Normal – Eine Besichtigung des Wahns. Ein Abend gegen Irrationalismus und instrumentelle Vernunft

In the organizer's words:

Thomas Ebermann, Thorsten Mense, Flo Thamer
Pandemic, climate change, wars, tax returns, traffic jams - crisis after crisis, with no end in sight.

Some are fleeing into conspiracy beliefs or outright fascism. They are the end-time warriors in animal costumes, following QAnon all the way to the Capitol. They are the tinfoil hat wearers who demonstrate against chemtrails and forced vaccination. They are the Reichsbürger*innen, the fighters against the "Great Reset" and the "Great Exchange". The incels are also there, with their hatred of women, which can escalate into murder and is celebrated in manifestos. Politicized collective madness - always on the lookout for world-dominating masterminds who are guilty and are usually called Soros.

The others cling to common sense. They defend the expert against the charlatan, reason against delusion. They are industrious, consider nations and the property system to be as natural as the strong defeating the weak. They know that collateral damage is not nice, but unavoidable: The starving, the homeless, the freezing to death every winter, the drowned in the Mediterranean. Even if they read horoscopes, they still don't think it's entirely proven that the stars determine our fate - and they only read those that advise people to do what society demands of them anyway.

Their reason is instrumental, reason in the service of unreason. It's all about the how, not the why. Everything is a means to get through and get ahead personally, to keep oneself and the business running. Effectiveness replaces any thought of a humane organization of the world. Even in thinking, only what is useful is allowed. Only those who are productive are worth living. Normal is anyone who is healthy and able to work. The path from self-optimization to eugenics is shorter than the treadmill in the gym: instrumentally rational and murderously delusional at the same time.

The praise of normal people is booming. Whether AfD or Sahra Wagenknecht, whether the Freedom Party in Austria or the Social Democratic Chancellor here, they are all doing politics that the Bild newspaper uses to advertise: the simple, unpretentious and selfless, hard-working person who has been betrayed by intellectuals, lifestyle leftists and elites is celebrated. At the same time, the praise of the normal harbours contempt; it always has the cynical purpose of perpetuating their narrow-mindedness and the socially shitty position of the subaltern - in the name of the highest esteem, of course.

Like the normal person, normality is also highly prized. For a long time now, it has been generally accepted that the Germany that committed Auschwitz is therefore not something negatively special, but can claim normality for itself, if not even destined to take on responsibility in the world again. For some, this is not enough. They are calling for "Germany, but normal", a normality that was established in the good old days and has perished due to population exchange, gender mania, vilification of the tried and tested diesel engine, etc. and therefore needs to be revived. But the normality that is promised in every crisis as something that can be quickly restored is also a bleak hope. It makes sacred what is right because it is right - without critically questioning the state of the world and the suffering of its victims. The "voice of reason" teaches that everything utopian, everything wanting to break free, not wanting to resign oneself to the status quo, has no chance and is doomed to painful failure. But the normal state of affairs, "that it goes on like this", is the real catastrophe.

On stage and screen, we see - appropriately polemical, satirical and analytical, questioning and criticizing - the completely normal delusion and the delusion of normality, the pathogenic in the normal, and the irrational, which is not the opposite of the normal, but grows out of it. It will be as funny as Adorno's steel baths are funny.

Prior reservation is required for participation:
Participation only with prior seat reservation, the reservation is 0.01 euros.
Seat reservations are valid until 6:45 pm, after which they become invalid and the remaining available seats will be opened up to those without a reservation.
Seat reservations are available online here.

Admission for a donation on entry in the evening.

Price information:

Prior reservation is required for participation: Participation only with prior seat reservation, the reservation is 0.01 Euro. The seat reservations are valid until 18:45, after which they lose their validity and the remaining available seats will be opened for those interested without prior reservation. Seat reservations are available online here. Admission for a donation at the entrance on the evening.