Ben Stein On Geopolitics And High Heels

Commentator Says The Changing Landscape Of Berlin Shows Hope For The Human Spirit

(CBS)  Footwear and geopolitics are on the mind during the travels of commentator Ben Stein.

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"The future of mankind," said George Orwell in his masterwork "1984," "is a boot stamping on a human face. Forever."

I've been thinking about this since my trip this summer to Berlin. I stayed at a spectacular hotel called the Hotel De Rome. It looks out on a magnificent plaza called the Bebelplatz. In this grand piazza in May of 1933, Adolf Hitler's Nazis staged their first mass bookburning, in which they piled books in a bonfire - books by Thomas Mann, Heinrich Heine, and others deemed decadent or Jewish, or both.

Near this place, Hitler reviewed his SS troops, as they marched off for conquest and genocide. At the end of the war, there was extremely violent fighting right there between the Russians and the Nazis.

Back then, the building where our hotel is was the headquarters of the East German Central Bank, funding one of the most repressive regimes of all time.

Yes, a boot stamping on a human face for a very long time, indeed.

But now there are some new shoes in the Bebelplatz, and they sure ain't jackboots. They are a four-story high image of a woman's feet in two extremely expensive-looking high-heeled shoes (lizard, I think), against the side of a centuries-old building. They are part of an ad for a high fashion magazine and, although I am no shoe fetishist, they look pretty good to me.

German schoolkids and adults pass by, smile, and move on to other parts of swinging Berlin.

So, this is the way the world turns. The power of longing, of style, of desire to be beautiful and sexy, to be loved, now holds sway over what was Hitler's brutal Berlin and, until a blink of an eye ago, rigid East Berlin.

No more books are burned here.

Free capitalism, and the desire to be an individual in high-heeled shoes, showed itself more in tune with human longings than did dictatorship, and so high style now rules the former bookburning square. In a world dark with threats, it's a bright spot of how the future might turn out.

There is always hope in the human spirit. Nice shoes, too. Great shoes.

[jdcsunny]

Oh great, high heel shoes, the ultimate symbol of female oppression. They''ve been crippling women for decades. No matter the pain, and the resulting bunions which make movement incredibly painful, if the male gaze finds them attractive, that''s the important thing.

[roger_inkart]

Ben Stein is little more then a conservative shill and not nearly as bright as he thinks he is.

[knyghtwolf]

bush, the shrubmonkey, wants Ben Stein''s money for its war machine!!!!!

[eggy1620]

Quatrops is right. The republicans know they%u2019re doomed this time next year, and they%u2019re bailing on the White House like never before. It%u2019s a sure bet that Bush will order the invasion of Iran before he leaves office, just to spite everyone. He%u2019s the kid who overturns the game board because he knows he%u2019s been bested.

[quatrops]

Sadly, there are far too many neo-cons (neo-fascists?) out there who might much prefer the book burnings and troop reviews.

It''s far too easy to picture Bush/Cheney reviewing the troops on the Washington Mall before sending them off to Iran. WAKE UP, AMERICA!

[mcorleone32]

Berlin has come full circle!!! Before Hitler it was THE place to go in Europe. Fancy casinos, world class symphonies, operas, plays were to be seen in Berlin. Berlin boasted the world''s greatest shopping centers. It was the capital with many of the world''s great authors, architects, and engineers. Then came Hitler, and after his cabal, the East German communists (of the Wall infamy).
Now Germany (and Berlin) are free to become productive members of the world again.

Obviously, rushlimpdrug knows nothing of history, nor how to read a transcript.

[rushlimpdrug]

"a four-story high image of a woman''s feet in two extremely expensive-looking high-heeled shoes . . the desire to be an individual in high-heeled shoes, . . There is always hope in the human spirit. Nice shoes, too. Great shoes."

This guy is a total low level idiot.
Hope in the human spirit relates to shoes. Wow.
Can he get any deeper?
Maybe if he had a lizard skin.
Yes, maybe lizard.

CBS, please wake up. Get someone REAL. to write something.
Or perhaps you may also want invite PeeWee Herman to express himself on your site.

[knyghtwolf]

Buhler.........Buhler.........Buhler.......get the red out......get the red out.......He is funny though and very VERY smart!!!!