The police are armed here, of course, and Army helicopters still pass overhead on occasion but generally it's an inversion of the days of my youth.
It may not be materially different for some limited set of attributes, but it may be materially different for other attributes, like "how did this situation come to be?", or "did certain political decisions contribute to this situation?".
In Germany things have gotten worse over time. Security staff is checking the trains now daily for suspicious behaviour, normally you don't see those guys at all.
In Berlin main station you now can occasionally see policemen patroling with a MP5, which was a very very rare find (if it's not a hotspot kind of thing like demonstrations)
These are just my personal observations and maybe I have just been ignorant before, but I see things really changing
Ten years isn't that long of a time. I'd still say they're relatively new.
Are you saying we shouldn't be concerned about anything provided it has historical precedent, or do you have other reasons for not being concerned about an increase in soldiers patrolling with guns?
I don't think times are changing...thirty years ago I crossed the border in north Ireland, which was heavily militarized and patrolled, and drove past police stations there, which were heavily militarized. Then went to Paris and ran across sandbag covered watchpoints around the US embassy, possibly because of the recent CSPPA attacks. Then we went to the FRG a few weeks after Reagan made a Berlin speech (protested by tens of thousands of people in west Berlin), and the US/FRG/NATO presence even in cities like Nuernberg were ever-present, especially amid tensions between the Warsaw Pact and NATO.
So no, I don't think times are changing.
The whole point of terrorism is to convince you that "times are really changing" and that nothing is safe anymore. It only works if you let it. Try not to.
From all the dozens of soldiers I've seen in France, since I live here, I've rarely seen finger close to the trigger. Even more, for most of the 3-man patrols, only one carried a loaded weapon.
If you think it's all theater here in Europe, you have your head stuck up your ass.
AFAIK, there's not a lot of actual desertion, it's more that a lot of soldiers who enlisted after the 2015 attacks have not renewed their contract once their first term was finished, since standing for two in front of a Synagogue was not what they had in mind when they enlisted to "protect their country"
>The author dwells on “the politics of the everyday” to show the small ways people succumb to or fend off the encroachment of tyranny. Much of the initial power granted to nondemocratic leaders is given freely, via “heedless acts of conformity,” long before popular docility is requested or required. Snyder recalls how, when Hitler threatened to invade Austria, regular Austrian citizens looked on, or joined in, as local Nazis detained Austrian Jews or stole their property. “Anticipatory obedience is a political tragedy,” the author writes.
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/book-party/wp/2017/02/24...
This spring I visited Notre Dame in Paris. I saw four soldiers patroling the street, spread out a few meters apart from each other, one finger close to the triger, barrel pointing to the ground. Reminded me of a patrol in a vietnam movie.
A similar scene I saw last year in Italy altough the soldiers were much more relaxed.
In Bern, Switzerland the Christmas market was protected by huge concrete blocks wrapped in gift paper.
This may be all security theatre. Or the times are really changing.
I found "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century" a good read (the lessons, not the comment). I depends on us simple citizens to carry and defend civilization and avoid disaster.