Tuesday, April 27, 2010
The Stasi
In "The Lives of Others," our class witnessed the brutal effectiveness of the Stasi. However, the movie highlighted a fundamental flaw in this system: human compassion. Because of Weisler's choice to help Dreyman and Sieland, the entire ruthless Stasi system for finding out information about these 2 artists was rendered useless. One must wonder: was this an example of a freak occurrence, where a truly good man demonstrated his inner values, or were such acts of kindness being carried out "against" the Stasi on a daily basis? If so, then the effectiveness of the Stasi would have been neutralized. However, the Stasi were so effective at convincing members of society to spy on their comrades, that they were able to glean vast amounts of information.
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The Stasi’s effectiveness relates to the significant percentage of the East German population made up by Stasi agents. Former Stasi officials estimate that as many as two millions East Germans served as informants. It’s scary to think about the privacy, or lack thereof, that existed in East Germany. It would be very difficult to trust others, even one’s closest companions, as seen in “The Lives of Others.” Plus, East German citizens probably faced struggles truly being themselves. How could people express themselves, when they always had to worry about the looming presence of the Stasi? The consequences of every choice would be magnified; any small action viewed as anti-government could potentially lead to imprisonment or blacklisting.
ReplyDeleteI think that any acts of rebellion against the Stasi would have been the exception and not the norm. While it's nice to think that people are intrinsically good, Christa-Maria's readiness to give up Dreyman makes it obvious that (for some) morals are not always such a high priority. You said yourself that the Stasi was effective and able to "glean vast amounts of information"--they would not have been able to do so without the cooperation of a great deal of people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jasmine on the fact that it's hard to think acts against the Stasi were common. The fact that Christa-Maria completely backstabbed Dreyman suggests that the Stasi were feared so much that it didn't matter that Christa-Maria was hurting Dreyman, her boyfriend and her best friend. This also goes back to keeping yourself safe. Christa Maria prevented herself from going to jail for a longer period of time by cooperating with the Stasi.
ReplyDeleteWatch the film EAST,WEST (Est, Ouest) to see a very different but equally powerful scenario at work in STalin's Russia.
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