On Outrage...

This week, there was a lot of outrage at footage of people singing Nazi slogan at a party on Sylt - a German island, mostly for the rich.

This video was shocking for many, as they believed that today only two groups of people would sympathize with Nazis: The first being the poor and uneducated and the second one being people from East Germany i.e. former DDR.

The people singing Nazi slogans on Sylt were neither poor, nor did it seem as they were from East Germany.

Growing up in Aachen which is the most western part of Germany, right at the Dutch and Belgian boarder, I experienced my fair share of racism throughout my childhood and adolescence. And in many cases it was well educated people including some of my teachers - see my previous article On Women.

But this article should not be about me, nor should it be about the topic of racism. This article is all about outrage.

Being outraged is simply not enough...

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to have a one-on-one with a legendary German entrepreneur, none other than Prof. Manfred Maus - the founder of OBI.

This 89 year old man shared with me so many insights from his life that I am still digesting them. But one that I took immediately with me is that "Being outraged is simply not enough..."

Being outraged does not help anyone. Being outraged does not solve a problem. Being outraged does not bring justice.

At best, being outraged can be a trigger towards action. At worst, being outraged gives us the feeling that we have done our fair share of work to deal with a problem... but as the problem is not solved, we have not achieved anything.

What can we do instead? The hard work... Yes, I said it. Being outraged is the easy part. Nothing is easier than sitting on your couch and writing a few words of outrage on LinkedIn, X (formerly known as Twitter), or other platforms.

The hard part is getting your ass up and asking yourself do I really care about this? If yes, what I am going to DO against it?

The DOING part is always the hard part. The SAYING part is always the easy part... as with anything in life.

So what can we do about it?

1. We can go and demonstrate
2. We can vote
3. We can debate with our friends and our colleagues... yes, have that awkward conversation where you ask them who are you going to vote for
4. We can engage in politics ourselves

The first three are all no brainers... doesn't mean that they are easy, but who said that life is about things being easy?

The last one - getting engaged in politics is the really hard part.

Despite all the work I do, I decided almost 3 years ago to join a political party. I first became a member of FDP - the liberal party in Germany. But after October 7th and their blind solidarity with Israel, I could not remain a member of that party.

And before anyone calls me an anti-semite, keep in mind I am married to a semite (Palestinians are semites), and I am not at all pro Hamas, as my family are political refugees from Iran.

Leaving the FDP does not mean that I am less eager to get engaged... I believe if I do not do anything e.g. join a political party nothing will change. I can still be outraged but nothing will change.

The challenge we all face is that the capitalist system, which as an entrepreneur I am in favor of, has one big flaw... And that flaw is that most people are day-in, day-out after money and thus forget that we all have an obligation, a duty towards our society.

It is not enough to work from 9-5, it is not enough to pay our fair share of taxes... we need to play a role in our society. Otherwise, our societies won't work. How we play that role, how we get engaged in some meaningful way is not taught to us. We are not encouraged to do this.

I want to make an argument that we need to do it... no matter whether it is encouraged or not. That is - to me - the definition of a duty. Something we do despite being incentivized. Something we do because we believe it is the right thing.

When my family came to Germany in 1986, we were accepted as political refugees fairly quickly. My parent's case was clear... there was no doubt for the judge that they had left their home country as their lives were in danger.

Within a few days both my sister and I, went to kindergarten. Within a few months, both of my parents were accepted at one of the best engineering schools in the world, and within a few years we were a member of this society.

Despite the racism we faced from time to time, the system worked. To just give you one example, we never had an issue getting into a sports club.

There were plenty of people spending their free time as coaches in football, swimming, or basketball clubs. This meant that every child had access - even my sister and I who came from a family with literally no money as both of my parents were studying.

Today, despite the completely opposite financial situation my family is in, it is almost impossible to get my daughter into gymnastics or my son into swimming classes. My older daughter's basketball team only works because I volunteered to be their coach.

Looking at the data, my observation seems to be wrong... apparently more and more people are getting engaged on a voluntary basis. But digging deeper one finds that they are a) spending less hours in average, and b) mostly spending their time collaborating via the internet vs. getting out there and working with people.

"Service to others is the rent we pay for our room here on earth!"

This quote by Muhammad Ali is my daily reminder that I have duties beyond the work that I do.

I have decided to join another political movement and am currently in conversation with members of that party to evaluate whether it is a good fit for both sides. Once I decide to take the next step, I am more than happy to share. And of course it is not the AfD.

I want to encourage all of you to evaluate what it is that you can do... Where and how do you want to get engaged?

If we just work and consume we will lose sight of what truly matters which is that we continuously build a society that will be better in the future. Because if we do not engage we will see things becoming worse - as I have experienced in Germany in the past 30+ years.

#FromNothingComesNothing