Camilio

Blog 18:

At the Humboldt Forum in Berlin, I visited the Berlin Global exhibition, where a simple protest sign from November 4th, 1989 struck a deep chord with me. In bold, sober letters it read: “Denken ist die erste Bürgerpflicht.” Thinking is the first duty of the citizen. A powerful and still painfully relevant message.

It made me think — ironically, exactly what the sign was asking of me. In a society where everything is constantly in flux, where opinions are formed in seconds and shared even faster, perhaps the most radical thing you can do is simply... think. Not shout, not follow, but pause — and consciously choose your position. That, of course, applies to me as well.

Anyone who considers themselves part of society carries a responsibility. Not just to act (and pay taxes), but first and foremost to think andunderstand (before to start shouting and acting). And that’s not always easy — it requires effort, even study: reading books, watching arthouse films, following the news (and checking the facts behind the news — yes, that too is your own responsibility), reading the papers (not just one), look outside your buble and more. Even those who exist on the fringes of the system — or outside of it entirely — the so-called autonomes, the outsiders — still define themselves in relation to that same system. And even there, it all begins with thinking.

Jules Deelder (Dutch poet (Rotterdam) once said: “The environment of man is his fellow man.” A sharp observation. But I would add: what is a human being who doesn’t think — or worse, can no longer think, and only consumes? What remains is a shadow, a cog in a machine without direction. That’s why it’s so serious — tragic even — that education is once again being cut back. It was already far from ideal.

Thinking is not a luxury, it is free for everyone to exercise. It’s not a hobby for intellectuals, artists or philosophers alone. It’s a duty. A daily act of resistance against emptiness, commodification, laziness, and indifference. Because only by thinking can we choose. And only by choosing can we truly be human. Otherwise, before you know it, you’re blindly following some orange- racist shouting clown — or a scared loudmouth whit white painted hair. So-called "politicians" who, in a democratic system, manipulate you into voting for them, only to then hollow out that very same democracy — something that is happening right now, in the Netherlands, in the United States, Italy, Germany, etc..

One might wonder whether the Berlin city government — the same government that decided, after the fall of the Wall, to tear down the Palast der Republik (a building I often cycled past in 2003 and even once visited after the asbestos was removed) — really thought things through when they replaced it with a kind of fake Berliner Stadtschloss. A reconstruction with partly dull modern façades and an equally uninspired interior. I’ll probably never know for sure. Bringing down the symbol of the past GDR because you feel uncomfortable with it? Not leaving it as a symbol to remember the past and turn it in to something positive? 

What I do see is a growing trend in this city to smooth everything over. And sadly, that's something I've seen more and more often since my time studying here back in 2003. Berlin is slowly losing its rough edges. Because here too, big money rules — and thoughtful reflection is in increasingly short supply. Now in 2025 it is obviously clear that money en capitalism rule stronger more than ever.