The full archive of Right Angle lives at here. Don’t have enough time to watch it all?
The New York Times marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a photo essay, and quotes historian Anne Applebaum saying, “It was not a triumph of good over evil. It was basically incompetence — and chance.” Bill Whittle, Stephen Green and Scott Ott remember it differently.
26 replies on “Berlin Wall Falls…by Accident: NOT a Triumph of Good Over Evil, Historian Says”
In the early 50’s my US Air Force family lived in Germany. My dad periodically flew into Templehof Airdrome to keep the navigation equipment calibrated so that US aircraft did not get outside the flight corridor into Berlin–and get shot down by those peace-loving Russians. One of those times he was in downtown West Berlin near the Brandenberg Gate with our movie camera. He shot footage of the bustling West Berlin side–lots of color, activity, commerce, people with places to go and things to do. And then he panned around to the East Berlin view–gray, brown, bombed out ruins, no one anywhere in sight–a very ugly place indeed. When he came home, he got the film developed, and then we had a little family movie night to watch his newest production. When it came to that part about the two Berlins, I (a 7-year-old girl) was astounded at what I was seeing–one city with two different worlds in view. I asked my dad, “Why is that one side so nice and the other side so awful?” And my dad took that opportunity to explain to me the difference between communism versus free market. On that day in my young life, I became a fervent anti-communist and a fervent conservative. And I have never looked back and have spoken up to say why again and again in my 73 years.
Some people did something and a wall appeared. Or something.
To Bill’s point that entering East Berlin was like the door opening shot in Wizard of Oz in reverse, well, I experienced exactly that. As a vagabonding college student, I was in West Berlin in 1961 right before the wall went up. Although it wasn’t easy, getting into East Berlin seemed like a great idea at the time, so I went through Checkpoint Charlie and the East German checkpoint at about 8:00 at night. When I exited the checkpoint I stepped into a darkness only lighted by the reflection of West Berlin lights on low hanging clouds. There was a single street light dimly glowing about two blocks ahead, with nothing but darkness filling the distance between me and that feeble glow. I walked down the street and was shocked to see huge mounds of rubble on each side, obviously left over from WWII.
I went into a bar and it looked like a noir set from a bad spy movie. There was no laughter, no animated conversations, virtually no sound at all, just a low hum of subdued murmuring. The light was dim, the patrons were ragged and looked at me with dead incurious eyes. The bartender, again like a movie heavy, was fat, bald, and hostile. Sensibly, I fled. I had left America as a standard campus leftie, but returned a nascent conservative. Perhaps some of the current crop of campus progressives would benefit from a visit to such a socialist country as East Berlin in 1961. Venezuela perhaps.
This is why I love listening to you guys. Your passion for freedom, your extensive love of and knowledge of history is worth every penny I’ve paid over the last several years to see your posts. Thank God for each of you!
Loved your anecdote Steve!
Mine – In Sept 1989 I was in Düsseldorf recording a couple tracks in a friend’s studio. One evening after finishing up for the day we were sitting around chatting over a couple of those tasty altbiers when I just totally off the cuff said I believed that there would be just one Germany again. I had no idea though that it would happen so quickly, just months.
Outstanding episode!
Scott, your passion and humanity here was awesome.
Bill, this “wall” you’re talking about is called Moralism. The thing people don’t understand is that the opposite of moral is amoral, not immoral. Moralism is a system of morals; things that are moral vs. things that are immoral. Amoralism is a system that believes there is neither moral nor immoral positions. This historian is an abject amoralist; there is no difference between good or evil. The Berlin Wall falling did not signify good triumphing over evil, since good and evil don’t exist.
Yes, Steve, it was all an “accident” if you’re an amoralist like that NYT writer.
Bill, we have an even greater enemy; the enemy within. This country is rotting from the inside out.
“To eliminate all this is to become complicit in the murder of millions and millions of people” The same can be said of the debate between pro-life and pro-abortion advocates.
Scott – it got a little dusty in here. Not sure I got it all right. I will have to listen again (or 3).
Arguably one of the best R/A posts
Scott this may have been your most passionate response…love it.
And ‘we the people’ are here by accident…?
Hey Scott, just FYI, that red dot in the bottom left that alerted me to responses has gone away. I’m not getting any alerts when someone’s responded to my comments. Figured you might wanna know.
I just noticed the same today – thanks for mentioning, FG
I can see it right now as I type this. What browser are you using?
Brave, not there with shields up or down. And Vivaldi, not there with uBlock on or off.
Also using Brave
BTW, on a side note I recently Netflixed the DVD of “Meeting Gorbachev” by Werner Herzog. I got it expecting an interesting biography and historical context for one of history’s major figures.
I’ll save you the trouble of viewing – what I got instead was being told that Gorby was the true hero of the end of The Cold War
That’s a drag.
Hi, Scott! Which book by Dugald Stewart are you reading? Thanks for your insights today!
Thank you . . . .
When , where , how can we see the Whittle – Robinson interview? It seems to me that Peter is a sort of reluctant Trumper on the Ricochet podcasts with several Never Trumpers.
Steve’s story sounds just like Anthony Edward’s scene in Gotcha! He’s walking past Checkpoint Charlie just escaping E. Berlin. Asks the marine on duty “I’m in the American sector?” “Yeah”, the marine replies. Anthony turns back, flips off the E Germans and yells, “F**K YOU!”. As the marine watches Anthony walk off, he says to himself, “Damn, I’ve been wanting to do that for the last year.”
I think “Gotcha!” came out in 1984.
I liked it better when Robin Williams cracking in Good Morning Vietnam that “It turns out that The Berlin Wall was just a huge fraternity stunt” was considered a joke and not actual history
Scott, minor admin error – you have this video under Bill Whittle Now instead of Right Angle.
Thanks for catching that, Bob. I have mended my ways.
Living and dieing is not a simple matter of a difference of opinion. Yet, that is exactly the position of the left of left: life is meaningless thus all life must be terminated. Especially those who are not left of left.