THE EXPENSIVE DREAM
about clean energy

For some context: while these guy's conservative-liberal dream coalition is in a disarray with the FDP skirting the 5% limit, their beloved reforms are stalled, the government chose this time to push its unpopular nuxlear power plant life extension plan, while the Greens soar above 20% in the poll. And they just love to play Don Quixote. It was one of the very first signs of SPIEGEL's transformation.

Founder Rudolf Augstein died in November 2002. Shortly after,

1. a series of articles highly critical of the USA getting ready to attack Iraq was 'balanced' by serialised excerpts from Kenneth Pollack's crap propaganda book about Saddam;
   
2. in stark contrast to earlier in-depth reportages, SPIEGEL TV (the chief editor of which became Augstein's successor) made a flimsy generalising reportage about criminal refugee seekers;
   
3. After a long history of Israel-critic articles (Augstein was a former schoolmate of Uri Avnery), one of the main commentators suddenly felt free to push a rather Likudnik line;
   
4. The tradition of the economy section to interview an economist with unconventional views every week ceased;
   
5. finally, months after the on-line edition published a thorough debunking of anti-wind propaganda, came this cover article:

THE WINDMILL MADNESS
From the dream of environmentally friendly energy to landscape destruction with high subventions

Now, I think SPIEGEL's transformation had deeper reasons than a simple change at the helm, and I think some of the opposition to wind has the same roots. The current generation at the helm is the youth of the late seventies, the half-generation right after the '68ers. Every generation is supposed to rebel; but a large part of this generation chose to rebel against the fading and failing ideals of the hippies and beatniks and soixante-huitards of the previous generation. And they're still at it. Of course, the constant urge to bring down ideals can only be nihilistic, and if I am allowed some psychologising, the lack of own grand achievement only adds to the destructive urge...

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}