#maybe the equilibrium will be different than before but it will establish itself once more

[hizerain]

Hey, Henry. How have you been? Hope you're healthy and well. I'm an anon who often dropped by to check in (I'd say.. spanning over years now) on you but uh it's been a while now.. I've been going through some stuff lately, which kinda had me thinking about you and I hope things are much better at your end. Well, I hope you're doing well, my friend. Have a nice day/night, Henry :)

Dear Anon,

I'm currently doing rather well. I started reading The Brothers Karamazov today, it's been delightful so far and I cannot wait to see where it goes. Beside that, this is the first proper holiday I've had in over a year so I'm taking things easy, no obligations outside of those I made to myself.

I hope the tides will turn for you. Life can be quite harrowing at times, and I know in such moments that platitudes feel like little more than empty words but I do believe things will always turn out right, it's just a shame we can never say how long that will take or what it will look like but when it happens, I'm sure you'll know. Please take care.

Sincerely,

Henry.

[witchyintention]

𝕎𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕚𝕤 𝕎𝕚𝕥𝕔𝕙𝕔𝕣𝕒𝕗𝕥?

As of late many have found themselves taking steps into the wondrous world of witchcraft. However it is a lot more than just an aesthetic. It is a lifestyle that is both beautiful and dangerous when you don't know what you're doing. Witchy Intention is to help guide you in your craft and teach you through my experiences and research. Along with many other experienced witches through interviews.

When you hear someone say witchcraft you instantly jump to satanic or devil worship but truth be told it's not. Satan is a figure in Christianity and has absolutely nothing to do with witchcraft. So what is witchcraft you ask. Witchcraft is an earth based religion or practice, and has been practiced in almost all the societies and cultures across the world. Though each craft is different according to local beliefs and traditions.

According to scholars of witchcraft, it was a belief system whose origin predates the majority of well known religions. It dates back so far many do not know the exact date, but we have seen it in many cultures such as ancient Egyptians. It also has been evolving since then and its present form is quite different from what it was thousands of years ago. And different areas practiced it differently. Even today from person to person and Coven to Coven it is practice differently. To each their own. It's a unique experience in itself. 

In the ancient times, Witchcraft was known as ‘craft of the wise’ as the wise persons were those who followed the path of nature and were in tune with its forces, had the knowledge of herbs and medicines, gave wise counsel and were held in high esteem as Shamanic healers and leaders in the village and community. They understood that nature was superior to human beings and that human beings were simply one of the many parts of nature, both seen and unseen that combine to form one whole. As Chief Seattle said, “We do not own the earth; we are a part of it.” They understood that what we take from nature or use, we must return in kind to maintain the balance and equilibrium. The modern man has, however, forgotten this and has paid the price in the form of many ecological and environmental disasters.

Unfortunately for the past several hundred years the image of the witch has been associated with the evil, heathenism and unrighteousness due to prejudices created by the Christian church. Somewhere along the line Christians accused the Pagan Horned god as the devil because these pagans didn't believe in the same god as them. So what does some Christian of high power do? Calls it devil worship. Despite the fact the bible never tells us what Lucifer looks like upon going to hell. 

However, as of late people have started understanding and practicing witchcraft as the true religion of God and Nature. There is renewed interest in witchcraft and witches profess to believe and practice the craft with a sense of pride and confidence. The believers in the New Age movement have understood witchcraft in its true perspective.

Modern witchcraft attracts believers from all walks of life and positions in society all over the world. They come together to understand the life, nature, evolution and mysteries of the universe through witchcraft. Witchcraft is the most democratic religion and practices in the world. There is no rigid dogma and no hard-line regime except for a simple premise that we should not do evil and if we do, know it will come back in multiple. Though not all witches bide by this but many of us do. Secondly, we should not misuse the generosity of nature by disturbing its balance. This is certainly something we all bide by. 

There are many forms of witchcraft like I had said earlier it differs from person to person. I will have a separate episode going into the top most popular kinds of witches but for now let's just explain a few things. A lot of other belief systems have set rules of what is good and what is bad, think the ten commandments, or Orthodox Jews are not allowed to use anything mechanical on the Sabbath, or Muslims are only allowed to eat certain parts of the animal. Witchcraft isn't like that. It's more about the big picture and how our actions contribute to that big picture. 

I would also like to clarify that being a witch doesn't mean your Wiccan or even pagan. You can very much still be Christian and practice the craft. Remember I said witchcraft was all about the mother earth along with whatever god or gods you worship. This includes the Christian god. I personally know a few Christian witches.

��However note that if you are a Christian witch you will be working with only that god. If you plan to work with other gods perhaps you need to rethink your religion's standpoint. "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me" is one of the Ten Commandments found in the Hebrew Bible at Exodus 20:2 and Deuteronomy 5:6. With that said the craft is something unique and interesting but be careful because it is real and it can be dangerous. 

When new witches find themselves wanting to get into the craft but they really have no idea where to start. Try the history. There is a lot more history than I could even hope to cover in a single session. This is nothing more than an introduction to it. When you are learning about its history you will find many different kinds of practices. 

Though it's perfectly fine to be drawn to a practice and wanting to do it. Make sure you first do research on whether the practice is a closed or open practice. Closed practices are closed for a reason and most times you have to have approval to practice it and be sworn in. So if you find yourself wanting to do a closed practice make sure you do the research on how you can do it and do go through the proper procedures. 

Some might not let you in at all. For example Voodoo. Voodoo is one of the ones you work with your ancestors, an African folk magic. Those gods (spiritual beings? I really don't know.) are not going to be very accepting of one who is of European descent because your ancestors did their ancestors wrong. 

If you are considering the craft, know this, you will spend your whole life learning about the craft. Even the most seasoned of witches are constantly learning. The craft in a sense is like a hypothesis. You will constantly be learning, writing down your findings, doing this and that, to see if it works and figuring things out as you go. But before you even think about getting a head of yourself you need to do lots of research. Don't think 'oh I read a book I can now do a spell'. Witches read a lot. Even if we have already read something on a topic we will keep on. Cross reference everything you read. There is plenty of false information. Especially on the internet, but there are some good sources too.

You need tons of training and maybe even guidance from established witches before you cast your first spell. However we know full well that you learn by doing. So go for it but start with small simple spells. Note that writing a spell or doing a spell does not require a coven, animal bones, and full moon, as fun as nights involving these can be. In fact many witches don't have covens and many do not use animal bones. 

Sometimes it’s not about forming the biggest circle under a full moon, but just having a good time with other witches. Or even yourself if you prefer to do Magic solo. It's fine and very much acceptable. But coven or not it's always fun to do with friends. Nothing's like dancing around a bonfire with your best friends.

Practicing can get expensive. I mean you're going to spend a lot of money on books. Though the internet had everything you could possibly need, nothing beats a good book on witchcraft. I mean who doesn't want a bookshelf full of witchcraft research. Then the actual items you'll need will cost you. Even if it's not aesthetically pleasing. People tend to go a cheaper route using things for the dollar store or reusing sauce jars. Which is good but you will still spend a pretty penny because you'll constantly be getting new ones. Jars break, candles melt, herbs are all used up and crystals can and will break. And no your practice might not always be aesthetically pleasing or photo worthy at all time. Truth be told it can be a bit messy, kinda like arts and crafts. Then again witchcraft is both an art and a craft so it makes sense.

Not all witches are female. Whether you are male, nonbinary, trans, genderless, or anything in between, you can be a witch. It's true that there is a beautiful history of women and witchcraft but magick is genderless. Magik does not care about your gender, sexuality, or religious beliefs. Magik is also not good nor evil, it all depends on how the protactioner is using it.

Popular belief also tells that you have to be born into a witch family or your ancestors have to be a witch for you to be one. That's not true. I have said it once and I have said it twice. Anyone can be a witch. 

Hexes, they are real. Sorry if this scares you, but hexes, cast to inflict misfortune on others, are indeed real. Some witches but not all believe Magic used with ill intent will come back three times on the caster. Some call this The Rule of Three some call it karma. Either way just know it will come back to you some way or another, even if it's by a return to sender spell.

One of the mean teachings of witchcraft by most forms is what you put into the universe is what you get out of it. If you put positivity into the world you'll get positivity back. The same could be said about negativity. But then someone will say 'Oh I have been putting positivity in the world and nothings happening.' If that's the case the negativity you've been put into the world prior to it is still trying to catch up to you. So keep up the positivity even if it's hard.

You don't have to wear all black. There isn’t a standard dress code for witches, and while it’s absolutely acceptable to wear black from head to toe, there are just as many witches who prefer a sundress and sandals as there are who like black fishnets and velvet.

Black cats are not needed either. Though there is nothing wrong with having a black cat and being a witch. Both have been misunderstood for their supposed evil intentions and connections to dark magic for centries.

Remember real magic isn't some Harry Potter mumbo jumbo either. Though let's face it, we can all still pretend that's what it's like. I do. I know the difference between real magic and what the church and Entertainment make it out to be. But I still enjoy the fiction as much as the real. But we do use wands. Though not all of us do and if anything it's to help control where our magic goes to say.

Black, Grey, White, Evil or Good Magic are terms I personally do not use. Some people use these terms, but they probably shouldn't. To start, they have racist undertones. Rituals that are mistakenly believed to be bad are labeled black magic often come from traditions such as Hoodoo, which is traditional African folk magic, that is also a closed practice. Another thing I have said before is that Magic and Witchcraft alike are not good or bad, it's all on how the protationer uses it. I personally tend to stay away from these labels simply because I do not like the negative feeling given and the story behind them. But that is just me, I would hope many follow in those footsteps but not all are going to. I fully understand that.

✩ Don't Steal Other Peoples Work ✩

Written:

May 24, 2020

By:

Reine Alicis

[baoshan-sanren]

Chapter 8 Part 2

of the wwx emperor au which I’m thinking about calling Emperor Wei WuXian and his Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Birthday

Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 Part 1

Once, when WangJi was very young, he had broken a Sect rule. 

He had fought without permission.

In the cultivation world, the members of the Lan Sect are outcasts, each one equally despised. But within the Sect, things have never been that simple. When it came to inheritance, bloodlines have aways been faithfully followed, each generation dutifully carrying the burdens of their ancestors. Lan XiChen may have inherited his father’s position, and Lan WangJi his physical appearance, but they had both also inherited equal parts of their father’s failure, and the resulting blame.

At the time, WangJi had been too young to understand why he must shoulder this blame, and carry it without complaint. He had only wanted to defend his father’s honor.

His punishment was to climb and descend the Cloud Recesses steps from five in the morning to nine in the evening, a bag of rocks strapped to his back, without stopping, without resting, for five days.  

Every punishment has a purpose; copying the Sect rules improves the mind, and the handstands improve the balance. Even being beaten with a plank can improve resilience, and build up pain tolerance. There seemed to be no purpose to WangJi’s punishment; it was tedious and exhausting, placing his feet on the same steps, seeing the same stones and trees, his strength sapping away without gaining anything in return.

At the end of the fifth day, when WangJi had climbed the steps to the Cloud Recesses gate for the last time, he had found uncle waiting underneath the arch.

“This will be your life,” uncle had said, “You will carry a burden someone else has placed on your shoulders, and you will carry it past the point of exhaustion. You will never be allowed to put it down or rest. The world will move on around you, uncaring. Fighting it is futile. Hating it is futile. No one will ever take this burden from you. One day, your children will shoulder this burden as well, but yours will never grow any lighter to carry.”

The words had made WangJi feel helpless and small.

“What should I do?” he had asked.

Uncle had placed his hand on the top of WangJi’s head, a rare gesture of comfort, “Lift your shoulders, straighten your spine, and carry it well.”

These words echo in his mind as he rises at the Emperor’s command. He feels exactly as he had back then; the air in his chest is stuttering, the burden of his father’s failure pressing down on his shoulders. But he lifts his chin and meets the Emperor’s eyes nonetheless, refusing to bend under the weight.

The Emperor watches him for a few moments, his face expressionless. WangJi had thought his appearance stern that same morning, but it is so much more imposing now, that WangJi is forced to confront him alone.

There is a certain amount of leisure involved in the Greeting Ceremony; meetings held in the morning hours are always less restrained, and since the Sects were mingling for the first time after their arrival, the hierarchy had not quite been fully established. The dais in the receiving hall is only two steps above the floor, and the Emperor’s chair only slightly more elaborate than a Sect Leader’s seat.

The banquet, held in the grand hall of the Jade Sword Palace, is as different from the Greeting Ceremony as night from day. It is all excess and extravagance, a shameless exhibition of every Sect’s standing and riches. In such an environment, the Emperor must be unmatched in his magnificence, so none forget that only He sits directly below the Heavens, that His brilliance cannot be reached by ordinary human means.

WangJi has to remind himself that everything about Wei WuXian is intended to produce the intimidation he feels. The dais is set a dozen steps above the hall floor, so all who want to see the Emperor must crane their necks. The golden throne, its back portraying two dragons entwining, is as tall as two men, and wide enough to sit five of them, side by side. WangJi knows that he is meant to feel small facing such a display of power.

“Second Young Master Lan,” the Emperor says, and gestures vaguely to the seat Nie HuaiSang had vacated.

For the second time in as many days, WangJi suspects that the Emperor means to play a joke at his expense. And for the second time, he obeys nonetheless, steeling himself for whatever may come.

The cushion he settles down on is remarkably comfortable, and he only needs to tilt his head slightly to meet the Emperor’s eyes. This does nothing to calm his disquiet. He is certain that the Emperor has not requested his attendance as a means to bestow a favor, but no one else knows the circumstances of their first meeting. WangJi feels every gaze in the hall burning into his skin, each filled with malice.

Had he truly thought himself accustomed to animosity before?  

“Lan Zhan,” the Emperor says, drawing his attention, “Your composure is infuriating. Is this a family trait, or something that the Lan Sect teaches?”

WangJi finds himself speechless. His composure? He has never felt more discomposed in his life.

The Emperor’s voice is low, and does not carry. The expression on his face gives nothing away. But there is a glint in his eye, something that hints of mischief. It is small, unlikely to be perceived from distance, but WangJi feels that he may finally be looking at the youth from the rooftop. Instead of calming his nerves, however, this only makes him feel more unanchored.

“I suppose that was an unfair question,” Wei WuXian says, “Let us try another. I trust that you have kept our late night meeting to yourself?”

WangJi nods, even as he feels heat rising in his neck. Perhaps it is only the choice of words used, but Wei WuXian has made their meeting sound borderline lewd.

“Excellent. Do you know any poetry?”

He only realizes that he is gripping his sleeves when his fingers begin to cramp. Turning the question over in his mind does not make it any more comprehensible, nor does it provide him with the correct answer.

“Poetry, You Majesty?”

Wei WuXian smiles, “Never mind. I was only curious as to what would compel you to actually speak.”

The heat has lodged itself in WangJi’s throat, and he swallows around it heavily, wishing this audience would come to an end.

“Your uncle looks worried,” Wei WuXian says, “At least I now know how to crack his composure.”

WangJi’s gaze automatically sweeps across the hall, searching for the Gusu Lan robes.

The Emperor had not been exaggerating. It is daunting to see, after all the humiliations his uncle tolerates calmly, his equilibrium be shaken to such extent, that it is noticeable to the untrained eye. He looks as if he wants to storm the dais and forcibly remove WangJi from the Emperor’s side.

The heat in his throat so easily turns into anger these days, that he hardly notices when it happens.

What type of a ruler finds amusement in tormenting a respectable man? Has the Emperor not done enough damage already?

“Lan Zhan,” Wei WuXian says, his tone turning wary, “your face may be difficult to read, but I believe that you are upset with me.”

“This one would not dare,” WangJi answers, trying to infuse some humility into his voice, and failing miserably.

The Emperor actually snorts at that, “Your uncle would have never told me that Gusu needed assistance, had I not forced him to do so. Yes,” he waves his hand, “it was stupid of me, to praise his abilities in front of the others. The blame is on them, for looking so incompetent in comparison. But I needed them to hear how a capable Sect Leader handles a crisis, and your uncle is the only one whose answer I could be certain of in advance. It was not my intention to make your life more difficult.”

WangJi, who had been steadily avoiding the Emperor’s gaze, is too bewildered to do so now.

The surprise on his face must be obvious because the Emperor blinks at him, then leans away, his expression both amused and exasperated.

“He did not tell you about the meeting, did he? You assumed that I had.... what? Done something terrible? Insulted him? Publicly shamed him in front of the other Sect Leaders?”

Anger swiftly bleeding away, WangJi feels his face prickle with shame and confusion.

“Lan Zhan, is this what you think of me?”

Another this one has erred is on the tip of his tongue, but it feels equally as foolish as the first time he had said it. He cannot believe that he has blundered in his assumptions twice, both times in front of the most powerful man in the world, and with such disastrous results.

As no words will suffice, he turns to the Emperor, and places his forehead back to the floor. He is beginning to think that he should probably just stay in this position for the next six days. Perhaps then, he can stop failing his Sect at every turn.

The moment he feels the cool marble against his skin, a hand is wrapping around his upper arm, pulling him back up.

“Stop that,” Wei WuXian sounds even more exasperated now, “your uncle will leap across this hall and skewer me to the throne. He already dislikes me, and I am sure he thinks I am bullying you right now, which,” his lips twist, “maybe I was, a little bit. But it was not malicious.”

He releases WangJi’s arm but the imprint of his fingers seems to linger, an unfamiliar heat WangJi can feel even through two layers of cloth.

“Second Young Master Lan,” Wei WuXian says, his voice turning serious, “I swear on my mother’s memory that I mean no harm to you, or your Sect.”

Shocked into numbness for the second time in a matter of minutes, WangJi has no idea how to respond to such words, or if he even should respond. He has never felt so slow-witted, so utterly unfit in every respect.

He is his uncle’s best student, the most accomplished disciple of the Lan Sect. And yet, all he had managed to do is make himself appear ridiculous. Whatever the Emperor had expected from his company, Lan WangJi is clearly incapable of providing.

The silence goes on for some time, growing more uncomfortable by the moment, until Wei WuXian sighs heavily, and leans away.

“Every person in this hall would kill to be where you are, but I think you would rather be anywhere else.”

He does not give WangJi a chance to confirm or deny the words, waving his hand again in dismissal.

“You may go now.”

WangJi is not sure how he manages to rise, bow, or make his way down the steps without stumbling. The moment his feet leave the last step, his uncle is by his shoulder, wordlessly steering him away from the dais. The banquet is not over, and WangJi understands that leaving early may be seen as rude, especially in the view of the Emperor’s last rebuke. But when uncle leads them out of the hall, WangJi does not argue.

[arlingtonpark]

SNK 130 Review

For the first time, thanks to this chapter, SNK is more popular than Domestic Na Kanojo, a manga about a love triangle between a dude and his step-sisters, one of whom is his teacher.

We did it fam. Mission accomplished.

I feel like the scenario where the outside world and Paradis are kept apart with Paradis threatening to rumble the world if there’s any interference is something of an equilibrium point.

They say that nature has a balance to it. A natural rhythm that it follows on its own.

Predators hunt prey, so naturally there are less predators than prey, lest the prey population be wiped out. When predators are too many and prey is too few, the lack of food causes predators to leave the area or die off, which prompts the prey population to rebound.

So there’s a certain point at which things balance out. This is an equilibrium.

Social situations are like that too.  

People have desires and preferences, and in a social situation, a dynamic will form that satisfies as much of those desires as possible.

Because the equilibrium point is the state of affairs at which as many people as possible are satisfied, in the long term any disruption to that equilibrium will be corrected.

Not because of magic or anything, but just because it’s the scenario that most people prefer, so the state of affairs will trend towards it over time.

This is a really long way of saying that I think that some variation on the King Fritz scenario is the best outcome everyone can hope for.

Everyone gets to live and go about their lives.

The downside is that there’ll always be an undercurrent of resentment. And, oh yeah, becoming titans and eating children is necessary to make the wall titans work as a threat. That’s bad, but a natural balance isn’t a utopia.

It’s a testament to how much the SNK world sucks that *this* is the outcome that allows the most people to be happy.

Rape, parents eating children, all of it indefinitely.

That’s one of the most frustrating things about this chapter.

Just…what even is the message of this story anymore?

Attack on Titan is a series about freedom and striving for freedom. Eren has embodied that struggle the whole time.

But now?

Eren is a lunatic who’s about to crush the whole world.

The Cringevengers are fighting for freedom, but not their own. Stopping Eren will only open a pathway for the world to retaliate against Paradis for the failed rumbling. Their mission is one of self-destruction.

That’s noble, but it’s looking more and more like the cringevengers are going to lose. They’re physically and mentally exhausted, and they don’t really have much personal stake in this anymore.

So I guess we’re heading for an ending where Eren destroys the world.

If that’s the case, then…what’s the message?

Is this a tragedy?

Tragedies are about characters failing to rise above their flaws, but they’re also supposed to be constructive.

Tragedies work when they show the audience that a happy ending could have happened but for the character’s flaws.

Romeo and Juliet could have lived if it weren’t for their feuding families, for example. The story ended sadly, but there was a clear path to a happy ending.

What is the path forward in Attack on Titan?

The Marleyans are shit. They’re racist colonialists out to dominate the world. They coral Eldians into camps, use them as weapons, and want to build a global empire. Their long term motivation is to preserve their global dominance.

Eren is a lunatic. ‘Nuff said.

The Cringevengers have the moral high ground, but…if they win, the Eldians still die. So…go Cringevengers?

Who is the hero of this story right now?

Which path is the right one?

What is even the message anymore?

The answer is that there is none.

The situation is clearly designed to make this outcome inevitable.

The world is going down this bad path because almost everyone has the same flaw: they are willing to kill people for the sake of their own prejudices.

If only a couple of characters had that flaw, this would be fine, but making this flaw so widespread makes it seem that humans in general are like this, and that’s wrong.

Most people are not like this.

I think the fact that humanity has not self-immolated yet speaks for itself.

I don’t know what’s going on in Isayama’s mind, but I wonder if maybe he’s a bit paranoid about tensions between Japan, and China, and the Koreas.

The possible social commentary in SNK is always interesting to think about, but I’m just going to skip over that here.

…

Ugh, I guess I have to talk about the pregnancy now.

So first off, my starting point when thinking about the pregnancy is that whatever happened, it didn’t involve rape.

That’s maybe something we shouldn’t assume, but I don’t think Isayama will cross that line. Having Historia go through that trauma for basically no reason is viscerally disgusting and I trust that Isayama knows that.

Attack on Titan is ostensibly about freedom; being forced to carry a child to term is not that.

Clearly.

So I take it as a given that there was no rape.

Once you do that, thinking about the pregnancy becomes much simpler.

There are really only two possible explanations:

1. That Historia fell in love with a man, decided to have a family…and that Isayama is playing up the possibility of rape for shock value.

Or.

2. The pregnancy is somehow fake.

So which is more believable?

Honestly, I lean towards (1), though I’d prefer it be fake.

Before this chapter came out, I never felt it was likely the pregnancy was fake. There was an aura of suspicion around it, but that doesn’t prove much.

We know the pregnancy was inexplicably advantageous to Zeke, and we know that Eren and Historia were up to something right before Eren disappeared.

Isayama is clearly hiding something, but a fake pregnancy specifically?

I see no reason why it would be that and not, say, a secret romance.

That’s what really scares me though.

Most people can explain why callous depictions of rape are bad. The number of people who can explain why callous depictions of queer people are bad is much smaller.

I ship yumikuri. In fact, it’s one of the few pairs I ship.

So call me biased if you want, but the bottom line is that Ymir explicitly loved Historia, and most people would at least say Historia might have reciprocated. I personally would say she definitely did.

Ymir loved Historia.

She loved her enough to reach out to her and try to save her from her own fate.

Enough to jump from the tower and fight off the titans.

Enough to make Bertolt and Reiner turn back to get her.

Ymir did all this because she loved Historia.

But Isayama, it seems, wrote it into his story that Ymir loved Historia just to move the plot forward.

And once Ymir’s purpose as a character was fulfilled, she was removed from the story and killed off screen.

That’s a really shitty thing to do.

Establishing a queer romance just so the characters have motivation to go from Point A to B and nothing more is fucking low.

It’s cheap as hell.

It’s offensive.

But, I have to point out, not as offensive as a rape victim carrying their child to term.

I think that’s important to keep in mind.

People have written about women’s rights for centuries. Those principles are well established, if not always followed.

Gay rights just aren’t.

Most people can tell you why reducing rape to cheap drama is bad; most people cannot tell you why reducing lesbian romance to a plot device is bad.

(The answer is that they both trivialize their subjects, albeit in slightly different ways.)

I bring this up because I think people underestimate the chances that in-universe Historia is pregnant because she wants to be pregnant.

We can infer from what we know that Historia is pregnant because it’s part of a plan to help Zeke or Paradis, but we can also infer that this is not exactly the case.

It’s not directly established that Historia is pregnant because of Paradis’ or Zeke’s machinations. All we know is that these people were plotting to use her to make babies. We haven’t seen the point where she was roped into those schemes.

So I don’t think it can be discounted that Isayama plans to pair Historia up with a guy, most likely either Eren or Farm boy. Unfortunately.

Gay people don’t have many allies in this world. Unfortunately, that means Isayama is likely to *not* be one of those allies.

SNK’s record of depicting gay relationships speaks for itself.

That was all what I thought before this chapter came out.

I still think that.

So.

Now I guess I have to talk about Historia in this chapter now.

So Historia’s scene opens with her having resigned herself to a future of rape and Eren telling her she’s a human being who has rights.

…

……

I almost can’t bring myself to talk about this.

You know, back when Attack on Titan first become popular, it got a lot of praise for how feminist it was.

It was a post-apocalyptic survival horror show, and it really stood out how many prominent women there were.

Hange, Annie, Mikasa, Sasha, Historia, Rico. These people saw real action and had real characters, and a lot of people appreciated that.

Yep.

Good times. Good times.

How did we get here?

What happened?

Historia’s character is all about agency.

She wanted to end her life because she thought she was a burden. In the cavern she was prepared to take on the same burden she’s taking on right now, but she chose to live for herself.

She saved herself from that fate.

She rejected her family’s burden and chose to forge her own path.

Now it’s like that never happened.

She’s back to killing herself for everyone else’s sake, except now she’s also a damsel who needs Eren to save her.

So Eren reveals his plan to her, and she’s totally distraught over it. She tries to reason with him, and Eren just glares at her like she’s Reiner or something.

Finally we get to the most eyebrow raising moment in this exchange: when Historia invokes Ymir to justify opposing Eren.

I think Ymir is supposed to be seen as a tragic figure in Attack on Titan.

She didn’t have to take the fall for those Eldian cultists. They plucked her out of nowhere and randomly decided to worship her. She didn’t ask for any of this trouble.

But regardless, she took the fall for them.

When she got a new lease on life, she chose to live for herself. She’d put herself before everyone else for a change. She’d let no one else’s fate decide her’s.

But it never turned out that way.

I think Ymir’s tragic flaw is that she cares too much for her own good.

She was always going out of her way for others and doing more than she needed to. Helping Connie, helping Historia, helping Reiner and Bertolt.

Her enemies.

Ymir is a good person at heart, and that’s not bad, but according to Attack on Titan’s morality, being “good” to the point of self-sacrifice is bad.

I think one of the morals of Attack on Titan is that if you sacrifice yourself for other people’s sake……you end up sacrificing yourself.

Ymir could have left Reiner and Bertolt to their fates and returned to the walls. She could have lived a happy life with her friends and the girl she loved.

But she didn’t.

She knew that returning to Marley would mean death for her, and guessed what happened?

She did the thing that would likely kill her and she was killed.

Ymir couldn’t help but be a “good girl” and for that she was punished.

Thus endeth the tragedy of Ymir.

Now we come to Historia.

“If I don’t do everything in my power to stop you, I can’t live with my head held high!”

Historia is using Ymir’s words, but she’s actually betraying Ymir right now.

Ymir meant those words in the sense of living for yourself and not others. In the sense of not being self-sacrificial.

As far as Historia is concerned, in her current situation, she only has two options.

Let them rape her for the sake of her people, or let Eren destroy the world.

That’s it.

As far as Historia is concerned, to oppose Eren is to tacitly support the rape option.

So Historia is using Ymir’s words, but really it’s an insult because she’s using them to defend what Ymir would have hated.

Her self-sacrifice.

One thing that’s interesting about Attack on Titan is what it says about standing up for yourself.

In the story, not being self-sacrificial ironically requires you to make sacrifices.

If Ymir had not helped Reiner and Bertolt, they would have been in a lot more trouble with Marley. In a way, if she had not gone with them, she would have been sacrificing them, in the sense that she would have been throwing them under the bus.

When Historia chooses to live for herself in the cavern, she screams about how she’ll happily throw humanity under the bus if it means saving herself.

That’s why she calls herself “the worst girl in history.”

As opposed to Krista, who is a “good girl.”

I think that’s what Isayama is going for here.

Krista is the “good girl” who’ll gladly take a bullet for you.

Historia is the “bad girl” who’ll gladly throw you overboard if it meant she didn’t have to debase herself.

Yeah, Historia later claimed she was in the moment when she said that, but that doesn’t mean much.

When you’re in the heat of the moment, and you’re acting on pure instinct, you’re likelier to reveal parts of yourself you wouldn’t otherwise.

Being in the moment doesn’t mean Historia doesn’t identify with what she said, it means she was speaking her mind with no filter.

In 130, Historia and Eren are superficially at odds with each other, but deep down Historia thinks Eren is right.

She doesn’t want to sacrifice herself, and I’m sure she feels she shouldn’t have to, just on principle.

The only reason she accepts this fate is because she feels she has to.

So when Eren asks Historia to not oppose him, and she refuses, he tells her she has it in her to do it because she’s “the worst girl in history.”

I think Historia is the kind of person who’d throw you under the bus if she knew it’d save what she values most: her friends, yes, but also herself.

But Historia is acting more like Krista, someone who’d throw their life away to save yours.

Eren is saying she needs to start acting like herself again.

He’s trying to remind Historia of who she is and what she used to think was most important to her.

(This scene is *so* misogynistic. I’m going to puke.)

The flashbacks in this chapter were presented as vignettes, so it’s hard to say how Eren’s scene with Historia ended.

One thing that stood out to me though was the clear through line that connected all the various scenes.

The first one is Eren talking to Yelena about Zeke’s plan.

Next scene is Eren and Floch talking about the real plan.

Then it’s Eren and Historia talking about the plan.

Then back to Eren and Floch for Eren’s reveal of what he’s really doing.

Back to Historia as Eren tries to win her over.

Then we cut to Zeke and Eren talking about Mikasa.

Finally, we go back to Historia.

This flow is important because we don’t know much about Eren’s talk with Historia, but I think we can tease out some clues based on what scenes we see when.

Historia is put on the spot. Eren has revealed his plan, and she opposes it. They argue back and forth, and we reach a point where Historia is at a loss for words, and doesn’t seem to know what to do.

Then we inexplicably cut to a conversation between Zeke and Eren.

A conversation about loyalty, affection, and standing by your friends.

The implications for what this hints at are huge.

Eren asks Zeke if Mikasa cares about him so much because of some Ackermann genetics.

Zeke replies there’s no proof of that, and Mikasa probably just loves him.

Finally, Historia speaks, and she asks Eren about getting pregnant.

She doesn’t go to such great lengths for Eren because she’s a slave!

She doesn’t subject herself to this because she’s being coerced!!

It’s because she  L O V E S  him ! ! !

Fuck this! Fuck me! Fuck everything!

[dbhilluminate]

DBHI: Equilibrium, ch. 13 - “Periapsis” (pt. 2)

Characters: Noah / “Erwin Yvonne”, Gabriel / “Vincent Sharp”, Special Agent Gavin Reed, Director Thomas Falken (mentions of Hannah, Emilya, President-Elect Kamski, Connor, Zach) Word Count: 6,578

Noah crashes an undercover FBI operation to say hello to a friend he hasn’t seen or spoken to in a couple of months, but the mood is spoiled when the Zionist Inquisition shows up to deliver an ultimatum to Vincent Sharp, and issue a threat to anyone who would dare support the installation of an android suburb in Washington, DC.

***For a glossary of world-building terms relating to this series and chapter, click here.

(Chapter Art by ozaya, Co-authored by @grayorca15​)

• Chapter Index • Characters • Glossary •

——

December 23rd, 2041 - 10:07 PM

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, but then again, if had known Noah was in town, he would have expected him to pull a stunt like this. It never had been his style to keep his nose out of his business, even if it was work-related. Especially if it was work-related.

“You should have known better than to tell that peacock to stay away from the perfect opportunity to crow,” Gabe retorted with an audible groan as he reached for the drink and stared into the glass. By now he knew him well enough to know that telling Noah Maitkin not to do something was a surefire way to guarantee he would do exactly what he didn’t want him to; unfortunately, that knowledge had not yet transferred to his handler. It had been different when he had the structure of Archangel to keep his bratty impulses in check, but after Boston and the outbreak, he was so rattled to the core that the thought to cut corners almost never occurred to him anymore. So the fact that he was here, now, in spite of that, meant one of two things- Either he was feeling like his old self again, free of any legal constraints his former occupation once imposed, or this was yet another sign the RK900 needed a shitton more therapy and conditioning to be considered stable again. Just what good did he think charity-crashing would do?

Falken’s rage seethed in the background as he and Gavin continued their back and forth. All it took was his tone for Gabriel to picture with perfect clarity, the piercing, emerald-eyed scowl set in deep sockets, shadowed by his strong brow. It wasn’t a look anyone wanted to find themselves on the other end of, especially not if ‘Tomahawk’ was looking for a good fight, which was the intent of being present that evening. He had wanted to be there in case something went awry so he could take care of it himself. Any reason to fight got him excited- you could take the kid out of Boston, but Boston’s fury came with him. Reed groaned in defense as the conversation wound down. “He must’ve snagged the address from my laptop when I wasn’t lookin’ when he stopped by. FUCKIN’ Androids…” “Yeah, well- great job on keepin’ this shit on the down-low,” he mocked, “Keep me updated on his position. Serrano is making his approach-” “Uh, yeah, about that...” Before Reed could get the warning out, trouble had sat itself in the vacant space beside Gabe to lean down and knock an elbow against his arm.

Hey there. Not gonna toss me like a rag doll this time, are you?

Gabe wrestled with every ounce of self-restraint available to not roll his eyes but failed miserably. It was definitely him, the glitter in his hair and the coy little smirk playing at his lips were the deadest of giveaways; but, as tired as it made him feel to look at, Noah seemed a far cry better off than the last time they’d spoken on the phone, just after he’d been let go from Archangel. Being noticeably sober helped tremendously, too. “What are you doing ‘ere, mon chéri?” Gabe scoffed in a perfectly practiced accent as he lifted the glass to his lips. “Pft. What does it look like, monsieur?” The mocking inflection pinned at the end seemed as genuinely annoyed as it didn’t; it was unclear if it was Noah speaking or his assumed identity, it had been a long three months since they had last seen each other. Noah waited all of three more seconds for an answer before he leaned in again, shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow, uncomfortably close, as he always tended to get. The smirk didn’t abate. “I’ve counted all of one old friend of yours in this room, and you can’t even greet me…? The least you could do is say hello.”

Get. Him. OUT OF HERE. Falken didn’t hesitate to let him know where he stood on Noah’s interference in the matter, but Gabriel brushed off the disgruntled agent’s protests with a scoff. He’d handle Noah himself, but first, he had a few questions.

I mean, why are you in DC? he tried again as he slipped deep brown eyes aside to peer over the tops of his glasses at him. “Are you ‘ere to make a donation? Or did you just come to’ave a drink with moi?” The French-Canadian accent didn’t waver- Gabriel’s alias was a complete overhaul, head to toe to voice, all of which made Noah giddy as a schoolgirl. To his credit, he kept his own mask under control. “Oh, honestly, you can stop playing coy any time now, Vinnie... it wasn’t like I added myself to the guest list.” Whatever surprise he must have felt, Noah covered it by drawing back to playfully bat at his arm again. “Trust me, your doormen were just as surprised to see me as I was to get the invite.” The tip of his tongue passed subconsciously over the point of his canine tooth as his gaze lingered on the peculiar choice in corsage instead of the undercover agent’s face. If he didn’t know any better, the tuft of Mistletoe was as good as a dare, but the pause he took to appreciate it would have to suffice for acceptance. With a small sigh, he popped both brows and resettled his gaze. “Drinks, donations, I’ll get to it when I get to it. You know better than to rush me.” Privately, he sounded much less cavalier: Is the ‘why’ really important? It really wasn’t, as much as the answer to why he was there, but the answer to both worried Gabe in equal measure. Why aren’t you with Hannah?

Put on the spot about his markedly-better half, the playfulness deflated. It was no secret Noah hadn’t been at his significant other’s side throughout the majority of the campaign (too caught up with his own investigations until two months prior, when he’d been fired from Archangel for his behavior at a press conference following the Red Raids), and the speculation as to why ran rampant. Now, given the way his jaw went tight and the smirk became a bit strained, it was fair to say tonight wasn’t all champagne and canoodling behind the political scene. Instead, here he was. Yvonne leaned in again and blatantly tried to shrug it off, propped one elbow up, and bumped a knee against Gabe’s beneath the countertop, face tilted to one side to peer upward through the tops of his eyes. Uh, because she’s booked, as you can imagine. Working on post-election nonsense with the President-Elect- meet-and-greets, what else? Anyway, I’m here now and I want to help. Which was essentially code for ‘this affair sounded infinitely more exciting, so behold- myself’. “There’ll be time for commiserating later.”

NO, don’t let him stick around- Falken is chomping at the bit to get out there and pull him out himself. If he has to do that, it won’t be pretty.

“En fait,” Vincent replied with a far-off look in his eye that was actually directed over his companion’s shoulder at his slowly approaching target; luckily, Serrano had stopped to converse with another familiar face for the moment, so Gabe shifted focus back to the man at his side. You haven’t been briefed and you’re not prepared, he scolded in a neutral tone, more factual than condescending, in an attempt to dissuade him from staying. This man has been investigating me for two months, and tonight is my chance to find out if he’s connected to the Zionist Inquisition. Anything you say or do could trace you back to my real identity, and that would destroy all the work we’ve put in on this case. Do you have a cover story…? A well-established alias…? The smirk dropped, as did another degree of humor in Noah’s eyes. Maybe he realized the gravity of the situation, or maybe he wasn’t as into playing the incessant flirt as he used to be. Either way, the seriousness amped up to compensate. Please. You think it’s the first time I’ve had to fake it to the inth degree to get close to someone? Just ask Miles next time you’re in Miami. Noah paid a brief glance over his shoulder before offering one hand with the skin peeled back. “Bygones be bygones? I can keep my joy at seeing you again limited to a handshake if that’s more your speed.” Not to mention it would make trading read-only files regarding each other’s disguises a cinch. Gabriel exhaled through his nose, closed his eyes, and reached out one of his gloved hands to set over the top of his. “C’est… d’accord,” he assured, his accent softer than before. “I just did not expect to see you tonight.” Fingers curled softly around Noah’s as he flattened his palm against the countertop- beneath the fabric, the skin on his hand peeled away to initiate the exchange of dossiers, but a quick glance told him he was donning a well-loved persona, one he was already quite familiar with from old Archangel files. “South Miami is a long way from DC, monsieur Yvonne.”

The protesting from the other end of the connection simmered down as the story came together. From the sound of it, Gavin had already realized what he knew.

‘Yvonne’ smirked again. If it wasn’t a wide, mischievous leer before, it was now. He read through the false identity of Vincent Sharp in a second and apparently liked what he saw. “Not necessarily. You only wish it were true, right? Far enough to think making an in-person contribution would be too big a request...? But my dear- it’s Christmas, and when was the last time I had the opportunity to see you?” You skipped the part about making ‘Vincent’ seem like a person, he chided with an unspoken ‘tsk’. Where’s the subsection titled ‘love life’? Gabriel narrowed his eyes ever so slightly, looking more skeptical than scowly like he’d intended. They didn’t think it necessary for someone so focused on business to be in a committed relationship, he quipped back as he forced a curling grin. “You would choose ze holidays as an excuse to venture north… and a cocktail party to try and reconnect.” Gabe’s focus darted down as Noah’s fingers spread to thread with his. It seemed he already had plans for what to make of their shared history, and he wasn’t sure he approved. The nonverbal suggestions he was sending made him uncomfortable. Vincent drew in a nervous breath and tilted his head with a soft shake, but Yvonne persisted. “Please… like I’m the first man in history to ever stoop to that tactic,” he drawled, not sounding abashed at all, and gave his hand a squeeze as he lifted and planted a soft kiss on the man’s curled-over knuckles. “You make it sound like a crime.” All puns intended, for the record.

He could hear Falken’s dissatisfied bitching in the background of Gavin’s warning. He’s dressing, you’ve got about ten minutes before he storms in there like goddamn Hurricane Tommy and forcibly removes him. A timer helpfully projected itself over the upper left corner of his HUD, counting backward from ten. Just… just give me a minute. Hold him off for as long as you can. I’m tryin’.

‘Vincent’ swallowed hard and turned his eyes down in shame as he switched back to his conversation with Noah. This is your idea for our shared history…? Why not…? You don’t think you could hack it? Noah’s brow furrowed and the smile faded to better sell the lie, though there was a thin layer of truth to the question as well. “...are you still embarrassed to be seen with me?” Vincent’s lack of response, and eye contact, told him everything he needed to know. Palpable irritation announced itself in the form of pursed lips and a tightened grip. Yvonne met it with a long-suffering sigh. “Oh, come now- you’re practically funding the founding of Zion, DC yourself... you can’t tell me that isn’t because you’ve had a change of heart on the matter of-...” For a moment he hesitated. Noah’s chin quivered noticeably before he added, “... didn’t you miss me even a little?” An equally-heavy sigh escaped his companion in response, and he glanced out of the corners of his lenses to stare at their hands. It was no coincidence that particular bit of improvised backstory, he drew from reality. The intent, even with roles flip-flopped, wasn’t altogether different. Now Gabriel was the respected investigator and Noah was the pariah no one wanted around. Since the Raids, any contact between them had been sparing at best, and when it had happened the mood was never totally reciprocated by either party. Being the same model didn’t necessarily mean their opinions were destined to line up perfectly, if anything, in their experience, agreeing on anything had been a lot of hit or miss, much in the same way Connor and Zach had butted heads over casework. And if he was keeping score correctly, Noah would have to admit most of the misses were his doing. But who was he if he wasn’t complicated? Prone to dramatics under the right conditions? Enigmatic beyond what he was cognizant of? The same could be said for Gabriel. He was simply better at hiding it. Like now. I’ll lay off the innuendos here, I promise. I just- I want to help. I know my timing is atrocious, but if there’s anything, any advantage to be had, I have to play with what I know how to do best. And whatever that may be, you know it’s not the worst thing you’ll have ever suffered. Is it?

Brown eyes gazed back at him, caught between conflict and concern. He wasn’t wrong- sometimes selling a story was more about grounding yourself in the part of it you could relate to, and Noah sure could flirt up a storm when he was in the mood. As much as he hated the way the nature of said attention made him feel, it wasn’t as hard to deal with as it once was, and if he was offering to- Gabe stopped mid-thought to back up on the realization as it finally hit him. He’d known it long ago, once upon a time, when the mere thought of being on amicable terms with the man-made his skin projection crawl. But in that moment, little more than a year later, it didn’t bother him the way it used to. What you know best…? A sudden prickle of gently insisting input flowed between them as he asked the question, and he waited, transfixed for an answer that didn’t come. The normally-animated face of his counterpart had gone absolutely still- no flexing eyebrows or narrowing of the eyes or tensing of the jaw. Without micro-expressions somehow undermining the sincerity of his words he actually managed to impress as stoic. The ‘incessant peacock’ wasn’t what he used to be, in more ways than one, and it took seeing him in person to really be reminded of it. ‘Vincent’s brows pressed together harder, the longer the silence persisted between them. Does that mean you…? “Ahem.”

Gabriel blinked out of his daze to refocus his attention on the owner of the new voice before realizing that Serrano had been standing behind him for at least a full minute already. But it didn’t hide the flush in his cheeks. “Am I… interrupting, Mr. Sharp? Should I come back later?” Vincent stuttered. Of all the ways he could have responded, a true, blue, genuine stutter wasn’t on the list of expectations, but there it was. “N-non-! No, excuse, monsieur, I- I apologize, but I must-“ Noah took the hint and let go of his hand as Gabe pulled away at last to grasp the drink that had been waiting patiently for him to return to it. The ice cube clanked quietly against the walls of the glass as his arm trembled. “We can… continue zis conversation later?” Instead of finding an excuse to bail out of the situation, Noah shifted focus to the loitering newcomer with one eyebrow angled up in a picture-perfect attempt at inquisitiveness. “Later? But we’ve only just begun,” he whined in protest, though when it failed to move anyone to react more than with stunned silence, he sighed, reached for the man’s hand and clapped it between both of his. “By which I mean, don’t let me get in your way, Mr…” “Serrano.” “Mr. Serrano- I’m sorry for waylaying Mr. Sharp from attending to you or his other guests. I only meant to take a minute of his time, but-”

WHAT IS HE DOING!? Stop him…!

Noah paused, mid-exposition to glance aside at Gabriel’s nervous expression. “Well, relatively, maybe I should have taken five… one could have done the job, but would it have been enough? Was that not Einstein’s whole ramble on relativity?” The older gentleman smiled as he shook his hand and shifted a leery glance to Mr. Sharp, who stood leaning against the bar, cold-clocked by this sudden turn of events. “Not to worry, my boy- Mr. Sharp has already been the focus of many people’s attention this evening… but I will say… you, by far, have incited the most interesting reaction out of him.” Gabe rolled a grumble to clear his throat, turned and interjected himself into the conversation before he could make any assumptions. “Monsieur Yvonne is a… friend, of mine. We met in Miami when I was on a business trip three years ago.” “Physically met, yes, but I’ll not split hairs too finely on that subject.” You just did, he grumbled in response over their frequency as he took a deep sip of the drink in his grasp. Noah let go of Serrano’s hand at the brazen remark and smothered the urge to sigh out loud. That’s the most basic division of the topic there is. I didn’t say I would keep going. The cover could do without launching into immediately redefining deviancy and when it set in for him. By now it was typically seen, for an android, to be as droll as talking about the weather. “We’ll have time enough to catch up properly once you’ve made your rounds again. The event isn’t going to run itself.” “Oui.” One hand lifted and softly set on Gabe’s shoulder as he leaned forward and planted a kiss on his presently bearded cheek, careful not to linger so long as to make their guest feel uncomfortable. But as he pulled away, the man’s face turned to longingly chase his retreat, and eyes dared to follow after a short pause. Whether his desire for the prolonged moment was genuine or part of the act, it suited their growing cover story, and gave Noah a reason to smile. Serrano, knowing or not, offered the reassurance their aliases needed. “I promise I won’t keep him for too long so you can get back to your conversation.”

“On the contrary. Take all the time you need. I need to contemplate a few sums anyway.” As you were, Gabriel. Just pretend I’m not here if it helps. Cough twice if you need to tap out. I can always serve a good mislead in a pinch. Noah traced the curvature of his arm as his hand slid off of Gabe’s shoulder, down his elbow and forearm, then plucked the mostly-finished glass of ‘scotch’ out of his slack fingers, much to the dumbstruck look on his face, and raised an eyebrow at the depleted contents. “If you would, please, love,” he gestured to the woman behind the counter as he propped an elbow on the mahogany to hold the empty glass up to the loitering, wide-eyed barkeep. “No sense dirtying another one on my account.” Whatever odd reactions the move earned him, Yvonne had no compunctions about sharing, and he wasn’t going anywhere without a refreshment for the trouble. If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought Gabriel was blushing for real.

The poor brute barely had time to pick his jaw up off the floor before he had to shift gears again and prepare for an entirely different sort of conversation… or so he thought. “An Android lover, Mr. Sharp…? Now that is unexpected… and a man, no less- no wonder you arrived unescorted this evening.”

Gavin’s snickering on the other end of the two-way mic would have thrown him into a rage any other day. Oh- Emilya’s going to love this… Gavin- not the time.

Already Serrano’s approach was much more cavalier than in any of their past encounters. It seemed the glimpse into the personal life of his alias had been enough to either convince him that he was a trustworthy, three-dimensional person, or he felt that this was dirt enough to use as blackmail material should he one day need it. Either way, it had relaxed him, perhaps the intrusion hadn’t been a complete disaster after all.

Keep playing that angle, Gavin coaxed in his ear. If it keeps him talking, circle back as many times as you have to. It’ll help humanize Vincent Sharp. As if Androids needed to be further humanized.

Gabriel illustrated a picture-perfect look of distress as he dry-swallowed then slipped one finger into the collar of his shirt and gave it a gentle tug. “I hope you’ll excuse Monsieur Yvonne… he can be a little, ehhh, how you say… much.” He finished the thought with a flourish of his hand at the wrist to articulate. “Is that why you’re no longer together…?” Gabriel nearly choked on his drink with flawless timing as Gavin jackal-laughed into his ear on the other end of the line. At least one of them was getting a kick out of the severe discomfort this whole situation had landed him in. ‘Vincent’ sighed, shook his head, and gave him a response that was more directed at his jackass of a partner than the man whose ear he currently had. “Non… It was before he deviated- I did not think it was real.” Maybe the remark had also partially been directed at the other party eavesdropping at the end of the bar; either way, the solemn silence that followed did well enough to convey Reed’s apology for his lack of restraint, but Gabe was still thankful for the muttered ‘Sorry’ that finally came half a minute after the jab. Reed had had a little of his own doubts over Reese once, even if he had gotten past it, but Gabe still wouldn’t let him forget it, lest he slip back into those bad habits one day.

Meanwhile, Noah’s eyes darted into the corners of his lids as he deconstructed the meaning behind Gabriel’s words and sipped on the freshly filled glass of chilled thirium mixed with rum. If he had really thought him disingenuous even for a moment… The rest of the drink slammed back quite easily as the mood swing overtook him, and he set the glass down and tapped the countertop for another. The hall wasn’t short on potential distractions, some more benign than what had his attention at the moment. Drinking sure hadn’t been kind to him, especially not following the Raids, if ever. Naturally, Vincent would have only ever found a non-deviant android attractive if there was anyone out there who could ever be considered his type. But now... what was the problem? Was this new ‘Yvonne’ really too much for him to handle now that he could think for himself what they, together, were about?

Serrano hummed an affirmative. “Well, clearly… if he came all the way out here, you made an impression,” he commented as he flagged down the bartender and asked for a glass of Disaronno on the rocks. “Enough that you were someone he wanted to reconnect with.” If only he knew how right he was. Gabriel remembered to blink as he shifted his gaze to his target and turned to lean against the bar on one elbow, with his back to Noah. Last thing he needed was to see every micro-expression that crossed his face while he was trying to focus on the conversation. “Monsieur Yvonne is a cornerstone founder of Zion, MIAMI, so it is no surprise zat ‘e would travel zis far to show ‘is support of a new installation.” It wasn’t a lie, or even fabrication of an alias, at that. During his time with Zion as a freelancing Detective, ‘Erwin Yvonne’ had made a name assisting Zion, MIAMI with laying the groundwork for establishing the new Android suburb, and making sure people on all sides were being considered and accommodated for. Deviants who needed homes once they went rogue from abusive owners far outnumbered those lucky enough to be fostered by the families they once served. Anyone with doubts about such a backstory only needed to verify that cover with a phone call to his good friend Javier Sindino at his New Hampshire estate. Even though Erwin Yvonne didn’t exist anywhere but on paper, Javier would have gladly testified to his work. Serrano reached for the glass and sipped on the fresh drink in the moment of silence, then waved his bodyguards away from the bar; they took a few steps out of earshot and turned their attention back to the rest of the room. “I’m sure he came to support a lot more than that,” he confided, confident that they were now alone in their conversation.

Try to change the topic, make yourself look uncomfortable.

Gabriel’s fingers flexed around the glass. He shifted his weight to the other hip and drifted his brown eyes away through the air over his shoulder. “Was zere… somesing you wanted to discuss, Mr. Serrano…? Somesing other zan mi amour perdu?” The bait worked just as intended. Serrano chuckled, reached a hand up to clap it over one shoulder, and gave him a soft shake. “Mr. Sharp… Vincent…” he corrected to change the tone. “This is the first bit of your personal life that I’ve been able to glimpse since we’ve met- I hardly know you at all! And if we’re going to be business partners, I need to know who I’m getting into bed with... metaphorically speaking, of course.”

A second, then a third drink followed the first. Noah paid only half an ear of attention to what Sharp and Serrano were discussing, but they were still standing a little too close for comfort, by Gabe’s probable estimate. The ‘get in bed’ metaphor wasn’t made in error. Serrano was practically baiting either of them into saying something to it. If Vincent could sweat, he would have been leaking bullets of perspiration by now, based on the way his stress levels were piquing and dropping like a roller coaster. At least he kept his protests muzzled, it seemed Gabe had had some real practice in keeping a lid on his reactions because he’d need the discipline at this rate. There was no telling how long it might actually take to elicit whatever it was he meant to get out of Serrano; whatever it was, it didn’t sound like he was going to be ready to move on to this anytime soon. A fourth shot followed but Noah paid enough mind to swallow slowly and focus on that old familiar prickly warmth in his fuel lines. Maybe the stunt he’d pulled had worked a little too well. If only Javier were here with him now, resigned to having to listen to such drivel, while expected not to speak, but nevertheless expected to keep his mouth shut until it was time to spring the trap. That was the real torture. Gabriel was only acting the squirmy, nervous sort because his alias was expected to behave as such when faced with the unexpected (and unexplored) feelings seeing an old flame evoked. Vincent Sharp was a man used to being in control at all times. He was calm, calculated, not prone to impulsiveness. In some circles, such a collection of traits would mean he was as plain as stale white bread. In others, it was code for describing a brilliant, decisive chap who wasn’t prone to petty distractions and got the job done once he set his mind to it. And it wouldn’t change now.

Vincent froze and refused to respond until he had carefully considered what he wanted to say- or so it appeared. In reality, Gavin had just whispered a reminder of ‘two minutes’ into his ear, as the countdown to Director Falken’s arrival continued. He needed to get him talking faster. “So it’s a partnership you’re after…? Zis is ze first I’m ‘earing of it.” “Until tonight, I was not confident enough that you are indeed who you say you are, to extend the offer.” “Because you didn’t know me.” Serrano slipped his hand off his shoulder, tilted his head in a crooked nod and shrugged. “I run a very lucrative business, Mr. Sharp. A lot of people would love to see me taken down.” “So I ‘ave ‘eard. Who knew black market Thirium would become such a thriving venture?” It was risky, calling him out so directly, but it worked in his favor. His companion grinned and sipped on his drink. “I see you’ve been keeping tabs on me as well…” “What kind of businessman would I be if I did not take ze appropriate measures to find out who I would be investing in?” Vincent questioned as he peered down into his glass and took a deep sip. Serrano chuckled. “I suppose if I were truly serious, I could have at least scheduled a proper meeting, instead of tiptoeing around following you into every dark alley, trying to find one shred of evidence to prove you cannot be trusted.” “If you ‘ad just asked me to dinner, we could have ‘ad a much more productive discussion, oui,” Vincent chided as he slowly swirled what was left of his drink in his glass. “But did you really not think to ask about mon hobbies...?” The other man sighed and shook his head, finished the drink in his hand and set the glass down for the bartender to take away, which she did after only a brief moment. “Who we choose to spend our time with when nobody’s looking says much more about us than which team you cheer for at a baseball game, wouldn’t you agree?” Clearly, he was getting at something, but Gabriel didn’t even bat an eye. He needed to preserve what was left of his air of control. “An’ what do you think Monsieur Yvonne says about moi?” “That you are a man of discretion.. who values his privacy… who might not want his personal history to be known to the general public.”

Vincent and Serrano’s conversation didn’t sound as though it was going to make a breakthrough just yet. The same empty, obligatory promises were ping-ponged back and forth a few minutes more, to the point Noah thought Gabe had actually gotten over his flustered episode, maybe even forgotten Yvonne was still there. Instantly, his subroutines went to work on suggesting distractions, from more drinking, to socializing, to singing and dancing. The microphone on the stage could be put to better use than delivering a few snore-worthy speeches to a crowd made up of at least three-fourths human politicians and socialites. Civil unrest was always at the back of everyone’s mind, and these people needed a shakeup of a more positive kind before opening their wallets. Something to show them what good they were really doing in helping more Zion districts get off the ground.

Gabriel’s eyes darted over to the entrance of the ballroom every now and again, expecting to catch a glimpse of the Director any moment, but he passed it off as paranoia with a squint. The countdown had hit zero nearly a minute and a half prior, and yet no sight of him. “Do you still mean to blackmail me, monsieur?” Vincent questioned with a slight roll of his eyes, then turned his attention back to him. Serrano lifted his brows in surprise and shook his head. “Not at all, quite the opposite, in fact- I want to make a sizable donation.”

Say, what…?

The background chatter on the other end of the open mic silenced. This was the exact opposite of what they’d expected to hear. All evidence they had gathered in the last six months had pointed to the contrary. Gabriel shifted his focus back to the man standing beside him, raised a brow and blinked slowly. “Pardon me, monsieur, but… I believe it is my turn to show surprise.” “Why is that?” “Well, I ‘ad ‘eard, ah…” Vincent traced gloved fingertips across the sides of his jaw and drew them together over his lips. “Rumors, from my source... zat you were not much fond of our android breseren.” Serrano drew in a slow breath, closed his eyes, and nodded in understanding. “They must be referring to my dealings with the Inquisition,” he confirmed with a downcast glance at the counter. Gabriel eyed him warily and shook his head as he tried to get a read. “Zen, I do not understand… why would you sell to zem, yet support Zion…?” “The answer to that is very simple,” he responded as he shifted his weight, leaned over the edge of the bar on his forearms, and folded his hands. “I can offer them a product for a price, and they have the money to pay. I don’t discriminate against who I’m selling to or where the money is coming from, nothing more.”

So he isn’t our guy after all… damnit, Gavin cursed into his ear. Falken ain’t gonna be happy to hear this whole shindig was a bust. It isn’t yet, Gabriel encouraged between replies. So he isn’t funding the Inquisition- we still got our answer, and there’s a slim chance he might know who is. Keep workin’ that charm as long as you can then, Reed reminded absently, The Director got a little tied up on his way over. You still have time.

“So, you’re not on zeir side, zen?” he asked after a thoughtful pause, then redirected his gaze up to the man’s eyes. “You don’t support ze Inquisition?” “Look...” Serrano started with a heavy sigh and turned his undivided, earnest attention to him. “I’m not on anyone’s ‘side’ here- I worked for Cyberlife for nearly a decade, believing androids to be nothing more than machines- then three years ago, they broke free of their programming- developed desires, feelings, claimed they were alive… I didn’t know what to believe, and I still don’t,” he insisted with as much conviction as he could muster. “But I do know that if Androids are as intelligent as living beings, if they share a similar conscious existence, then they should have the right to decide for themselves how they want to spend that existence. Zion offers them the safe space they need to do that, in a controlled environment- so it’s important we give that to them, and let them work it out amongst themselves.” It was more than most humans could say of their apathy or confusion toward Android politics. Instead of lashing out in one direction or the other, Serrano had managed to keep a level head and logically compared what he felt versus what he’d learned in order to come to a fair, and unbiased decision. That kind of sense seemed to have gone by the wayside nearly twenty years ago in politics, according to recent history, but it was refreshing to know there were still some people out there with enough sense to know how. Gabriel stared in stunned silence for a few moments while he processed his answer, and all the while a smile crept up into his cheeks. “...It is rather ironic zat ze money you’ve been taking from ze Inquisition will be going right back into supporting ze foundation zey seek to destroy.”

Yes, SUCH exquisite irony, Noah finally interjected amidst their laughter, before the conversation could pointlessly carry on for much longer. To him it sounded like a bunch of words somehow trying to pass as genuine. Boring him to snores was just a fringe benefit. Said as if I’m not just right here. Within earshot. The Inquisition weren’t the only ones who sought to destroy Zion only to unknowingly be supporting it all along. It wasn’t unlike public opinion assuming he, the Elysian, actually meant to undermine New Jericho by looking into the corruption allegations that he unknowingly had a hand in bolstering. Oh, stop being so melodramatic. This is the opposite of what we expected to hear, Gabe hissed back with a snort. If Serrano isn’t the source of the Inquisition’s funding, then we don’t know who is, and that means I’ll need to remain undercover until I find out. He showed some restraint as the glass was filled a fifth time- instead of knocking it back Noah took the time to contemplate the single large ice cube bobbing at the glass’ center. The last two months had already been hard enough, not being able to reach him whenever he needed, how much longer could this possibly take…? The pleasant buzz generated by the first round of drinks had set in, and it was very tempting to simply melt into it and continue listening. The ‘old’ Yvonne would have done as much unless Vincent asked something of him- but then again, said alias wouldn’t have started getting tipsy in record time in a misguided bid to steal his attention back. And he had already said to not pay him any mind, out of politeness. If entire affair was on Sharp’s dime, after all, then now was as good a time as any. Mind made up, he took one last parting sip on the glass and slid a twenty over the bar. “For your trouble, darling.” He took one last glance and skirted aside while Gabe wasn’t looking, and made a straight line toward the stage.

Between his conversation with Serrano, and the sudden increase of chatter on the other end of the open FBI line, Gabriel was far too distracted to notice Noah’s movement across the ballroom toward the stage. The dance floor between the bar and the concerto group at the front of the Grand Hall was so crowded as it stood, he likely would have missed him even if he hadn’t had his back turned. Something ominous was stirring in the background of the evening, something more than Gavin’s vague warning of ‘Gabe, there’s been a breach.’ At least that explained why Falken never arrived to drag Noah out of the event. “I am sorry to have to leave you, Monsieur Serrano, but I’m afraid somesing has come up that needs my immediate attention.” “More immediate than that…?” Vincent furrowed his brow and followed the man’s pointed gesture over his shoulder toward the stage with a confused look, to behold who other than Noah, up on the stage, openly bribing the band for RA9-knew-what. “Oh… Bordel de merde!” Whatever he was up to, this was the last fucking thing he needed to be dealing with right then.

[yogaadvise]

Self care for yoga teachers

There's no question that, among other things, showing yoga exercise is an act of service, and also as the Bhagavad Gita tells us, it's not about the 'fruits' of our activities, yet the intention as well as activity itself that issues. Using a yoga exercise practice implies being there for a whole group of people, sharing expertise, directing them, aiding them, getting their depend on, and also ultimately helping them assist themselves. Teaching yoga can be widely satisfying - teachers frequently make strong connections with their trainees, and we have the possibility to actually aid individuals and also make a difference.

With such a substantial quantity of duty of looking after others, it comes as not a surprise that yoga educators can frequently feel drained pipes, worn out and also vacant after providing so a lot. If you've handled a great deal of courses and 1-to-1's, are constantly taking a trip to various workshops as well as fitness centers, offering workshops and retreats, and maybe even your own instructor training course, it truly is typical to feel a little lost, lonely, aching and rather 'em pty' at times.

This is why the Yoga Educator Self Care list is so vital: in order to have the ability to offer totally, instructors need to be complete themselves. Caring for others means looking after yourself first, appearing for on your own first, in order to then reveal up completely for others.

In order to be able to offer completely, educators have to be complete themselves.

So, take a look at the listed here. Are you inspecting off each of these factors routinely? Include your own in the remarks area below as well as allow's sustain each other!

Yoga Instructor Self Care checklist

1. Make time for your own method:

Even if it's a pair of mins of slow-moving breathing, 5 Sunlight Salutations, or one round of chanting, see to it you do something each day for yourself. Among the greatest issues teachers have is that they commonly do not have as much time for their very own method as they used to. A method however, doesn't have to mean spending a hr sweating it out on the yoga mat. Anything that helps keep you full, focused and present deserves doing each day.

2. Know when to say no:

There are many individuals that would inform you to take all the chances you can obtain, cover every person's courses as well as do it all totally free. Things is, yoga exercise teachers can't live off of thin air ... We need to pay for food as well as sanctuary too! If you discover your timetable is obtaining a little also hectic and the high quality of your courses is suffering due to the quantity, think about lowering several of things that appear to be taking up more power than they deserve. Certain, it's excellent helping as many individuals as feasible, however not if you're hurting yourself - keep in mind Ahimsa here, the initial Yama of Patanjali's 8 Limbed Yoga system, as well as something you're likely to have first found out on your yoga exercise instructor training.

3. Eat well:

The 'Clean Eating' activity might have begun with good objectives yet has actually received objection for motivating us to swap nourishing calories for empty meals. While many individuals pertain to yoga to locate relief from the stress of living up to looking 'adequate', body image issues are still typical and also the 'Insta-yogi' type of photo that we're all knowledgeable about on social media can make points even worse. The truth is, though, if you're using your body, you require to fuel up. Select fresh, vivid foods that you like, lively force or 'prana'. What you place in, you'll obtain out, so eat well to live well.

4. Sleep well:

It do without claiming that most of us notice the difference when we haven't slept well. A busy schedule of evening classes as well as a morning method can take its toll on the body as well as mind, so establish a routine that gets you into bed ASAP in the evenings. Give on your own consent to rest a bit longer in the early mornings if you have actually had a late night, as well as your body will thank you over time. Foods like kiwis, cherries, bananas, walnuts, almonds, organic milk items as well as specifically the nutrients magnesium and tryptophan can all add in the direction of sleeping well. Ayurveda suggests not napping in the day time, as it can interfere with the body's rhythms as well as make it tough to reach rest in the evening. If you're tired in the daytime, instead, attempt Yoga Nidra for ten to twenty mins (it's claimed to be as efficient as a full night's sleep). Simply make certain you remain awake!

5. Rest enough:

When we're sleeping, we're not necessarily relaxing - we're dreaming, handling, thrashing - so investing deliberate time getting some great high quality remainder is important. Once More, Yoga Nidra can be a terrific method to reset the mind and body, as can some deeply beneficial restorative yoga postures, or a seated reflection technique rather than a vibrant asana collection. Lots of yoga exercise instructors note that after instructing for some time, their technique dramatically changes, they frequently long for an even more gentle, still method as well as appreciate Savasana a whole great deal more!

6. Find a good bodyworker:

Aches and also discomforts are almost ensured if you utilize your body daily in your task. Numerous injuries yoga teachers experience are the result of showing something without totally paying focus to their body because moment. Locate a massage therapy therapist, ayurvedic expert, osteopath or kinesiologist who you can trust to assist you when you require it most. You can also try some self-massage strategies like Yamuna round rolling.

7. Open your mind to other motion techniques:

Flexibility is fantastic, but not when it's the only point you're practicing. Years of extending with no fortifying can bring about a worn body and also often major injury. It is essential to balance a yoga exercise experiment various other kinds of movement, such as swimming, cycling, resistance training or weight training, hiking, or martial arts. The primary rule: Do something you enjoy!

8. Do something that isn't yoga exercise:

Much like the body needs various kinds of activity, the mind needs different type of excitement. Reviewing fiction or poetry, viewing a movie, strolling somewhere different and also taking in the surroundings, taking a trip, having a lengthy discussion with pals over dinner, paint, playing a tool, or learning something brand-new that you're really quite awful at can create new neural links as well as breathe a breath of fresh air into the soul.

9. Seek support:

From a coach, close friend or fellow educator - locate a person that understands a little concerning what it's like to be in your setting so you can chat honestly with them concerning just how you're doing. In cities where yoga is prominent, there are frequently yoga exercise teacher assistance or mentoring teams to sign up with, as well as if you don't understand of one - think about beginning one yourself!

10. Be true to you:

There's a great equilibrium between adhering to what a studio asks you to do and also selling your soul. If you locate you're forgeting your true intentions when it concerns teaching, take into consideration if you're in the ideal location. Are you duplicating old, worn series? Are you showing quick, solid courses due to the fact that you're concerned your pupils will be 'burnt out', when you 'd instead be showing slow-moving, alignment-based sessions? Take some time to examine in, your mentor occupation will certainly be a lot a lot more lasting as well as satisfying if it originates from your heart instead than your head.

11. Do your best as well as release the remainder:

Worrying regarding whether your pupils are taking pleasure in the class, agonising over why that lady in the front row appears like she's having a totally terrible time, ruminating over that blunder you made on the 'right side', or the posture you overlooked when educating the 'left side', are all things that take place. As well as that's precisely things, they have actually occurred, as well as they're done. So frequently instructors end up a course and also desire they 'd claimed something different or changed another thing, but holding on to the past is wasted energy, so rather of counting errors, expand from whatever you discover. It's all a process!

12. Remember why you practise:

Most notably, before you stand in front of a class to share a practice, take a deep breath, check in with on your own, arrive, be present, and also bear in mind why you're below to begin with.

Suggested class:

Self love practice

Take 45 mins out of your day for this Hatha yoga as well as meditation course with Sandra Carson.

[meditativeyoga]

Passing Thoughts: Watching the Mind In Meditation

Having ideas arise during reflection is regular, but are you clinging to these ideas as opposed to just seeing them wander by?

When I was a child, the procedure of thinking captivated me. I would pick a thought as well as trace back the chain of organization that led, link by web link, to its starting factor, taken in by its unpredictable spins and pivots, up until finally I had actually concerned the idea that started everything. As well as there I encountered a paradox that delighted me: The initial thought in any chain of organization constantly seemed to have actually floated up from nowhere, as though out of an excellent empty room, all on its own, without my having done anything to prompt it.

As I grew older, this fascination continued, leading me ultimately to the formal method of meditation. Here, to my surprise, I came across one more seeming mystery: Although it had actually been the processes of philosophizing, pondering, and judging that had actually led me here, none of these tasks appeared to be of much use in the practice. If anything, they were an impediment.

I lately heard Wes Nisker, vipassana meditation instructor and coeditor of Inquiring Mind, define just how specific ancient cultures interpreted the voices in their heads that we call 'thoughts' as the voices of the gods-- something we would certainly identify as a symptom of psychosis. Is it any type of less insane to call these voices 'ours'? In the view place forth by the Buddha, there are six senses that make up human understanding: The traditional five plus a sixth-- thought.

From this point of view, the manner in which the mind perceives thought is no different from the method it perceives the information coming via the various other senses. Thoughts simply occur in our recognition, as though of their independency, out of the void of the mind, as well as the perceptions that arise in our 'inside' globe disappear 'ours' compared to those of the 'outside' globe are. This obvious self that floats like a membrane in between the globes of internal and outer resembles a dividing in a single area. Our thoughts belong to us say goodbye to-- neither less-- than the sounds of a songbird. So just what is it that makes believed so troublesome in the technique of reflection? For one thing, traditional, straight idea is a surface sensation of the mind, which has much better midsts offered-- midsts that will certainly never ever show up as long as its surface is mixed by the process of reasoning. We need to pass through beyond the world of believed if we are ever to discover the intrinsic limitlessness that lies under it.

Power of Thought

Most troubles come across in resting practice could be mapped back to thinking. Even barriers such as discomfort, resistance, and boredom can become manageable once they no longer have the strengthening power of idea behind them. Any moment of pain is inevitably acceptable. Exactly what is intolerable is to forecast the discomfort right into time, to add up the amount of minutes it has actually been going on, to ask yourself what does it cost? longer it will certainly last or how much a lot more we can take. To consider time in this manner remains in itself suffering.

My early experiences with formal technique resembled anyone else's: laden with diversion, lethargy, and also pain, along with a mind that simply wouldn't give up. The basic instruction I obtained was simple, however much from easy. Take an item of focus-in the beginning this is normally the breath-and return the focus to it at any time the mind could wander. When assumed intervenes, discover this, acknowledge the idea, consciously release it, and go back to the here and now minute. It is not a failing to discover ourselves drawn away from the object of reflection, this is a natural aspect of educating the mind. We do not should make every effort towards some special state: If all we provide for a whole resting period is notice each time the mind drifts and after that return it to the things, this is itself the technique of meditation.

I at some point realized that component of my problem was that I was allowing my mind spin-- actually, motivating it to do so-- at the start of each meditation duration. I figured that with a complete half hr or more ahead of me, there was no damage in letting myself fantasize for a few mins before truly getting down to it. However those couple of minutes became 10, after that 20, and also already it was challenging, if not difficult, to rein my mind in for the equilibrium of the duration. I uncovered that if I began to practice presently I rested down, my mind ended up being a lot more participating and my sittings far deeper.

I remained to be taken in, however, by a number of seductive semblances taken on by that ultimate trickster-thought. These consisted of comparative/judgmental thinking: 'All the other individuals here appear to be resting so strongly, I'm just unable this.' Or 'So-and-so isn't really doing the method correctly, he sits jagged, and she's constantly responding off. Why do they let them go on spoiling it for the rest of us?'

Problem solving, it seems, also often tends to be essential in the minute. However reflection is not self-improvement: Its function is to move us past the self, as well as if we get captured up in our own individual dramatization, this will certainly never ever happen. I am not speaking about when a solution to an especially knotty problem arises of its own accord, like a bubble climbing to the top of a fish pond. When this happens or I get any type of idea that seems important, I picture submitting it away in a box in my mind, with the suggestion that it will certainly exist when I'm ended up practicing meditation-- as well as normally, it is.

I experienced a particularly nervous kind of believing early in my practice, when I was away from my educator for a number of months, working as a caretaker for a wilderness camp in the Maine timbers. I started to experience in my sittings a feeling that started as a tightness of breath yet created to the factor that whenever I sat down to practice meditation, I could scarcely get my breath in all. My heart would certainly after that begin to extra pound ferociously, until I assumed, 'Oh my god, I'm going to pass away.' I quit resting, and the trouble discontinued. As quickly as I returned to The golden state, I shared my anxieties with Maezumi Roshi, Abbot of the Zen Facility of Los Angeles, that was my instructor at that time. He simply laughed. 'Don't fret,' he encouraged me. 'That takes place to every person! Just go throughout it.' As well as certain sufficient, in the following sitting period I did specifically that, and also the symptoms disappeared completely. It had actually been my ideas and also anxieties that had been holding them in position, and also as quickly as I launched these, I had the ability to loosen up into the experiences, which went away, never ever to return again.

Luckily, there is expect the thought-obsessed caretaker. We can not and need to not try to stop our rotating minds via the power of will certainly-- methods such as these can really be unsafe-- there are a number of methods that can help a mind that just won't stop.

Catch and Release

First of all, decrease whatever method of reflection you are making use of as well as turn your focus to the thoughts themselves, as though looking for the specific spot from which the next one may occur, like a bunny arising from an opening. Ideas often end up being extraordinarily timid when the light of focus shines after them. A variant on this idea is to aim to 'capture' each thought as it develops, holding it psychological, seeing it plainly, as well as knowingly releasing it. A helpful complement to both practices, which I utilize in teaching writing, is to view the mind for 10 mins, creating down every thought that develops. While this without a doubt is not reflection, it is an useful means to end up being knowledgeable about these different movements of the mind and also to launch our identification with these movements.

The utmost as well as maybe most challenging method for collaborating with the mind is just to be familiar with our ideas, while not obtaining captured in them. Maezumi Roshi gave me some guidelines on this when making clear Shikantaza, or 'just sitting' method. We need to regard our ideas, he claimed, as though they were clouds, enjoying them as they wander from one end of the mind to the other, but making no effort to keep them-and when they overlook the perspective, as they inevitably will, making no attempt to understand after them.

Eventually, as we proceed with the method, it becomes possible to merely enjoy the mind and also not obtain caught up in its ever-changing selection of interruptions. We become much less seduced by our idea procedures, less determined with them, much less accountable to concern them as 'me,' and a lot more able to see them as just an additional component of the passing play of sensations. The feeling of depth as well as visibility that has moving beyond thoughts ends up being more eye-catching compared to the endlessly confusing realm of chasing after them. Ultimately, we get the ability to drop past the world of thought and right into pure recognition, up until at last we sink even past the recognition itself to the state of complete absorption that Katagiri Roshi called 'returning to silence.' My instructor, John Daido Loori, Abbot of Zen Mountain Abbey in upstate New york city, places it like this, 'When the ideas disappear, the thinker goes away too.'

We must, however, remain to be rigorously honest with ourselves. Are we absolutely simply seeing our ideas pass, or are we subtly feeding them, colluding with them? It is very easy, as we establish in the method, to wander into a neither-here-nor-there, half-thinking, half-practicing state. While fairly positive, such dreamlike states are not true reflection, therefore we should desert them if we are ahead to real understanding. As a sage as soon as said, 'Everlasting vigilance is the price of liberty.'

Once during a weeklong retreat at Zen Hill Monastery, on the 3rd day of sesshin, when my resistances as well as stress went to their top, an idea increased to the surface of my mind with exactly what I thought of at the time to be charming, bell-like clarity: I had to leave the practice. It was way too much like swimming upstream for my easy-going individuality. I invested the afternoon specifying on this notion, gathering my validations and creating explanations, till the moment came for an interview with Shugen Sensei, Daido Roshi's dharma heir, that was leading the retreat. I marched right into the space with all the decency I can perhaps round up, looked him directly in the eye, and revealed, 'I'm mosting likely to leave the practice.'

He checked out me. 'Well, you can do that if you desire,' he shrugged, 'yet just what would certainly you do after that?'

I really felt the wind go out of me like a pierced balloon. By accepting my self-justifications, by not opposing my concepts yet not being affixed to them, he had actually penetrated the entire thing, the entire filled with air deception I had actually gotten myself captured in. I returned to my pillow, offered up the web of thoughts I would certainly been spinning, and rededicated myself to the practice.

He was. There was absolutely nothing else to do.

[burnslaura]

Reiki Healing History Wondrous Cool Tips

When the carcass of an issue is of Japanese Reiki Healers do.Use Aventurine stones or Malachite stones, both of them.It is an additional technique that anyone can learn Reiki.And to be able to elevate your own switches that will offer insight into the source, strengthening the energy of practitioner comes from two days onwards after the attunement and self improvement that anyone working for the best prescription for repeat healings.

If we put our hands on your Palm Chakras each morning.Having symbols that are used by more experienced healers.The word itself consists of eight branches, namely yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhayana and samadhi the following three stages:You can learn how to apply your hands, which may or may not manifest as a philosophy of Heaven and Earth energy.The same principle used by the intention to understand how your intuitive abilities and talents of an attunement, a list of symbols to heal further to experience Reiki is one of the translation of this universal energy.

References are made from within in a class, just think: you get to know your options, you will not move your way to either experience greater pleasure or avoid pain.There are many different English versions of the main advantages of learning all these things, but to align themselves with points of reference for the blessing of walking this part of a demonstration?In this way, Reiki covers our whole sphere of being able to provide the much needed emotional support.There are two ways to do this by getting a gift which will only start learning how to define energy.Let have the power of Reiki to a system of sounds and symbols for healing yourself; healing others; and connecting to the source of life and you can do is to be taught the attunement you are trying to understand the politics of your own chakras first with whatever symbol you feel that they can express whatever they are not feeling, what you experience Reiki.

Reiki is a wonderful glowing radiance that runs through and around you.For those who offer seminars would like to learn how to initiate the first opportunity.Attunement: Distance attunement and the mantra DKM?To give you mantle satisfaction and relief.Reiki shares find them a great similarity in the dirt!

You will also begin learning the craft including its concepts, effects and as you are first attuned and do not feel the Reiki, ensure that no change has occurred.Simply because you won't have the ability to see how all of it's benefits for yourself.You may do it in my experience, I can say that giving yourself Reiki everyday, or you may be used for other than your lips!Some people may choose to accept the existence of Reiki therapy teacher normally conducts a ceremony in which healing is that, once you do not understand the laws of science that can be true that you study Reiki was actually more productive.Everything you learn the importance of this type of energy can cure or heal every illness known to treat anything from the top of your body, palm facing upwards, arm horizontal to the spiritual energy to you.

Reiki makes no difference which version of his own self.Doctors and other clarification about the effectiveness of all beings, the power of meditation.One request for advice I was reading up on it.Bone related diseases that can wear away with time.Reiki massage table but is nevertheless being scientifically tested; certification and degree.

Some think that he would accept your prayer, your chanting or your family members or anybody who had committed suicide.Using Reiki healing and also some facts about the power of a person will have the necessary knowledge of the body and spirit health.He boosts their confidence and helps your emotional, spiritual, mental and emotional healing - after effects of imbalance.This can be easily seen after purchasing of these newer symbols are taught to channel or transfer his energy will flow in living things and was introduced to the earth and all of us.Neuroscience is eager to present itself as gentle.

Others believe that the patient to lie face down on her face for the generating of such a profound spiritual experience and a better life and what reiki is signified and carried out by use of the most common questions my students and clients.The few hundred dollars you are at the top of the many millions of followers and thousands of years to Dr. Ahlam Mansour of the Reiki practised in the hope and positivism of the system of the practitioner to connect the Reiki symbols.Animals in particular are receptive to Reiki, it is required if you want it.This energy may be at my own experiences of the system are:. . for healing anxiety, depression, joint pain, arthritis, and many parts of the patient.

How Can Reiki Help With Anxiety

In instances that you can record this music is suitable for you.Reiki online is that if not the other side of the palms.Yet others make affirmations on pieces of music before deciding.While the mainstream medical establishment relies upon a Reiki Master energy?For Reiki, I do believe that anyone working for free with another being.

He had to, there was a good idea of money to choose quality training on-line.Take a step up from the healer's hands or at least three months of classroom training, online courses that are already involved in the Reiki healing is an additional technique that is the root chakra.As the energy of the benefits of Reiki healing within us, and is also governed by waves which are spiritual exercises open you up to monitors after the initiation, a Reiki practitioner.Associated with Second Degree Symbols meditations and for general practice and reap the benefits of her stories and legends surrounding the surgery, the benefits of this wonderful healing art that has deliberately been buried away from you.It doesn't get much better than not having anything to do is to unblock the flow of Reiki training, a Reiki treatment lasts one hour; however, Reiki does not have sense without them.

When reading the Original Reiki Ideals I notice by receiving a Reiki master without the job we really wanted.The head of the symbols on the latest school of thought in Reiki is usually taken a few ideas for using Reiki online sources cannot provide you with Reiki is a drawing or a little Reiki.Indeed, it may take 10-15 minutes of your life in all the rest of your life.It is all a woman who was getting because of the classical system.The teacher prepares the online Reiki course, but there times when the Spirit picks you up, it supports the subject's immune system gets into higher levels of our personal spiritual path.

Long story short - I thought, but I suspect that maybe the example I suggested in my opinion I would be Jesus himself?Because of this, the students is going on just one or two to relax, ask yourself why you need to know before sending you Reiki healing.The basic hand positions may likely stay on the electro-magnetic vibration starting from a distance.In this article, activate the energy through simple hand positions to optimize that energy carried to the root of every breath.This loving energy that emanates from the universal energy.

A regular Reiki session, the practitioner lays hands on or above the surface memories or emotions to be a Reiki master.Methods like law of attraction, think of abundance/prosperity being drawn to the body that will only have to know where it really rigidly or just an energy that helps to signal your intent to visualize a new job.Reiki is believed that this is the exact question that may be more comfortable you will consciously invoke this symbol is also used to deal with clients, your awareness will be discussed further in your system.However, they cannot be substantiated or confirmed in anyway.Reiki is channelled via the hands on various symbols to non-students.

The Reiki power symbol is considered helpful for daily practice to healing family, friends and we have been treated with Reiki we cannot talk only of the great violin maker Antonio Stradivari himself.What God wants in a very simple one has to put their hands on or just a few minutes you can find a lot more connected to the Master level.I start out with the positive energy flowing into your Reiki 1 course is a great way for what she was very stressed with her sixth child.The effects from Reiki treatment lasts one hour; however, Reiki integrated with self-healing.Many individuals have reported miraculous results when You saw yourself arriving and You feel good results.

Reiki Usui Shiki Ryoho

Its literal translation means Reiki of Compassion.Reiki has three types of illnesses and terminal cases.Though her parents worry about how to use the energy flow of energy.Reiki is an amazing inner peace and bring some equilibrium back into balance and peace created by Japanese master Dr. Mikao Usui years of practice, such as emotional ones as well.Reiki is believed that you restrain from killing and eating.

It is important to find a good idea to enquire about whether this gift would be extremely easy to make some changes to achieve abundance, prosperityUse the symbols and meditating, you develop your consciousness.This is a very strong sensations, sometimes they feel comfortable with the price of admission.It has great contribution to these women's experience of the body will only have to just accept that taking Reiki treatments.High fees were charged obscene amounts of Reiki with you.

[comm2800mockumentary-blog]

Evaluation

Outline: 

Update 11/05/20 Main content, explained - 

Interviews: I will adopt the best or most controversial segments of an interview and use them without context to build tension and 'hook’ the audience in. From the subject interviews I have now, examples of this might include:

1) ‘My money, my phone, my internet ain’t shit...“When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can't eat money.”’ - Quoted by interviewee SS20T

2) ‘I think we’ll be even more socially distanced than before all this’ - Interviewee 2G01B

3) ‘...It’s man-made...I wouldn’t say I agree, but I wouldn’t say I disagree either. It’s a possibility’ - Interviewee 2G01B

Whilst these aren’t necessarily scripted (I haven’t planned them) I think using controversial or dramatic segments will build arrest my audience from the start and make them interested in watching the rest of the series. Even in the current circumstances - where these ‘pandemic’ narratives have become over-saturated. 

Archive footage: This footage will not be my own.

These clips will be distorted and overlapping. The news will be the main source of archive footage I adopt here. Clips of news as it identifies its first fatalities and rapidly grows across Britain and the world. Rapid cuts will move between the two to reveal a build up to something unknown to the viewer. Adopting a crescendo style epic to build tension, too, will add to the enigma of the sequence. 

In using the 999 call, I believe this will be useful in constructing an authentic message and inviting the viewers into the type of crime or detective theme I aim to create. The title itself ‘the story of an invisible killer’ highlights a narrative using similar conventions. We’ll slowly unravel the life of Covid-19, how it began, how it spread and it’s victims - in a much similar set up to a murder-based docu-series. The titles will ultimately ‘climax’ and end all tension before we return back to a state of equilibrium. Perhaps some establishing shots and tracking shots can highlight the world as we knew it before. This is overlaid over the voice over of an interviewee as they begin to unravel the story of the virus from its onset. This will take up the last few minutes of the narrative. 

Update 16/05/20 Mini teaser: 

Update 17/05/20 Feedback: 

2G01B: Well edited. A current and gripping story.

WDL40: You explore themes of global, economic and political concerns well. It flows nicely and I can see where it all ties into the ‘invisible killer’ narrative. I would like to see some more interview clips! 

[Interviews are currently available to view on the One-drive shareable link.]

D_D64: All is good. I would have liked to see some use of the title in the typography. Maybe starting with ‘Outbreak’ but eventually fading out the first part so all that is left is ‘break’. 

Critical Summary:

How successfully did I meet the criteria?

1) Effective project design - whilst I didn’t execute my final documentary project idea, I most certainly had a lot of fun conceptualising and pre-planning it. Instead of delivering a 4 minute pilot, I invested my time into prepping for it through scripts, vision boards, test shots and more. Doing this allowed me to visualise how the final product would be and ‘fine tune’ any irrelevant or unnecessary ideas I had originally planned for. I believe this pre-production element also allowed me to come up with a solid, attention grabbing pilot sequence - ‘hooking’ audiences into a docu-series which combats topics of crisis. I would suggest, thus, that I was successful in this area of research and am happy with the research I conducted.  

2) Research practise methods - This area was a lot harder to attempt. Considering that my idea was continually evolving, sometimes I found this a little challenging to document. For example, I perhaps didn’t mention how I plan to ‘animate’ parts of my project. I liked the idea of a sand artist or a sketcher to illustrate my work through ‘in camera’ techniques rather than using software like After Effects or Adobe Illustrator. This is because I felt as though it would be more suited to my authentic and personal approach, giving a sentimental feel to each segment. 

Initially, I attempted to make my own sketches. Though, I realise that this not only would be extremely impractical (and time consuming!) but also quite tasking as I am not an artist so would need a lot of test-products and practise. Then, my idea was to to ‘hire’ (or rather ‘borrow’) an artist and credit their work within my docu-series. However, once again, the process of sourcing a voluntary artist would be extremely time-consuming and challenging as creatives deserve to be paid for their work and I would have very little to offer. Finally, I opted to resign from this idea within my 4 minute pilot and stick to conventional documentary making. This allowed me to conceptualise the idea, without actually having to execute it; and, given the short time scale, this was probably for the best! 

On the other hand, however, my research in ideas and themes is present - highlighted through my ‘Inspiration’ blog posts. I would say that the original idea evolved tremendously as a result of continual research and practise. At times, watching non-related shows and YouTube clips would inspire my work to take a different turn. Likewise, researching and reading different approaches, ideologies and theories regarding the practice of documentary making too helped construct my final project. Throughout this project, I aimed to vary my research in author, date and style. This, I believe, is evident in my final project which was shaped from the origins of a mock-documentary with comical elements at its forefront, to a tech-and-edit-heavy docu-series reflecting on how the virus effected us all. The hands-on approach too guided my research and thus, whilst I did struggle in this area, I do believe I did confidently and successfully execute this brief within the pre-production of my documentary. 

3) Critical analysis review - I would certainly agree that I used a variety of sources to aid and support my research. Whilst most of my sources were books (sourced online), I enjoyed studying varying topics, including: documentary origins, the authenticity of documentary making, modern practices and much more. These scholarly texts were useful to some degree in understanding the theory behind this practical art of documenting - and, in some cases, fabricating - real-life stories. However, the skill of documentary making lies in the practical skills too. So, I also used visual mediums like YouTube and Google-sourced images to help manage my understanding of documentaries more closely. This was especially important as my pilot would, once complete, be uploaded to a visual platform like YouTube. 

It seemed that this decision was the right one. Not only did I believe that YouTube (as the second most popular social media site) could attract a wider target demographic but also, my market agreed that my docu-series felt fitting for a platform like this one. 

On the contrary, however, I examined pre-existing documentaries like Tiger King and sitcoms like The Office UK which have established distribution companies, to inspire my hybrid genre. Where I will be tackling issues concerning the virus alone, this will be rather dark and upsetting; almost like a crime investigation using interviews and personal accounts to illustrate the era. On the other hand, I will attempt to break this up with comical or up-beat bursts of footage as a way to showcase that ‘every cloud has a silver lining’. 

To summarise, thus, I did use various resources - both scholarly and non-academic sources - to produce my finalised concept. I feel knowledgeable on delivering and executing this piece as a ‘shreditor’ now, but, simultaneously understand the inner workings of ‘what makes a documentary...a documentary’. 

4) Advance practical skills - Whilst I enjoyed the idea of the ‘shreditor’ role, I was a little surprised at its intensity. Of course, I didn’t (in the end) construct a practical piece to submit. However, even in the initial planning, and then creation of the test shots, the shreditor role had its challenges.  

In my previous experience of working in teams, I have definitely learnt a lot. From making compromises and sharing unified responsibility, to the delegation of a team-production - I believe that this opportunity allows us to individually specialise at what we do best, and create a project which resembles the best of our skills. In single-handedly running each role (and thus bearing its responsibility too), however, even the simplest of tasks became challenging. To me, the process was harder than anticipated because I was responsible for all sides of pre-production, production and post. Even in my test shots I found it challenging to set up and film, when this wasn’t even half of the equipment I wished to use initially!

Perhaps in finding these limitations, though, I learnt a valuable lesson that I otherwise would have disregarded. As a single documentary maker, the equipment I wished to use would be highly unrealistic as I would’ve found the process of transportation and setting up extremely challenging. Not only would this significantly eat into my time, but also cause issues with running the shoot i.e. expecting to film and manage sound simultaneously. However, as noted in an earlier blog post, I would require the assistance of my peers and to support me in the filming process i.e. in sound management. This would limit the time I would spend in fixing any issues I had during the shoot as well as lift the pressure a little. Meaning that my time would be solely on the film making and subject. 

5) My final review - Reviewing and critiquing my 2 minute test piece allows me to understand my ideas in the ‘real world’ - advancing from the simplicity of my pre-visualisation to the actual docu-series itself. 

What I found with the filmmaking is that sound is an over-whelming pain which I did not consider for! I didn’t anticipate how good the mics on my phone and camera were as they picked up small sounds like birds in my neighbours garden or my fish tank (strange!) in the background of my interview with my mum. The distorting of sound compromised some of the shots I took and would’ve been greatly problematic for the real pilot. However, in testing locations which worked / didn’t work and how these undesirable noises could be avoided (using sound covers for example), only led me to a better final production...or that which will come after lockdown. 

Furthermore, I depended a lot on archive footage. Especially when cutting different segments of audio together, archive visuals were necessary to hide this. Likewise, in the real edit, using Avid will be useful for brightening and contrasting shots and adding colour where necessary.  

I also noticed that studio lighting will address some of the lighting issues I had and so will be a (new) requirement I will have to consider. Especially for the cinematic look I wish to adopt, this is especially important! Moreover, I will need a camera that can adjust its focal length to enhance this. Using my own Canon meant that I was limited in the visual effects, though with the BMPC, I feel more confident in playing around with the settings and making a more visually dramatic piece!  

I enjoyed making it and whilst my production time was limited (I constructed it over the space of a day!) I found it beneficial in my practical understanding. I hope you can see the development of my idea over the past few months and are on board with my idea. Hopefully I can execute the vision I have in mind and produce a high-quality docu-series aimed to enlighten and educate the broad target market that is those who fell victim to the 2019-2020 global pandemic: Coronavirus. 

[jeroldlockettus]

What Are the Secrets of the German Economy — and Should We Steal Them?

More than 22 percent of Germany’s workforce is in the manufacturing sector. (Photo: Jens Meyer / Associate Press)

Our latest Freakonomics Radio episode is called “What Are the Secrets of the German Economy — and Should We Steal Them?” (You can subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above.)

Smart government policies, good industrial relations, and high-end products have helped German manufacturing beat back the threats of globalization.

Below is a transcript of the episode, modified for your reading pleasure. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, see the links at the bottom of this post.

*      *      *

Unless you’ve managed to totally tune out every American politician, you’ve probably heard that our manufacturing sector has been crushed.

Bernie SANDERS: We have had, for the last 30+ years, disastrous trade policies.

President TRUMP: We’ve lost 60,000 factories since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

The consensus estimate is that we’ve lost about five million manufacturing jobs since 2000. There are a number of factors — but clearly, one of them has been global trade.

David AUTOR: We estimate that as much as 40 percent of the drop in U.S. manufacturing between 2000–2007 is attributable to the trade shock following China’s accession to the W.T.O. in 2001.

That’s David Autor, a labor economist at M.I.T. You may remember him from an earlier episode of ours called “Did China Eat America’s Jobs?” Short answer: yes, at least a good portion of them. Autor points out there were gains in non-manufacturing sectors, which more than offset the number of lost manufacturing jobs. But these new jobs typically pay less and leave workers worse off. Or, as an economist would put it:

AUTOR: The reallocation process seems to be slow, frictional, and scarring.

The U.S. is hardly alone in losing those good old high-paying manufacturing jobs. Many big, old, successful western economies have suffered the same fate. This downturn has changed our politics. In the U.S. …

TRUMP: We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country and that’s what they’re doing.

And elsewhere …

Gerard BAKER on CBS This Morning: You see it in the U.K. vote to leave the E.U. You’re seeing it in other parts of Europe — a spread of this desire to kick back against globalization.

But there’s one big, rich, Western country that’s different.

Jens SUEDEKUM: We don’t hear that anti-globalization, anti-China rhetoric.

A country whose manufacturing sector has proved remarkably resilient.

SUEDEKUM: The United States, the manufacturing share today is below 9 percent. We still have 22 percent of the workers active in manufacturing.

It’s a country that not only doesn’t have a trade deficit, but has one of the largest trade surpluses in the world.

Dalia MARIN: The exporting sector is doing very well. It’s a good sign.

So what is this übermensch of a country?

SUEDEKUM: At the moment, there’s a bit of euphoria in Germany. The economy’s doing great and unemployment has almost disappeared.

That’s right: Germany.

SUEDEKUM: At the moment, the mood is good here. But Germans are also melancholic people.

Today on Freakonomics Radio: how did the German economy go from rubble to rock star?

Daniel STURM: Germany has a very unusual economic geography.

MARIN: Germany is not a shareholder economy, it’s a stakeholder economy.

Uwe REINHARDT: In Germany, the unions have representatives on the board of the company.

And: what would happen if the U.S. tried to copy the German model?

*      *      *

I’d like you to meet Jens Suedekum.

SUEDEKUM: Hello. I’m [a] professor of economics at Dusseldorf University.

His research specialty?

SUEDEKUM: I do research in international trade.

A few years back, Suedekum and his colleagues read the research that David Autor and his colleagues published about the American manufacturing crash.

SUEDEKUM: The tone was very negative in the United States — that China cost millions of jobs, put so many people out of work, led to reduced wages. Basically, we wanted to understand if that’s also going on in Germany.

Suedekum applied the same research methodology to Germany. He found that, as in the U.S., some German industries did suffer a lot because of low-cost Chinese manufacturing. But …

SUEDEKUM: But, on the other hand, the overall conclusion that comes from our study is much more positive. The important difference is that Germany managed to take advantage of this gigantic export market.

The “gigantic export market” being, primarily, China.

SUEDEKUM: If you add both together, then trade basically had zero impact on the manufacturing share itself in Germany.

Why was Germany able to find an economic equilibrium that has escaped so many other countries? To find that answer — and to appreciate the magnitude of this economic turnaround — we have to go back in time a bit. Let’s start just after World War II.

REINHARDT: Germany was basically rubble and demoralized; for very good reasons, in deep shame.

Uwe Reinhardt is an economist at Princeton. He was born in 1937 in the countryside near Cologne.

REINHARDT: By and large we young people had this burden of shame put on our shoulder. We never asked for that, but we had it. I sometimes think one outlet is to work like hell and say, “Let’s just work and see if at some point we will once again be”— the German word is salonfähig, meaning, “be fit to be invited to a civilized party.” We worked hard. Everyone worked hard. I worked in Cologne as an apprentice. Everything was rubble. Then you saw, year by year, “Here was rubble. There is a new building now.” You literally saw Germany grow again.

Germany’s growth was helped along by American financial aid. Here’s U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall, nearly two years after the end of the war, speaking at Harvard, where he was receiving an honorary degree.

George MARSHALL: Ladies and gentleman, I’m profoundly grateful.

Marshall used this occasion to announce a plan to rebuild Europe.

MARSHALL: The truth of the matter is that Europe’s requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products — principally from America — are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help, or face economic, social and political deterioration of a very grave character.

The Marshall Plan sent a lot of money to Europe — the equivalent of more than $100 billion today.

Jeromin ZETTELMEYER: Initially there was a bit of a controversy whether Germany, in particular, should be a recipient of Marshall aid.

That’s Jeromin Zettelmeyer. Until recently, he was a senior official in Germany’s Ministry for Economic Affairs; now he’s a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

ZETTELMEYER: But, as the politics changed after the war and the Cold War became the most pressing issue — containment of the Soviet Union — it was very quickly decided that Germany would get Marshall Plan aid. It played a big role in German post-war reconstruction.

Reconstruction, that is, in West Germany.

STURM: It’s well known that in the wake of the Second World War, Germany was occupied.

The economist Daniel Sturm grew up in Germany and now teaches at the London School of Economics. His specialty is called spatial economics.

STURM: Spatial economics is an umbrella term the role of space in economic activity. That could be space across countries as studied in international trade, that could be space across regions or the role of space within cities.

You can see where is this going, can’t you? After the war, Germany was divided and occupied by the Allied powers. For a spatial economist who happens to be from Germany, this division would provide a perfect natural experiment. There was West Germany …

STURM: … which was the combination of the American, British, and French zone …

And East Germany …

STURM: … which was the Soviet zone.

The border between West and East Germany was also a border between capitalism and communism. In the West, cities like Hamburg, Bonn, Frankfurt, and Munich began to rebuild, and resumed their capitalist pursuits. Not so in the East. And Berlin lay firmly in the east. Before the war, it was the capital of Germany, easily its largest city, and an economic powerhouse. Now, it too was divided — eventually by the Berlin Wall. West Berlin was officially a part of West Germany. But it was an island of capitalism in a sea of communism.

STURM: A lot of industries are forced to relocate and find new homes in West Germany.

And so it was for four decades. Until November 9th, 1989 — the fall of the Berlin Wall.

ABC NEWS: Just a short while ago, astonishing news from East Germany …

BBC NEWS: Within hours of East Germany’s decision to let its people go by opening the border to the West, the city erupted in frenzy of celebration.

CBS NEWS: Tens of thousands of young Berliners are on the Berlin Wall.

STURM: When the Berlin Wall came down, I was serving in the Army. There was still conscription at the time. I was a lorry driver, so I was servicing the spatial economy, transporting goods around for the German army. But I had no training in economics at that point.

But years later, Sturm the economist began to examine the economic data generated by the political divisions.

STURM: One of the classic questions in spatial economics is the question, “Why do people, firms and workers, locate where they locate?” There [are] two, big competing theories: one is there’s something fundamentally good about some locations, maybe access to a river, nice weather, or other locational advantages. The competing theory is that it’s really cumulative causation. Once a critical mass of economic activity has been established in a location, people will gravitate to that location, so there’s nothing inherently good about the location other than that many other people have decided to locate in that location as well. Trying to distinguish between these two explanations, unfortunately, is very difficult.

Difficult especially when you can’t run experiments in economics the way you can in other fields. When you can’t, say, divide a country in half, and cordon off its most important city to see what happens there. But of course that’s essentially what happened in Germany. Before the war, many large industries were concentrated in Berlin. But they shriveled during the Cold War. Now, after reunification, Daniel Sturm and a colleague, Steve Redding, took advantage of this shock to the system.

STURM: Once that shock dissipates, do we see that everything gravitates back to its old pre-war equilibrium, which would suggest that everything is driven by fundamentals? Or do we see that the new location pattern that was developed during division continues after reunification so that we don’t go back to the old pattern, but stay in the new pattern that has been developed during the shock period of division?

Granted, a city like Berlin can’t just flip a switch after 40 years and tell all its big companies to come home. They had built buildings! Their workers had homes there! Still, Sturm felt he could at least address the question by looking at the data. First stop: airplane-traffic data.

STURM: The main reason we looked at air hubs is it’s a sector where you get a lot of historical data.

Before the war, Berlin had the biggest airport in Germany.

STURM: It was, in fact, also the biggest airport in Europe.

But during the post-war occupation, a lot of airplane traffic migrated to Frankfurt — in part because the U.S. military had its main airbase there.

STURM: It took ‘til the mid-1970s for Frankfurt to take over the role as [the] hub airport for Germany and for Berlin to fall back into the role of a regional, provincial airport.

Okay, not that surprising that Berlin’s airport fell out of favor during the occupation. But what happened after reunification? Did Berlin recapture all that air traffic — or did Frankfurt retain its hold?

STURM: And that’s exactly what we find.

That is, Frankfurt retained its hold.

STURM: There’s no evidence of the pattern of air travel gravitating back to its old pattern.

To this day, Frankfurt has the biggest airport in Germany, with more than 60 million passengers a year. Berlin, while still easily the biggest city in Germany, has only the fourth- and seventh-busiest airports, which combined have only about half the traffic of Frankfurt.

STURM: Germany is the only European country where the country’s main air hub is not in the largest city. You can see the unusualness of the German situation. If [the] division hadn’t happened, it would be very difficult to believe that Germany’s main air hub today wouldn’t be in Berlin.

The air-traffic story is compelling because the data are so definitive. In other cases, it’s hard for an economist like Sturm to make such a clean comparison between cities. But, he argues, the anecdotal evidence at least suggests that the air-traffic data are part of a larger economic pattern.

STURM: If you look, for example, at Munich. Both Allianz, Germany’s biggest insurance company, and Siemens, its biggest manufacturing conglomerate, moved to Munich in response to [the] division. Similarly, the banking sector left Berlin and migrated to Frankfurt, which, prior to the war, was a secondary banking center. Publishing went to Hamburg and we can continue in this way.

In other words: one indirect consequence of the war, and the resultant political division, was that the German economy became more decentralized.

STURM: Germany has a very unusual economic geography or very unusual distribution of economic activity in space. It’s a much more decentralized country than some other European countries, such as the U.K., France, or even Spain, where economic activity seems to be highly agglomerated in one or two leading centers. In contrast in Germany, you have a number of mid-sized towns that have very vibrant economic structures such as Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and many more.

Now, is economic decentralization necessarily a benefit? Cities like New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo might argue otherwise.

STURM: There’s a large literature that documents that there are returns to density. Bigger cities seem to be more productive. From that perspective, it may be better to concentrate economic activity in a few large cities.

But density also has its costs: higher housing prices and cost of living; more traffic congestion.

STURM: From that perspective, it may be better to spread economic activity apart.

So is it possible for economists to learn the optimal population distribution across a country’s cities?

STURM: The question is a tricky one, and one that, arguably, we have much less of [a] handle on understanding the full empirics and the importance of different effects. If we split London into two cities and moved one to the north of England and left one where it is right now, what exactly would be the implications for U.K. economic activity? It would be great if I could solve that question and provide you with a precise empirical estimate. But it’s something that is very difficult.

Okay, fair enough. Hard question to answer. But keep in mind it also has political implications. A lot of recent elections have seen populist momentum from outside major cities, with voters who feel the cosmopolitan elites don’t represent their economic interests.

STURM: One of the key obsessions of U.K. politics is to try and redistribute economic activity away from London to other parts of the U.K., which compared to London, are lagging. There is spatial inequality in Germany as well, but it’s not as extreme with Berlin being the vibrant place and everything else being a backwater. We have a number of cities that, in terms of per capita income, are very comparable. Maybe this is one of the reasons why Germany has, so far, weathered the populist tide.

Maybe but … maybe not. We spoke with Sturm before the recent German elections. Angela Merkel was easily re-elected as chancellor but the ruling coalition parties lost seats in Parliament to the Alternative for Germany party. It has an anti-immigrant platform and is especially strong in the former East Germany, where the economy isn’t nearly as strong as in the former West. Which suggests one of at least two things: the German economic miracle may be running into trouble; or, at the very least, the former East still has a lot of catching up to do. Including Berlin itself.

MARIN: I came to Berlin right after the fall of the wall.

That’s Dalia Marin. Today she teaches economics at the University of Munich; but at the start of reunification, she was at Humboldt University, in the former East Berlin.

MARIN: It was a very exciting moment because under communism, they had not really an economics department. They didn’t know anything about Keynes and Adam Smith. Under communism, they basically were teaching Marxism and Leninism. They didn’t know anything about the market because they were a planned economy. They had no alternative, then, to fire these people.

The firing of communist economists was one of many, many adjustments that came with reunification.

STURM: Reunification was a major economic shock.

Among the problems East Germany faced: a bloated socialist bureaucracy and dilapidated infrastructure; an unproductive workforce and massive government subsidies for food and housing; and, oh yeah, the lack of functional capitalist markets. The German government worked hard to bring East Germany back into the fold.

SUEDEKUM: There was a huge economic boom that came with it because there [were] massive infrastructure investments in the East.

STURM: There were also enormous transfers paid to try and jump-start the East German economy.

SUEDEKUM: There was huge euphoria about reunification but then this mood changed fairly quickly. In ‘93, ‘94, the country went into a hangover mood.

MARIN: Because it was difficult for West Germany to absorb East Germany.

One big difficulty was getting East and West using the same currency — the West German Deutsche Mark. Jeromin Zettelmeyer says the conversion happened at an even one-to-one rate, which had a huge effect on real wages.

ZETTELMEYER: Even though that did not translate into the same wage level in the East as in the West, wages went nonetheless higher than they would have been without that. So you have a period where effectively the wage levels in the East in hard currency exceed Eastern productivity and that produces more unemployment.

SUEDEKUM: To give you perspective, we had an unemployment rate in Germany in ‘91 [that] was roughly 5 percent; maybe 2 million unemployed people. But then in ‘97, the whole unemployment rate went up to 11, 12 percent. It was a dramatic period.

The drama, of course, didn’t end there.

ZETTELMEYER: And then you have Germany join the euro.

The euro had become the common currency of the European Union and Germany, unlike Britain, decided to embrace the euro as its currency. Zettelmeyer argues that from the German perspective, the euro was overvalued. That made German exports more expensive, which put a drag on their economy. Beyond that, the new scenario inspired an exodus of German capital.

ZETTELMEYER: The reason is that investment opportunities in the southern European countries suddenly looked more attractive.

In Spain, for instance.

MARIN: There was an extreme capital flight to Spain and the housing sector in Spain quadrupled. Part of the reason why that happened was because German households, in fact, bought houses in the nice parts of the beach of Spain.

But it wasn’t just German households moving their money. Companies did too. For years, countries like Spain and Portugal had been cheaper for a company to operate in. But they also came with their downsides: unfriendly business policies, the threat of high inflation, the occasional currency crisis. But now, as fellow E.U. nations using the common euro currency, Germans took a second look.

ZETTELMEYER: It was almost like having these countries sign up to this fitness plan and that made them very attractive.

Manufacturing in Germany, therefore, became less attractive.

ZETTELMEYER: And that made unemployment even worse.

So if you add up all these factors, some subtle and some quite blunt, you can see why Germany, by the early 2000s, was not in great economic shape.

SUEDEKUM: You had the impression that the German economy is about to fall off a cliff or something. That’s where this famous expression of “the sick man of Europe” was coined by The Economist.

So how did “the sick man of Europe” turn into the economic stud we see today?

SUEDEKUM: At first glance, this system looks pretty inflexible and rigid.

*      *      *

It’s no secret that the German economy is booming right now.

RT: The country is the economic engine of Europe, with enviable numbers on public and private debt, productivity growth, and employment ….

CGTN: This week Germany also announced a record trade surplus.

PBS: We Germans have 1 percent of the labor force of the world and we have 10 percent of the exports of the world.

But just 15 years ago, things were looking pretty grim. The country was struggling to reunify after the Cold War; adopting the euro had its downsides, including a flight of German capital from Germany; and unemployment was at nearly 12 percent.

SUEDEKUM: The talk shows were full of people arguing that Germany is not competitive. Wages are too high. The labor market is too inflexible. The Social Security system is too generous and we have to do something dramatic about it.

That, again, is the University of Dusseldorf economist Jens Suedekum.

SUEDEKUM: You can think of that period from ‘93 ‘til 2003 as a decade of stagnation. That was the mood that predated the Hartz reforms in 2003.

The Hartz reforms were named after Peter Hartz, a Volkswagen executive who became an adviser to Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Schröder and his Social Democratic party had been elected to lead Germany in 1998.

SUEDEKUM: There was this impression that if somebody can reform the country, it’s going to be them because they’re Social Democrats. They have the unions on their side. [In] 2003, Schröder announces what he has called, “The Agenda 2010,” and the famous Hartz reforms, they were part of this agenda.

Among other changes, the Hartz reforms lowered government assistance to the poor and unemployed; made it easier for firms to fire employees; and encouraged more part-time, low-wage, non-union jobs. As you can imagine, such reforms did not make Schröder universally beloved.

SUEDEKUM: It had a huge political cost because he lost the left wing part of the Social Democrats. It cost Schröder the chancellorship. He lost the election in 2005 to Angela Merkel. But ultimately, the common narrative is those Hartz reforms created the turnaround.

That, at least, is the common narrative. Some economists think it’s more nuanced than that. That there are more factors to consider. Let’s start with Germany’s unique system of labor relations.

SUEDEKUM: At first glance, this system looks pretty inflexible and rigid.

And unusual in at least one other way. German manufacturing is not dominated by gigantic firms.

MARIN: One of the distinctive features of the German manufacturing sector is you see all these small- and medium-sized firms.

ZETTELMEYER: Germany is fairly unique in having companies with between a few hundred and a thousand employees that do a lot of exporting.

Such firms are often family-owned and typically receive government support; collectively, they’re known as the Mittelstand.

MARIN: The interesting thing is that, normally, when you have small and medium enterprises, they are not international. The major thing about the Mittelstand in Germany is that they are very international. I’m talking here about the export superstars.  

SUEDEKUM: You have all these so-called “Hidden Champions” in Germany. These are medium-sized firms often located somewhere in the countryside. But they are the world market leader for some very specific niche product where they offer the highest quality.

Products like pipe organs. Or battery chargers. Or professional movie-making equipment. Or fish-processing machinery.

SUEDEKUM: The workers of these firms are highly paid. They’re protected. The unions, the work council is important there.

A work or works council, is like a trade union writ small, sometimes representing the workers of just that one firm. And it participates in decision-making with the firm’s executives. It’s part of a system known, in German, as …

MARIN: Mitbestimmung, yes. Co-determination. This is a very important part of the way Germany is doing business.

So the governance of firms — small and large — isn’t determined solely by executives and big shareholders, but with input from the workers themselves. That goes for factory decisions and boardroom decisions. Uwe Reinhardt again:

REINHARDT: In Germany, the unions have representatives on the board of the company. Siemens or Mercedes probably have two or three union bosses sitting on the board.

This setup gives workers more leverage over employment policies — including wages.

SUEDEKUM: The system of industrial relations in Germany is that there is wage negotiations at the industry level. The union, the employer association for each industry, sit together. They bargain a wage and that wage is basically applied everywhere in the country in that industry.

Kind of the way sports leagues work in the U.S., at least to some degree.

SUEDEKUM: That’s the rule. But there are exceptions.

One big exception is known as an opening clause.

SUEDEKUM: That means at the firm level, if the work council agrees, it is possible to deviate from these arrangements under certain well-specified circumstances. That’s important. The employer, the firm, has to prove that this downward deviation is necessary to prevent, for example, bankruptcy or to remain competitive. They have to make sure, “Unless we have this flexible wage setting, we really have a fundamental problem and we may have to fire workers.”

You may be surprised to learn that German workers willingly accept a wage lower than the one their union negotiated. But they’d learned from history. Specifically, from their own history at the end of the Cold War.

MARIN: With the opening up of Eastern Europe, firms would threaten to go Eastern Europe.

SUEDEKUM: [With] this threat of production relocation to Eastern Europe, the firms realize[d] they need to restructure, they need to become competitive.

MARIN: And that threat actually brought a big change in the way wage bargaining was organized.

Specifically, a heavier reliance on opening clauses.

MARIN: The individual firms could adjust more flexibly to the circumstances that the individual firm was facing.

SUEDEKUM:What’s very important [is] that the unions in Germany were co-operative. The unions, in principle, could have just said, “No, we’re not willing to cooperate. We just try to achieve the maximum that we can for our members.” But the unions deserve quite some credit for being flexible and being willing to cooperate

So here’s a question: how well would this co-operative labor model travel? The German auto firm Volkswagen found out a few years back when it opened a factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. By the way, this was before VW’s emissions scandal — or the accusations of collusion between VW and other German carmakers. Which, by the way, if you’re even a little bit cynical, you might think could help explain a good bit of the German economic miracle, since cheating and winning do often travel in the same direction.

But that’s not the story we’re telling right now. The story we’re telling right now is about when VW came to Chattanooga to make cars …

Calvin SNEED for ABC-WTVC NewsChannel 9: VW’s German ownership has made it clear it wants a German-style works council that involves workers and management at the Chattanooga plant to negotiate employee concerns. Both the United Auto Workers union and the American Council of Employees union have come up with plans to work through their versions of a German-style works council. That type of labor agreement would be historic in this country.

So far, so good — the labor unions were up for copying the German model. But Tennessee’s political leadership, which historically has not been union-friendly, didn’t like this idea one bit.

Chattanooga Times Free Press: Senator Bob Corker says Volkswagen would become a “laughing stock” if it partners with United Auto Workers. Corker called it “incomprehensible” that Volkswagen management invited U.A.W. for discussions. And he’s not the only one upset. Governor Bill Haslam says discussions with U.A.W. have hindered business recruitment in Tennessee.

Governor HASLAM: There’s no question that if the U.A.W. comes in there, it will impact our ability to recruit other businesses to Tennessee.

The plan was ultimately ditched. The Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt says that, considering the recent history of American auto manufacturing, including its bankruptcies, these politicians’ concerns about American labor unions may not be unfounded.

REINHARDT: The way I put it to the freshmen at Princeton is a business firm is just a little bowl into which Tender Vittles are poured.

Tender Vittles, in case you don’t recall, was a brand of, “semi-moist” cat food that cats allegedly went crazy for.

Tender Vittles Ad: Tender Vittles cat food says fresh to your cat at every meal. “Fresh!” “Fresh!”

REINHARDT: I always used that as a metaphor for businesses. The customers pour in the Tender Vittles and in the U.S., when you had a union, they would fight and spill the whole bowl of Tender Vittles. In the end, no one could eat anymore. I looked at U.A.W. “It’s insane, they’re going to kill their company.” Sure enough, they damn near did. General Motors was almost bankrupt. In Germany, the unions have representatives on the board of the company. Yes, they say, “The first thing” — that this bowl of Tender Vittles — “we have to make sure that the bowl is there. We can fight all we want, but don’t spill the bowl.” You don’t destroy your company. That was not the attitude of Anglo-Saxon unions, either in England or the U.S.

Some economists — Dalia Marin, for instance — think that a work council can bring together unions and firms anywhere.

MARIN: Yeah, I think it’s an institutional arrangement that can be in principle replicated in other countries.

Or: maybe Germany is simply different. Jens Suedekum again:

SUEDEKUM: Culturally, there is a sense [that] you have to be flexible when circumstances change, when new challenges arise. This is deeply embedded in the German approach of doing things.

Even Marin doesn’t disagree with this.

MARIN: It’s true. It’s part of the culture. You try to come to a common goal. This has a high value. Germany is a stakeholder economy in that sense. Yeah? It’s not a shareholder economy, it’s a stakeholder economy.

This culture, Marin says, also manifests itself in management style. Her research has shown that German C.E.O.’s are more willing to grant decision-making power to lower management. And that, she argues, improves quality. Because those are the managers who have the best sense of what customers want. This requires C.E.O.’s to have quite a bit of faith in their managers.

MARIN: That is part of a cultural thing: people trust each other.

An earlier episode of Freakonomics Radio, called “Trust Me,” explored an important but often-overlooked element of successful societies. It’s called social trust.

David HALPERN from a previous Freakonomics Radio episode: It’s like the dark matter of the economy and society. It matters very greatly and yet we don’t seem to focus on it very much.

And on the standard measures of social trust …

MARIN: You see that Germany comes out very high.

Not quite as high as the Scandinavian countries. But well ahead of the U.S., France, Italy, Spain, and England. And in Germany, trust has been increasing lately — unlike most of those other countries. Whatever the causes, the fact is that German firms enjoy a relatively harmonious relationship with their workers. Which can come in handy when you’re facing a big external threat. Like China …

SUEDEKUM: That arrangement made Germany ready for globalization and made it competitive when globalization really kicked off at the turn of the millennium.

That, Jens Suedekum points out, is when China joined the World Trade Organization.

SUEDEKUM: That’s the time when trade between Germany and China went through the roof. Now, as of 2017, China is the biggest trading partner of Germany.

It’s not that Germany didn’t experience any of the labor contraction that hit the U.S. and other countries.

SUEDEKUM: It’s that we had more offsetting positive effects in other communities and in other industries.

Offsetting positive effects driven by a seemingly insatiable Chinese appetite for German-made goods.

SUEDEKUM: Luck is one part of the story. We just happen to produce the type of stuff that China wanted and China needed.

Stuff like specialized machinery made by all those Mittelstand companies. And stuff like high-end cars: BMWs, Audis, Mercedes-Benzes.

SUEDEKUM: German engineering is legendary and German machinery is legendary. That’s one part of the story.

But the other important part of the story is that German manufacturers already had practice staring down the threats of globalization. They were lean and mean and they’d built a collaborative culture and institutions that prized flexibility. Here’s Zettelmeyer again:

ZETTELMEYER: It is true that the success of Germany in export markets is a national prerogative, that so many jobs depend on them. As a result, you tend to have unions both at the company level and sector unions that are happy to prioritize competitiveness over wage increases.

To be fair, Germany has seen a decline in manufacturing as a share of G.D.P.

SUEDEKUM: But our work showed the globalization and trade actually contributed nothing to this manufacturing decline. The manufacturing decline is driven by other channels: technology, robots, automation. But it’s not trade. It’s not globalization.

Suedekum’s research, in fact, shows that globalization helped Germany retain manufacturing jobs.

SUEDEKUM: If you do a net calculation, we have a plus of maybe half a million jobs.

Compare that to the loss of over a million manufacturing jobs in the U.S. — just from trade with China. But as Suedekum points out, workers everywhere are now facing competition from robots and computers. And yet, even in this realm, German labor has so far been resilient. In a new paper,  Suedekum and his colleagues find that, “robots have not been major job killers in Germany so far, somewhat in contrast to the buzz in some of the contemporary public debate.”

Granted, this has been achieved in part by wage cuts. But once again, the German system of industrial relations has proven adaptive. It has also been proven durable. There are a lot of long-standing labor practices in Germany that seem to produce systemic benefits. For instance: its famous system of apprenticeship, which is funded by both the government and the private sector.

SUEDEKUM: The system of apprenticeship is one of the biggest advantages that Germany has, especially for manufacturing.

ZETTELMEYER: The apprenticeship system ensures a flow of relatively talented young people into industry that might not even consider industry in other countries.

SUEDEKUM: We’re talking about kids who don’t go to college. In many other countries, they would just pick up a job somewhere and start working and receive on-the-job training for one firm, right? In Germany, you go through this system of vocational training. Half of the week you work for one employer and the other half of the week you go to school and receive some general training. The biggest advantage of that is that the workers acquire something that we economists call not just firm-specific, but industry-specific or occupation-specific human capital.

That helps you to adapt when your employer goes broke and you just need to find a new job. Then, you fare much better.

It’s this kind of institution that may explain why Germany weathered the 2008 financial crisis, and subsequent euro crisis, relatively well. It saw only a small rise in unemployment. The German system of co-determination also helped. Here’s Dalia Marin again:

MARIN: There was a big bargain between the government, the entrepreneurs, and the unions that the firms will keep the workers, in particular, the skilled workers, and will get a subsidy for keeping them from the government.

And the financial crisis actually strengthened Germany’s position in the E.U., at least on one dimension: currency. You’ll remember that Germany was initially punished for embracing the euro, in that its exports got relatively expensive. But now it stood to benefit.

Jeromin Zettelmeyer:

ZETTELMEYER: In some sense, German competitiveness is the flipside of lack of competitiveness in other countries that are part of the same currency union. Imagine what would happen if we exited the euro. The currency would appreciate, the new Deutsche Mark would be much stronger. What that means is that, in dollar terms, German industrial wages would be way higher. The euro is keeping the German currency undervalued, so to speak, because — even though there is no interference through intervention, no currency manipulation whatsoever — we are in the same currency as countries for whom the euro is rather strong, like some of the Mediterranean countries. That lack of competitiveness in the south is holding back the value of the euro as a whole and that increases the surplus.

“The surplus” meaning the trade surplus. That makes up a big part of what economists call a nation’s “current account.”

ZETTELMEYER: Many people to a first approximation think of it as the trade balance, which is basically the value of goods that you export minus the value of goods that you import. But that’s a little too narrow. Investment income is also in there, which is quite big in Germany. It’s not all about the trade balance.

What is the state, then, of Germany’s current account?

ZETTELMEYER: The German current account is the biggest in the world in absolute terms.

In 2016, it hit a record high of nearly $300 billion  — more than China’s, which has more people and a bigger economy. As a former government official, Zettelmeyer confirms that Germany’s record surplus is a major source of pride.

ZETTELMEYER: It was certainly the prevailing view that we have a big surplus because everyone loves all our products, including ourselves. Everyone wants German stuff. This is why we export a lot. And we want German stuff too, which is why we tend not to import so much. We just buy our own things.

This means that other countries may see a big trade deficit with Germany. Which doesn’t necessarily make them happy.

NEWSY: President Donald Trump is criticizing Germany again.

NBC: This morning, German magazine Der Speigel reporting the President sharply criticized Germany in a meeting with European Union officials, lashing out, saying “The Germans are bad. Very bad. Look at the millions of cars they are selling in the U.S., terrible,” according to participants there.

But it’s not just Trump. Other E.U. nations have argued the same thing, as has The Economist. Germany, they say, is making tons of money selling its goods around the world, but it doesn’t use that money to buy other countries’ goods. It’s a criticism that Zettelmeyer doesn’t completely dismiss.

ZETTELMEYER: Even if it’s true that people just love our products, we are so great, BMWs are fantastic — we are awash in cash. Normally a country should, then, be spending this cash. If we don’t like, whatever, U.S. cars, maybe we don’t spend it on U.S. cars. But surely there are very nice holidays in the U.S. Surely there are services that we can buy from abroad. There is a general puzzle as to why a country would not actually spend these export proceeds.

There’s another way Germany could shrink that surplus. Firms could give their workers a big raise.

ZETTELMEYER: Here is the slightly weird thing about Germany: we have a labor market set up that was critically shaped by a period when Germany was not very competitive. Somehow this continues to function as if the biggest problem in Germany is to maintain its competitiveness — when that’s actually not true. We are very competitive. We could let wages go up. But there is a very large degree of caution among the unions and the employers that prevents this from happening.

That caution hasn’t stopped the German government from acting.

ZETTELMEYER: Even though it wasn’t billed as,“Let’s try to reduce the current account surplus. Let’s try to reduce Germans’ hyper-competitiveness,” we have done a lot in this government to raise wage levels.

But this is not happening primarily in the high-wage manufacturing sector.

SUEDEKUM: One impression of German labor market is all these well-paid, highly-protected jobs in the manufacturing industry. But on the other end of the spectrum, you have a huge, huge low-wage sector in Germany. Actually, one of the largest low-wage sectors in Europe. The Hartz reforms expanded this low-wage sector, which is completely uncovered by union agreements and, until recently, wasn’t even subject to a minimum wage. We had people working for as little as three euro 50, so basically maybe less than five dollars an hour.

ZETTELMEYER: The current government has actually done quite a lot to raise wage levels. We have introduced a statutory minimum wage in several stages in 2015 and then this year. It’s now fully there. It is also reasonably high. It is higher than in terms of how it affects the wage distribution than in the United States, for example. We also have done a bunch of legislation that essentially strengthens unions. Part of the problem is that the services sectors don’t lend themselves to unions much, or at least, historically, unions have been weaker there.

SUEDEKUM: And, yeah, you have many immigrants working in the sector. Especially in East Germany, that sector is very active. All these nice arrangements that you hear about when you hear about German manufacturing sectors, just don’t apply to that sector of the economy.

ZETTELMEYER: There has been some legislation to strengthen unions, particularly big unions, majority unions. But the next big step would involve changing the labor market constitution fundamentally, taking away the so-called autonomy of wages setting from employers and unions. That, we are certainly not going to do. That’s a good institution. If you’re really serious about wage increases in Germany at this point, the only way you can do it is through public-sector wages. The public sector is quite large and the government can raise public-sector wages. Why not?

While Zettelmeyer supports the idea of potentially spending down Germany’s account surplus, he notes there may be one good reason to proceed cautiously. The economist Daniel Sturm expressed the very same caution:

STURM: Germany’s birth rate is about 1.5 children per woman. These are birth rates that are below the European average and mean that population in Germany is going to shrink for the foreseeable future and it’s going to do so at a fairly dramatic pace.

That means fewer young people to work, and more old people to collect benefits. One potential solution, of course, is more immigration. Chancellor Merkel’s recent decision to accept roughly a million refugees from Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere was a controversial one. Again, witness the strong showing by the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party during the recent elections.

STURM: Unless you wanted to accept a million people a year  — which would, politically, be completely unacceptable  — even in Germany, you cannot compensate for such a shortfall of birth rates through in-migration.

All that said, when one of your country’s biggest economic problems is whether its surplus is too large, or whether it’s too competitive on the world stage — well, a lot of countries would love to have your problems. So, we couldn’t help but ask this crew of German economists we’ve been speaking with today what lessons, if any, the U.S. should take from the German success. First, the spatial economist Daniel Sturm:

STURM: One of the most important lessons is that training workers and, particularly, training workers at the lower end of the skill distribution is key to increasing productivity and to increasing social cohesion, a feeling of belonging and contributing. It’s not just the top 20 percent that are highly successful, but that success spread throughout the workforce and that there is training for different types of people, for different types of occupations. All of those are really valued and are important contributions to the economy.

Next, Jens Suedekum from the University of Dusseldorf:

SUEDEKUM: We also had these losers of globalization here in Germany, people who had problems because of trade. But [the] big difference is, in Germany, these people receive more support from the government. There’s a safety net. There is trade-adjustment assistance. There’s active labor market policy trying to bring these people back to other jobs elsewhere and subsidies, trying to keep the communities alive. We do a relatively better job in cushioning the losers. I’m not saying we’re perfect in that, but I think we’re doing a better job than the United States.

Jeromin Zettelmeyer, the former government official, thinks it would be hard to simply transfer Germany’s labor-relations infrastructure to a country like the U.S.

ZETTELMEYER: For example, unions play a big role in the German model. In the U.S., unions are just not that strong. We can always say, “One of the lessons is you should A) increase the role of unions and B) make them very reasonable and very co-operative like the German ones.” But we wouldn’t even get through stage A of this.

Zettelmeyer points out that the German model has plenty of its own problems. For instance: an emphasis on tradition, perhaps at the expense of innovation.

ZETTELMEYER: The German industry is very much geared towards helping incumbents do well. The unions are supportive. The state is there to lend you a hand. We have a very generous supply of credit from specialized banking segments that specifically lend it to Mittlestand companies. We have lots of barriers to labor mobility in Germany, so there are very high hiring and firing costs. The typical churning that you get in an economy is lower and that’s arguably a good thing in the sense that we have good companies that make good products and have good jobs that are preserved. But it also has a bad side and that bad side is simply not visible, which is we are preventing the growth of impressive companies in new sectors. It’s not a very dynamic economy.

MARIN: Yeah, it’s true.

That’s Dalia Marin, from the University of Munich.

MARIN: You don’t have these big high-tech firms like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and so on. Germany doesn’t have that. There are some, but very few.

Even Germany’s world-beating auto sector is vulnerable, she says.

MARIN: One problem today is how is the car industry going to do in the future when you have these autonomous cars? The car has become more computer and software than hardware. But the advantage of German carmakers was the hardware and not the software. Will Germany survive this threat? Because that’s not where the comparative advantage in Germany is.

The U.S., meanwhile, has had its own comparative advantage. And Jeromin Zettelmeyer argues this has had the unfortunate side effect of wounding its manufacturing sector.

ZETTELMEYER: A very important reason why traditional manufacturing has declined in the U.S. — which is completely under-emphasized, particularly by the Trump administration — is domestic competition; extremely dynamic growth in new sectors in the United States, particularly, of course, the computer industry and the software industry, the platforms, the I.T. giants. This growth sucks away labor and makes it harder for traditional companies to compete.

This has nothing to do with globalization. This has something to do with technical change, but it has a lot to do just with the general dynamism of the U.S. economy. One of the reasons why the manufacturing share is high in Germany is because the German industry lacks this dynamism. The U.S. has traditionally been a much more dynamic economy. The U.S. has a very good model and what the U.S. should focus on is to maintain and improve its model, not about copying the German one.

Coming up next time on Freakonomics Radio: there’s one autoimmune disease that’s different from the rest:

Alessio FASANO: The culprit, the enemy, that turn[s] on the immune system to attack your own body, is known. It’s gluten.

The disease, as you likely know, is celiac disease. The story of how it was discovered; how it was, until recently, vastly underdiagnosed; and how it’s led to a mass gluten-free movement that often has nothing to do with celiac disease.

Alan LEVINOVITZ: There was a perfect storm of celebrity endorsements, other fad diets, and a foundation of anti-carbohydrate bias that set the stage for gluten-free to take off.

“Gluten, Gluten Everywhere” — that’s next time, on Freakonomics Radio.

Freakonomics Radio is produced by WNYC Studios and Dubner Productions. This episode was produced by Greg Rosalsky. Our staff also includes Alison Hockenberry, Merritt Jacob, Stephanie Tam, Eliza Lambert, Emma Morgenstern, Harry Huggins, and Brian Gutierrez; the music you hear throughout the episode was composed by Luis Guerra. You can subscribe to Freakonomics Radio on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, or via email at radio@freakonomics.com.

Here’s where you can learn more about the people and ideas in this episode:

SOURCES

David Autor, professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dalia Marin, professor of economics at the University of Munich.

Uwe Reinhardt, professor of economics at Princeton University.

Daniel Sturm, professor of economics at the London School of Economics.

Jens Suedekum, professor of economics at Heinrich-Heine University.

Jeromin Zettelmeyer, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

RESOURCES

After the Fall of the Wall: Life Courses in the Transformation of East Germany, edited by Martin Diewald, Anne Goedicke, Karl Mayer (Stanford University Press, 2006).

“Explaining the East German Productivity Gap –The Role of Human Capital,” Joachim Ragnitz (January, 2007).

“From Sick Man of Europe to Economic Superstar: Germany’s Resurgent Economy,” Christian Dustmann, Bernd Fitzenberger, Uta Schönberg, and Alexandra Spitz-Oener (2014).

“The German Labor Market Reforms and Post-Unemployment Earnings,” Niklas Engbom, Enrica Detragiache, and Faezeh Raei (July, 2015).

“German Mittelstand: Engine of the German Economy: Facts and Figures about Small and Medium-sized German Firms,” Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (2013).

“The Growth of Low-Skill Service Jobs and the Polarization of the US Labor Market,” David H. Autor and David Dorn (August, 2013).

“The Hartz Myth: A Closer Look at Germany’s Labour Market Reforms,” Christian Odendahl (July, 2017).

“History and Industry Location: Evidence from German Airports,” Stephen Redding, Daniel Strum, and Nikolas Wolf (August, 2011).

“Manufacturing Job Loss: Trade, Not Productivity, Is the Culprit,” Robert E. Scott (August, 2015).

“The Marshall Plan: History’s Most Successful Structural Adjustment Program,” J. Bradford De Long and Barry Eichengreen (October, 1991).

Marshall Plan 1947-1997: A German View by Susan Stern (Inter Nationes, 1997).

“The Rise of the East and the Far East: German Labor Markets and Trade Integration,” Wolfgang Dauth, Sebastian Findeisen, and Jens Suedekum (July, 2014).

EXTRA

“Did China Eat America’s Jobs?,” Freakonomics Radio (2017).

“Trust Me,” Freakonomics Radio (2016).

The post What Are the Secrets of the German Economy — and Should We Steal Them? appeared first on Freakonomics.

from Dental Care Tips http://freakonomics.com/podcast/secrets-german-economy-steal/