How to Do Escapism in the Trump Era
In 1983, the head of the West German mission in East Berlin, Günter Gaus, described the German Democratic Republic as a “niche society.” Gaus observed that East Germans delighted in the spaces where they could fully withdraw from politics. It was “the place where they leave it all behind and, with family and among friends, water their potted plants, wash their cars, play cards, talk, celebrate. And where they think about how, and with whose help, they could procure and organize what’s still needed to make the niche even homier.”
Gaus saw the creation of niches as a release valve where East Germans lived out their desires for individual freedom in the face of a hostile government hell-bent on promoting its own ideological agenda. But this release valve, Gaus thought, was counterproductive: The apolitical focus on the domestic rendered citizens defenseless and enhanced the absolute power of the regime.
It’s true that former socialist leaders eventually allowed and even encouraged people to attend more to their personal lives to quell rising dissent. By providing the time (shorter workdays, lower retirement ages) and the infrastructure (allotment garden plots, cultural centers, campgrounds) for the niche society to develop and flourish, GDR leaders could even point to the rich social lives of East Germans as one of the unique triumphs of socialism.