„Me-too“-debate and documentation-film „Leaving Neverland“ – is medieval sentencing without any trial the newest step into our modern future of social interacting?

When a person was illegally harmed, then I expect him or her as the victim of a crime in most imaginable cases being immediately aware of something having being undoubtfully wrong, independent of the victim’s age. There might be cases and reasons, such as for example shame that can prevent an official accusation made by the victim, for a while.

But remembering serious sexual crimes only decades later, exactly, when the career is unstable enough to need a major attention, then doubts should be advised.

 

Documentary „Leaving Neverland“, a witch-hunt?

 

The 2019 documentary film „Leaving Neverland“ by the British director and producer Dan Reed is actually capturing a major attention after it was presented at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25 in 2019. The co-production between the UK Channel 4 and the US Home Box Office (HBO), presents the alleged stories of two men: Jimmy Safechuck, who performed as child in a Pepsi commercial with Michael Jackson and Wade Robson, a today dancer and choreographer. They both claim to have been over years repeatedly sexually abused by the King of Pop.

 

Singer and performer Michael Jackson again accused of paedophilia, a modern witch-hunt? Photo-rights: German Wikipedia

 

Michael Jackson won all trials against accusations of paedophilia. No indications towards sexual crimes remained. Let’s say except of the unusual and for some people’s eyes bizarre life-style and look of the singer and performer, who very obviously simply liked children in legal and natural way. In his most famous music video, „Thriller“, he appeared as a monster. Obviously the monster that so many conservative, intolerant and uninspired people want to see, even today. The modern trends of an exuberant extreme-feminism contributes to these monster-desires. Some of these hardliners generally fight for an anti-male-agenda. All males are suddenly monsters with uncontrollable sexual pressures, which they permanently practise against everything and everybody. And if they want to imagine a superlative of all these monsters everywhere, then Michael Jackson fulfills enough clichés to act as a convincing monster, even years after his death.

 

Aerial photography of Jackson’s „Neverland-Ranch“, photo-rights: German Wikipedia

 

The reaction of the „US Weekly“-journalist Mara Reinstein is absolutely according of very modern ideas of justice, it’s all about, what you feel, not what you know. Best is, when it’s against males and somehow in context with sexual accusations. That’s why she informed the world via her Twitter-account, how sick she felt in her stomach after watching the premiere of part 1 of the documentary, and how very credible the victims were coming off. I wish Mrs. Reinstein a very speedy recovery, and I think she is a very great role model, when it’s all about credibility.

 

#MeeToo, a modern (male) witch-hunt?

 

Since mid October 2017 a special hashtag overwhelmed the world: #MeToo. Suddenly countless famous male film-makers and artists became victims of sexual-abuse-accusations, using the same patterns mentioned above. But is the term „victim“ always correct in that context? Yes it is. Does that mean that all accusations were false accusations? Unfortunately not. But all modern legal systems (at least in occidental countries) require a trial, which judges against the accused. Judgements in the run-up to a court hearing or even without any court hearing at all are illegal, and in the worst case make a perpetrator as culprit indeed to a victim.

 

Character assassination and bullying!

 

When normal people and not a court judge somebody’s alleged crimes with existential consequences for that person, which are irreversible even after a later non-guilty-sentencing by a court, then this needs to be named: character assassination! It is a moral offence, which is also often called bullying, an offence, which is mostly not considered liable to prosecution, incredibly!

 

Witch-hunt in the Middle-Ages

 

From the biological point of view, humans are not as social as they are supposed to be. Almost all human skills that differ us from other Great Ape species evolved in smaller populations. Homo sapiens is until today not perfectly adapted in living in extreme big and complexe communities. Specific behavioral characters, evolved in prehistoric times, appear under modern conditions even more distinctive. These are laziness, egoism and unscrupulousness.

 

Malleus Maleficarum, „Hammer of Witches“, treatise on witchcraft by Henricus Institoris, photo-rights: German Wikipedia

 

Dangerous and sinister characters from the medieval period even towards the early modern times, exactly knew, how to make use of these unfavourable human behavioral tendencies. When for example the German churchman Henricus Institoris, better known as inquisitor Heinrich Kramer, in the late 15th century began to sow hatred between German families, friendships, neighbors and cohabitants, then he just needed a quite simple strategy to successfully perform his hysteric witch-hunt: When he arrived in a city or a village, he asked for denunciations. And he got stacks of them, what easy way it was to get rid of a competitor, an unbeloved family member or an uncooperative rich elderly lady. To officially accuse them as witchcraft was all they needed to do in order to eliminate their own people. When the real switch is pressed, humans can unfortunately still easily forget all mercy,  solidarity and humanity.

We don’t need witch-hunts in our 21th century!

 

Berlin, January 2019. Copyrights Stefan F. Wirth

 

 

 

Berlin forest Grunewald – former gravelpit area, type location for the mite Histiostoma palustre

The city of Berlin geomorphologically consists of witnesses of the Weichselian glacier. The modern city itself and adjacent federal states represented end moraine areas with fluvio-glacial debris accumulations,  even well visible today due to a very sandy soil composition and a corresponding vegetation, creating landscapes, which partly almost look like from around the Mediterranean Sea.

Sands carried by the glaciers towards their end positions remained in partly huge layers with a thickness of up to 20 meters or more.

 

Gravelpit zone and its history

 

Also the area of the old gravelpit zone, called „Sandgrube im Jagen 86“, in the Berlin forest Grunewald is located inside such an end moraine zone, which was represented by plates belonging to the geological Teltow-plateau. In the time period between 1966 and 1983, gravel was excavated for industrial purposes. After 1983 a part renaturation was supported by nature conservationists. In 1992 in total 13 hectares of the former gravelpit area were allocated as nature conservation areas.

Other parts of this unique landscape remained accessible for the public. They represent today popular places for leisure and experiences of nature. Especially the huge sand dune is a popular destination for families with children.

 

Aerial videography of the gravelpit area in January 2019, copyrights Stefan F. Wirth. Please like my video also on Youtube, in case you like it.

 

 

Gravelpit zone and its ecology and biodiversity

 

The whole area – nature protection and accessible zones – show a complex mosaic of different  landscape types, offering numerous animal and plant species a well suitable refuge.  Neglected grasslands and dry meadows are surrounded by sandy areas free of any vegetation („dunes“) and moist osier beds and wetlands with ponds. The wetlands represent breeding grounds for numerous amphids. Lizards such as the sand lizard Lacerta agilis and snakes such as the grass snake Natrix natrix can regularly be observed. Sandy habitats offer space and specific ecological conditions for a interstitial fauna, consisting for example of different bee and sand wasp species.

In total the area bears more than 300 ferns and flowering plants, 16 breeding bird species, 7 amphibian species and 188 butterfly species.

 

My own scientific mite research in the gravelpit area

 

I was performing scientific research in that gravel pit landscape during the work on my phd-thesis between 2000 and 2005. My interest was (and one of my interests is still) focussed on specific organisms living around the shoreline of ponds.

The whole area of the gravelpit landscape is a good example for ecological changes that happen naturally with the ongoing time or even being affected by climatic changes. Between 2005 and 2018, the landscape partly changed significantly. Neglected grasslands and dry meadows covered less space originally, and instead several smaller ponds existed and offered amphibs and wetland inhabiting insects additional habitats. But some of the ponds already years ago dried out permanently. Their remnants are now covered by extended dry grasslands.

In former times of my phd thesis and even today, my research interests focus and focussed on the mite fauna in and around the muddy shorelines of ponds inside this former gravelpit area. The ponds are mostly surrounded by sapropel, a seemingly black and brownish mud, which is colored that way due to the incorporation metal sulfides. These muddy areas develop due to biochemical modifications of organic material in the absence of oxygen. Different insects, especially beetles live on top of these waterside habitats or even inside. Carabids of genera Elaphrus or Bembidion represent predators, while heterocerid beetles of genus Heterocerus are substrate feeders, presumanly with a preference for diatoms. Also water beetles of Dytiscidae and Hydrophilidae inhabit these habitats.

 

The mites Histiostoma maritimum and Histiostoma palustre

 

I discovered some of these beetles as dispersal carriers for specific mites. The dispersal strategy to take a ride on bigger animals to become carried from one habitat to another is called phoresy. Mites of the Astigmata represent typical phoretic organisms. I am scientifically specialized in a specific family of the Astigmata, which is named Histiostomatidae, and I discovered the mite species Histiostoma maritimum Oudemans, 1914 on Heterocerus fenestratus and H. fusculus as well as on Bembidion and Elaphrus species insside and on top of these muddy zones. I was the first acarologist, who ever studied the biology of this mite species. I furthermore discovered another mite species that was completely new to the scientific knowledge, and thus I scientifically described it as Histiostoma palustre („palustris“ = „muddy“) in 2002.

This species deserves particularly mention due to an unusual biological phenomenon: populations show a so called male dimorphism (better diphenism). Besides males with a „normal“ morphology, morphologically modified males appear. Their second legs differ from the typical shape of a mite and are modified into clasping organs. The function of these conspicuous organs could so far only be interpreted in the context of male to male competition conflicts for a female. In such situations, I observed the organs being used as arms against other males, against such ones with and such ones without clasping organs.

 

Right modified leg of a male of Histiostoma palustre. Copyrights Stefan F. Wirth, 2002/ 2019

 

Modified leg of a H. palustre male in closed position. Copyrights Stefan F. Wirth, Berlin 2002/ 2019

 

Underside of a H. palustre male with modified leg. Copyrights Stefan F. Wirth 2002/ 2019

 

Asymmetry: male of H. palustre with only the right leg modified. Copyrights Stefan F. Wirth 2002/ 2019

 

Asymmetry: male of H. palustre with only the left leg modified. Copyrights Stefan F. Wirth 2002/ 2019

 

Copulation of a Histiostoma palustre male with both-sided modified legs. Copyrights Stefan F. Wirth, Berlin 2002/ 2019

 

Details of a copulation with a modified male, copyrights Stefan F. Wirth, 2002/2019

 

 

Berlin, January 2019. Copyrights Stefan F. Wirth

Kardinal Brandmüller und seine Heuchelei über vorgebliche Heuchelei

Missbrauchsskandale in erheblichem Ausmaße erschüttern bereits seit geraumer Zeit die Katholische Kirche. Seit geraumer Zeit? Im Grunde muss man doch annehmen, dass es in Wahrheit um einen Zeitraum geht, der die gesamte Dauer der Existenz dieser Kirche umfasst, doch dazu später mehr.

Missbrauch an Minderjährigen im Deutschland der vergangenen 68 Jahre

Papst Franziskus hat sich mehrfach deutlich gegen Täter in den eigenen Reihen ausgesprochen, womöglich aber erst, als Leugnung oder Ignoranz aufgrund offen gelegter Fakten nicht mehr möglich waren. Einer Studie aus dem letzten Jahr konnte entnommen werden, dass im Zeitraum zwischen 1946 und 2014 in Deutschland insgesamt 1670 katholische Geistliche sexuellen Missbrauch an 3677 Minderjährigen betrieben, wobei es sich bei den Opfern zumeist um heranwachsende Männer handelte.

Papst Franziskus, für viele ein Reformverweigerer, für manch hochbetagten Kleriker jedoch unzumutbar modern, Quelle Foto: Wikipedia

Der deutsche Kardinal Walter Brandmüller und seine Bemühung zur Verniedlichung sexueller Straftaten durch Mitarbeiter der Kirche

Der fast 90-jährige deutsche Kardinal Walter Brandmüller nimmt dies zum Anlass, eine gegen die Kirchenmoral sprechende Statistik ins vermeintlich richtige Licht zu rücken. „Was in der Kirche an Missbrauch passiert ist, ist nichts anderes, als was in der Gesellschaft überhaupt geschieht“, so seine Stellungnahme. Sexueller Missbrauch sei kein spezifisch katholisches Phänomen. Außerdem sei darauf hinzuweisen, dass „80 Prozent der Missbrauchsfälle“ an männlichen Jugendlichen begangen worden seien, womit er den direkten Zusammenhang zwischen Homosexualität und dem Missbrauch an heranwachsenden Männern konstruiert.

Kardinal Brandmüller gilt als erzkonservativ und zählt zu den offenen Kritikern von Papst Franziskus, der aus Sicht vieler Intellektueller zu wenige Reformen durchsetzt, in den Augen von Hardlinern wie Brandmüller jedoch mit Neuerungen allzu sehr über die Stränge schlägt. So hat er zusammen mit dem ebenfalls konservativen Joachim Meisner (inzw. verstorben) einen offenen Kritik-Brief an den Papst verfasst, der als „Dubia-Brief“ bezeichnet wird und vor allem die Öffnung der Kirche gegenüber wieder verheirateten Geschiedenen kritisierte.

Die Katholische Kirche als Refugium

In seinen Einlassungen zu den Missbrauchsfällen, die die Kirche erschüttern, hat Kardinal Brandmüller keineswegs grundsätzlich Unrecht. Sexueller Missbrauch findet auch außerhalb von Institutionen der katholischen Kirche statt. Außerdem legen sexuelle Straftaten männlicher Kleriker an männlichen Jugendlichen in der Tat einen homosexuellen Zusammenhang nahe. Doch bleibt uns Herr Brandmüller eine Erklärung dafür schuldig, welche Institution in Deutschland außer der Katholischen Kirche eine Statistik vorweisen kann, die es im Verlaufe von nur 68 Jahren auf ganze 3677 Missbrauchsfälle an Minderjährigen gebracht hat. Wohlgemerkt die Dunkelziffer nicht nachgewiesener Straftaten außer Acht gelassen!

Klar ist, dass die Neigung zu sexuellen Straftaten unter hetero-, bi- und homosexuellen Männern generell gleich verteilt ist. Nicht ganz so klar ist allerdings, warum sich homoerotisch motivierte Straftaten in beeindruckender Dichte nun ausgerechnet in den Reihen der Katholischen Kirche häufen. Hierzu äußert sich der betagte Kardinal ebenfalls nicht. Legt eine Betrachtung der gesamten Kirchengeschichte denn nicht nahe, dass es sich bei dieser Institution schon seit jeher um ein Refugium für Menschen mit ungewöhnlichen sexuellen Vorlieben handelte? Ist ja klar, mag mancher jetzt argumentieren, Schwule neigen nun einmal zur Perversion. Aber mitnichten!! Lediglich ist es so, dass die strukturelle Organisation der Kirche gezielt schon immer diejenigen erotischen Abweichler aus einem großen Pool der Bevölkerung herausfilterte, die zudem zufällig schwul oder bisexuell veranlagt waren. Denn wer sonst fühlt sich in Gemeinschaften wohl, die fast ausschließlich aus Männern zusammengesetzt sind? Doch warum das besondere Potential für sexuelle Straftaten? Weil die Kirche zum einen legale erotische Verbindungen verbietet, Stichwort Zölibat, und weil es wenige vergleichbare Großorganisationen gibt, in denen persönliche Willkür, Machtmissbrauch und Korruption eine ähnlich lange und vor allem erfolgreiche Tradition haben, geradezu eine Einladung also an alle, die nach Unmoralischem und striktem Eigennutz streben.

Kritik wird von Kardinal Brandmüller harsch zurückgewiesen. „Da benimmt sich die Gesellschaft ziemlich heuchlerisch“, äußert er im Zusammenhang mit den stattlichen Missbrauchszahlen durch Kleriker. Ist es nicht heuchlerisch, dort Heuchelei zu unterstellen, wo berechtigte Kritik vorgebracht wird, die eigentlich nur eine Reaktion moralisch vertretbar macht: die Bitte um Vergebung begangener zahlreicher und schwerer Sünden sowie die Gelobigung der Besserung? Zumindest in diesem Punkt ist der eigentlich selbst viel zu rückständige Papst Franziskus in der Tat in seinem Handeln weit voraus!

Wünschenswerte und notwendige Reformen

Ich bin kein Fan der Katholischen Kirche, wahrlich nicht. Sie hat seitdem sie existiert Leid über die Menschheit gebracht, hat gemordet, Kriege geführt und gefoltert, sich gegen die Aufklärung und selbstbestimmte Denker gestellt. Es ist ihr nach all den Jahrhunderten endlich eine Erkenntnis der Werte zu wünschen, für die ihr Namensgeber ursprünglich eingestanden ist: Nächstenliebe, Toleranz und Moral! Zwar muss man bei aller kritischen Haltung auch anerkennen, dass es genau diese Kirche war, die sich zwar stets bemühte, unerwünschtes Wissen zu bekämpfen, andererseits jedoch durch Vertreter der eigenen Reihen auch erheblich zu Erkenntnisgewinn beigetragen hat, nicht zuletzt auch dadurch, die Literatur der letzten Jahrtausende in hervorragend organisierten Bibliotheken für die Nachwelt zu erhalten. Auch die Entwicklungen in der Kunstgeschichte wurden maßgeblich durch die Kirche mit beeinflusst. Da jedoch all dies heute längst durch andere Einrichtungen übernommen wird, kommt die katholische Kirche nicht mehr umhin, sich vollständig umzustrukturieren, um vergangene Fehler zu vermeiden. Es muss das Prinzip Vorrang finden: weniger Dogmatismus, stattdessen unbegrenzte geistige Freiheit und vor allem mehr soziale Verantwortung. Wird das nicht ernst genug genommen, wird diese Kirche keinen Platz mehr in der Zukunft haben, die uns bevorsteht!

Berlin, Januar 2018, copyrights Stefan F. Wirth