.

[vout.livejournal.com]

I have seen the first entries on my flist going something along the lines of "the world is ending" and "this is no longer a country worth living in" and "all solidarity and liberty are going to diiiie".

I hope you don't include my entry?

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

You neither said "the world is ending" nor "this is no longer a country worth living in" nor "all solidarity and liberty are going to diiiie", did you? Accordingly, no, I don't.
(Actually I hadn't even read your entry when I wrote this, but even so, while I don't see things nearly as bleakly as you, I didn't count your entry among the absurd ones. After all you voiced a concrete fear, not a generalised "Aaaah, we're all gonna die".)

[yoodi.livejournal.com]

> (Unless of course the world will end in 2012, in which case I'd hope the German government - either option - wouldn't be accountable.)

Shhh, don't mention the war.

But yes, 99% of people I know voted, too. .... Or said they did. *dundunDUN*

[tears-of-nienna.livejournal.com]

Wow, 72.5% turnout is low for you guys? You're putting us Americans to shame. According to Infoplease, the US voter turnout for the 2008 presidential election was 56.8%--and that's the highest it's been since the 1960s.

Now I'm kind of angry at my country. We want everyone in the world to have a democracy, but we can't be bothered to participate in our own? Ugh.

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

While the election results are certainly not the outcome I voted for or even hoped for, I find myself strangely paralyzed with caring not very much. Sometimes, I do wish I had stronger political convictions than just a general 'meh'. So, I am by no means surprised by the low voter turnout.