Government participation | Between the desire to have children and the desire to govern

That's right. But at the same time, does that mean you can't change them for the better? Photo: Unsplash/Stephan Ruckert In left-wing queer circles, the topic of having children has long been highly controversial. It can hardly be denied that the decision to reproduce genetically is selfishly motivated, shaped by conservative gender ideas and extremely harmful to the climate. In my home country Israel, which has the highest birth rate in the OECD, antimilitarism also played a role. At the radical block at the CSD, some even shouted: “I don’t shoot, I don’t give birth, I’m a traitor.” It rhymes in Hebrew.

Such considerations were certainly not insignificant for my previous decision to remain childless. Admittedly, as a gay man the matter is not as obvious as it is with my straight friends. But some constellation would certainly have been found if I had really wanted it - even without using an outsourced uterus abroad, as some CDU men have recently done. In addition to the politics, there was also some personal stuff behind it: raising children, even in a less desolate world, is anything but easy.

Yossi Bartal has been an enthusiastic Neukölln resident since 2006. Growing up in West Jerusalem, he learned early on that self-hatred is the noblest form of hate. With a healthy dose of skepticism towards the state and the law, he writes for nd.Digital every third Monday of the month about parallel societies, (substitute) nationalism and the fight for a better world.

Not only is it a hell of a lot of work that never seems to end, even with grandparents and friends there to help. Becoming a mother or father means a responsibility that, to be honest, I don't feel up to. I imagine sharing this task with a partner or several people is even more difficult, with all the programmed conflicts about the right upbringing. And these aren't my only fears: What if the child isn't as perfect, smart or lovable as you dream? What if she wants to be a police officer, or worse, an investor? But most of all I'm afraid of messing up my job and being a bad father.

In the last few days I have had to admit to myself that my feelings about the rampant desire to have children in my circle of friends are strangely similar to those that creep up on me about the Left's election success in Berlin and the associated government mandate to the top candidate Elif Eralp. Because as much as I am happy about the strong results of the left in the city, especially in my district of Neukölln, the idea that this wonderful, colorful group of party activists - who challenge the prevailing politics so convincingly - should suddenly govern an entire city, a single federal state, and under a federal government that is moving to the right and saving everything, is also costing me sleep.

A city government can hardly provide an answer to the really big problems in federal politics - financially, its scope is more than limited, and in terms of foreign policy it remains little more than symbolic. Some activists also recognized this before the election and published a statement in which they rejected any participation in the government and asked: "Do we want to help manage the misery of this government together with the SPD and the Greens, as was the case in the past - or do we make Berlin the heart of the resistance?"

To me, this either/or question seems a bit shortened: Numerous left-wing experiments around the world show that it was and is entirely possible for left-wing mayors - from Ada Colau in Barcelona to Zohran Mamdani in New York - to implement noticeable improvements for their population and to repeatedly use their role for protests, be it against the genocide in Gaza or in the fight against Big Tech, especially Airbnb. At the same time, it is also true that in order to be able to govern at all, they had to make painful compromises. The NYPD was not defunded and continues to engage in racial profiling, capitalism and mass tourism were not defeated in Barcelona, ​​and the movements that brought those mayors into office themselves became less rebellious and confrontational as soon as former fellow activists took over positions.

In the meantime, and this may be completely projective, I still recognize in such total opposition positions of many on the left, even if you clearly win the elections, something of my own fear of responsibility and the worry of doing even worse than someone else. But should the left still dare to lead? In these dark times, do you want to be an island of hope against all odds? 

As the Canadian authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor describe in their new book "Endzeitfascism", the different right-wing reactions to the multi-crises of our world are no longer an attempt to overcome them, by whatever authoritarian means, but rather to prepare for the end times of humanity, even to accelerate it in order to force an extremely exclusionary survival of the chosen few. This unites religious extremists with their messianic Armageddon visions, tech fascists who want to replace us with machines, and ethnonationalists who only want to arm their favorite people from the coming catastrophes. 

How are we supposed to stand up to these mass murderous plans from the most powerful people in the world right now while navigating the collapse that is already occurring? Klein and Taylor speak of the need for a life-affirming politics that tries to save the imperfect existing situation and at the same time takes revolutionary and militant action against the enemies of humanity. A pro-life policy, but very different from what abortion opponents mean by the branding. The global emergence of rebellious cities against media smear campaigns and fascist threats shows one way. 

I don't know what that means specifically for us in Berlin. But perhaps in the end the answer to government responsibility and the desire to have children is the same: As long as I know where I'm going and am prepared to stand my ground - I want to dare to do it at some point. Or, as the mystic Rabbi Nachman of Breslev put it more beautifully: "The whole world is a narrow bridge, and the main thing is not to be afraid at all."

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