A Suit of Humanity

In Bavaria, a Tracht — that famous folk costume — was once a celebration of grace and belonging.
It drew attention to what was beautiful, yes, but it also carried the quiet pride of local culture, of community roots.

And yet, the same word Tracht has a darker twin.
A Tracht Prügel — a “suit of beatings.”
A unit of pain so vague that nobody has ever managed to measure it.

Then there’s the verb trachten — to strive for, to pursue with passion.
“She aspires to an acting career.”
“He strives to become a tenured professor.”
All good, noble ambitions.
But then comes the darker turn of phrase:

“They are after their lives.”
Wait — what?

Across American cities, vehicles with blacked-out windows, the letters ICE printed boldly on the doors, hunt for “illegal criminals.”
The abbreviation ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Yes — the same agency now receiving a staggering 75 billion dollars in new funding.

Forty-five billion are earmarked for new detention centres.
Thirty billion more for recruiting between 10,000 and 12,000 new ICE agents — mostly men.
Apparently, someone in Washington is striving for something very large indeed.

Did the public miss an invasion?
Was there a sudden wave of immigrants storming the borders in 2025?
Hardly.
One man claimed to have “uncovered” the crisis — but, I don’t think so.
That invasion simply doesn’t exist.

Still, the spirit of public punishment seems to have made a comeback — particularly in Minneapolis.
Two of its victims, both American citizens: Renee Good, a mother, and Alex Pretti, a nurse.

So we ask again — what exactly are we striving for?
To restore the so-called world order?
To invent a new one — kinder, fairer, human again?

Or are we, quietly and conveniently, striving to accept an authoritarian future,
pretending we’ve learned nothing from history’s long list of uniforms and flags?

If humanity truly wants to survive this age of cold ambition,
then maybe what we need is not another Tracht Prügel —
but a Tracht of humanity.
Urgently.