Banter 64 - Is Leisure Time Required to Produce Art?

Time: May 27, 2021 07:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)

Questions to ponder for your research for submissions and to bring to the conversation:

Does creating art hinge on leisure time, or can the arts be produced by those not fortunate enough to have access to periods of 'peace and quiet'? 

Under what conditions is art most often produced?  What are the exceptions?

When is art more difficult to produce and, historically, have there been periods where large parts of society have not had access to the conditions to produce art? 

If art requires the 'free time and relative peace' does it over-represent those privileged with those conditions and under-represent the more socio-economically or politically oppressed? If 'History is written by the victors' is (most) art created by the leisure class?

Consider all forms of art (music, folk art, visual art, literature, theater, dance, etc.).  Are some forms of art more the realm of privilege than others?

We can likely find examples to support varying positions we might take on the topic - please do bring those particular examples from all corners of the arts, because generalizing will be less interesting. 

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An overview from Sabine. 

Thanks, Sabine, for these intro materials to get the creative juices flowing!

It may be helpful to read some excerpts from Virginia Woolf, who focused on this problem more in depth than I’m aware of in any other piece of writing or lecture in her (1928) A Room of One’s Own (link). Here are some key excepts: 

 Ch. 6, excerpt: 

 “’What are the great poetical names of the last hundred years or so? Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, Landor, Keats, Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Morris, Rossetti, Swinburne—we may stop there. Of these, all but Keats, Browning, Rossetti were University men, and of these three, Keats, who died young, cut off in his prime, was the only one not fairly well to do. It may seem a brutal thing to say, and it is a sad thing to say: but, as a matter of hard fact, the theory that poetical genius bloweth where it listeth, and equally in poor and rich, holds little truth. As a matter of hard fact, nine out of those twelve were University men: which means that somehow or other they procured the means to get the best education England can give. As a matter of hard fact, of the remaining three you know that Browning was well to do, and I challenge you that, if he had not been well to do, he would no more have attained to write SAUL or THE RING AND THE BOOK than Ruskin would have attained to writing MODERN PAINTERS if his father had not dealt prosperously in business. Rossetti had a small private income; and, moreover, he painted. There remains but Keats; whom Atropos slew young, as she slew John Clare in a madhouse, and James Thomson by the laudanum he took to drug disappointment. These are dreadful facts, but let us face them. It is—however dishonouring to us as a nation—certain that, by some fault in our commonwealth, the poor poet has not in these days, nor has had for two hundred years, a dog's chance. Believe me—and I have spent a great part of ten years in watching some three hundred and twenty elementary schools, we may prate of democracy, but actually, a poor child in England has little more hope than had the son of an Athenian slave to be emancipated into that intellectual freedom of which great writings are born.' Nobody could put the point more plainly. 'The poor poet has not in these days, nor has had for two hundred years, a dog's chance… a poor child in England has little more hope than had the son of an Athenian slave to be emancipated into that intellectual freedom of which great writings are born.' That is it. Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Poetry depends upon intellectual freedom.” 

 Ch. 3 excerpts: 

 “And one gathers from this enormous modern literature of confession and self-analysis that to write a work of genius is almost always a feat of prodigious difficulty. Everything is against the likelihood that it will come from the writer's mind whole and entire. Generally material circumstances are against it. Dogs will bark; people will interrupt; money must be made; health will break down. Further, accentuating all these difficulties and making them harder to bear is the world's notorious indifference. It does not ask people to write poems and novels and histories; it does not need them. It does not care whether Flaubert finds the right word or whether Carlyle scrupulously verifies this or that fact. Naturally, it will not pay for what it does not want. And so the writer, Keats, Flaubert, Carlyle, suffers, especially in the creative years of youth, every form of distraction and discouragement. A curse, a cry of agony, rises from those books of analysis and confession. "Mighty poets in their misery dead"--that is the burden of their song. If anything comes through in spite of all this, it is a miracle, and probably no book is born entire and uncrippled as it was conceived.” 

 “…returning again to my original enquiry into what state of mind is most propitious for creative work, because the mind of an artist, in order to achieve the prodigious effort of freeing whole and entire the work that is in him, must be incandescent, like Shakespeare's mind, I conjectured, looking at the book which lay open at Antony and Cleopatra. There must be no obstacle in it, no foreign matter unconsumed. For though we say that we know nothing about Shakespeare's state of mind, even as we say that, we are saying something about Shakespeare's state of mind. The reason perhaps why we know so little of Shakespeare--compared with Donne or Ben Jonson or Milton--is that his grudges and spites and antipathies are hidden from us. We are not held up by some "revelation" which reminds us of the writer. All desire to protest, to preach, to proclaim an injury, to pay off a score, to make the world the witness of some hardship or grievance was fired out of him and consumed. Therefore his poetry flows from him free and unimpeded. If ever a human being got his work expressed completely, it was Shakespeare. If ever a mind was incandescent, unimpeded, I thought, turning again to the bookcase, it was Shakespeare's mind.” 

Here is a contemporary rebuttal-of-sorts to Woolf’s claim that writers need money and a room of their own, ie mental space: https://electricliterature.com/what-if-you-cant-afford-a-room-of-ones-own/ 

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FROM ANNETTE:

Hello!  I'd like to use the example of Irina Ratushinskya as an example that leisure is not required.  She was imprisoned for her works and wrote all throughout her time in prison. (Quite the opposite of luxury.)  Here is a quick reference (from Wikipedia):

"On 17 September 1982 Ratushinskaya was arrested and accused of anti-Soviet agitation for writing and circulating her collections of verse.

Between 1 and 3 March 1983, she was tried in Kiev and convicted of "agitation carried on for the purpose of subverting or weakening the Soviet regime" (Article 62). Ratushinskaya received the maximum sentence of seven years in a strict-regime labor camp, followed by five years of internal exile. After being imprisoned three and a half years, including one year in solitary confinement in an unheated cell

while temperatures fell to minus 40C in the winter, she was released on 9 October 1986, on the eve of the summit in Reykjavík, Iceland between President Ronald Reagan andMikhail Gorbachev.

While imprisoned Ratushinskaya continued to write poetry. Her previous works usually centered on love, Christian theology, and artistic creation, not on politics or policies as her accusers stated. Her new works that were written in prison, which were written with a matchstick on soap until memorized and then washed away, number some 250. They expressed an appreciation for human rights; liberty, freedom, and the beauty of life. Her memoir, Grey is the Colour of Hope, chronicles her prison experience. Her later poems recount her struggles to endure the hardships and horrors of prison life. Ratushinskaya was a member of International PEN, who monitored her situation during her incarceration.^"

Banter 63 - Marx's 'Estranged Labour'

 

The next Banter will be on Saturday, April 24th at 10:30 a.m.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88031589832?pwd=bmh4RnR0eXpZcHFMU0k5cDl1YjZBZz09

Meeting ID: 880 3158 9832

Passcode: Banter63

Why did Karl Marx Hate the Earl Grey?

Because all proper tea is theft.

Homework: Please read the following document:

Marx's Estranged Labour (link) 

Heavy, right? The reading was the easy part but it will, likely, require a little additional study and pondering to be prepared to banter it about.

There is a lot of additional material on this topic, online, that may be beneficial for prepping. Search terms like ’Marx’s theory of alienation’ and ‘Entfremdung’ may be helpful. You can also click on the ’table of contents’ in the link, above, to see this topic in the context of other other Marx manuscripts (but, please, don’t feel like you have to digest the entirety of those 19th century sources). Look for more modern sources and personal connections, or disagreements with, Marx’s philosophy of alienation.

As always the banter is an opportunity to pull on various threads and chase rabbits, so follow your muse. That said, Marxism would be way too huge and generalized of a topic to tackle in its entirety. The main focus of this banter is less on broad Marxist economics and more,  specifically, on this social philosophy of the ‘estrangement’ of the working class from their true human nature. 

Here are some questions (that I stole from a YouTube video) that may be helpful in getting the creative juices flowing:

Have you had work experiences where you felt alienated from the product or the process?

What are types of work, in modern society, that demonstrate alienation per Marx's definition?

How does not experiencing our 'species essence' impact society?

There is no requirement to submit your thoughts or any additional videos/reading but, if you find something interesting or helpful, feel free to submit that material to Mitch, via email, by April 18th and I will post it here.

Banter 62 - Lecture: Childhood Trauma, Affect Regulation and Borderline Personality Disorder

Saturday, March 27th at 1030 MDT. 

Note: The United States will be in Daylight Savings. For those in other countries, or areas that don't go to DST, please check for any time differences since the last banter.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86753285990?pwd=ZFlMb0xvKzFHcWd2akNmTms1Y0RkUT09

Meeting ID: 867 5328 5990

Passcode: Banter62

One tap mobile

+14086380968,,86753285990#,,,,*73862035# US (San Jose)

The lecture we will watch is Bessel van der Kolk, MD, discussing ‘Childhood Trauma, Affect Regulation and Borderline Personality Disorder’.

There is no material to submit or any prep work prio to this March banter. 

We will be watching the lecture component (without the Q&A) at 1.25 speed. That will take about 40 minutes. 

There is no need to watch the video in advance but, so you know, the topic contains some jargon and acronyms, the lecturer has a Dutch accent and we will be viewing it at a higher speed over conference audio. If, for these reasons, you feel like you would get more out of it by watching it earlier and, again, at the banter, feel free to pre-watch. 

See you in the Spring!

 

Banter 61: Can new thinking patterns be acquired (ex. positivism) or are our brains locked in by brain chemistry/genetics/neural paths?

Banter 61 will be conducted by Zoom on Saturday, February 27th at 1030 MST.

Link to meeting (click here) 
Meeting ID: 898 2676 8563
Pass: Banter61

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FROM ISAAC:

Below is an OED definition of positivism (in a Google Search):

https://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&client=tablet-android-samsung-rev2&source=android-browser&q=positivism

This guy might be more of an interesting case study than a wise philosopher, but I basically agree with him:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5EOj2Z7hw5w

How Toxic Positivity Leads to More Suffering | Mahmoud Khedr | TEDxMenloCollege

youtube.com

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FROM CHRIS H.: 

Writing this reminds me just how much I am not a writer, it seems so difficult to put words down and have them mean what you want them to. I guess it’s best not to want any control over meaning. 

The answer to the discussion topic I think is no. I am currently tired of being in the human species when I see how we humans around the world just keep being horrible to each other and to the earth. Nothing seems to change.

I could lean the other way though...yes, we do change.   We are very adaptable with our large brains and can learn new tricks.  Our thoughts evolve and we see things in new ways as we grow and mature.  In a sense, every time our mood changes dramatically we think differently. When you fell in love thoughts were bright, driven by joy and appreciation.   when you were in bad mood or felt slighted thought patterns turn towards negativity. 

And bright people work hard on changing toward betterment (Banter people for example.). Is that part of their permanent thought pattern? Research in neuroscience has shown that brain cells can change into different tasks. How interesting that a few people who developed blindness have learned echo location, making clicking noises. When studying those peoples’ brains with MRI they find that the occipital (visual cortex) lobe  is what’s busy reading objects and direction from sound.  This shows there is nothing intrinsic about a visual cortex neuron versus a pain sensing neuron versus a motor neuron. e.And people who study very hard day after day find new ways of thinking I believe. But it takes effort, repetition, and some kind of reward.reward seems important.  

Really, I could go either way on this. We are all marvelous and we are all not marvelous.

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FROM SABINE:

When I face my most entrenched neural pathways (often when I am stressed, too busy, or overstrained to do anything but be entrenched), or when I face the most regularly traveled neural pathways of my mother or a relationship/friendship I’m frustrated by, I will give one answer to this question.  “No, our default settings and cognitive distortions will always rear up, take over again, and keep our dynamics somewhat fixed with others,” I might say. 

But if I am outside walking on the sides of mountains a lot in calm, breath-aware manner, or reading poetry every day for a string of days (i.e. life is such that I am calm enough to be valuing reading poetry every day), or engaging in mindfulness/meditation/yoga that isn’t reserved for the mat but oozes out onto the rest of my day (I have accomplished this a few periods of life, though not presently), then I give wholly another answer to this question in a softer, softly amused voice.  Something like this I might say then, “There are nearly infinite moments in the day stretching before me right now where I can opt to notice a lot of different things.  Can I notice only my cognitive distortions or discomforts? Of course, some days that’s what I decide to do with my day, and it feels crummy.  But, some days, I remember that I’m not locked into noticing only one set of things about myself or life, and those days, those moments anyhow, I tend to see in a much wider range of colors and sensations. Even my own suffering looks different when I recall I don’t have to view it only from one vantage point. It’s hard to remember this sometimes, very hard, but there are things one can do to make it easier to remember.”

I’ve always loved, at the beginning of a yoga class, to walk my students through noticing what their body is feeling (different sensations and where, pleasant and achy/sore/tense, how the breath feels moving the body, posture, weight, temperature), then refocusing to what their mind is doing (still, busy, over-efforting, quiet, listing, anticipating/predicting, sleepy, etc. until they can start to see the thoughts as if clouds floating across a sky), and then refocusing on how the emotional body/mind is (easy, peaceful, strained, sad, agitated, tired, a zinging nervous system, and so on).  I think the more we don’t see our thoughts (or emotions) as synonymous with our entire being/body/self or state of existence, the more we can relegate the thoughts to being like clouds across a sky, not more important or loud than a foot that feels sore, or an eyebrow that feels very mellow and with no problems at all. 

Therapy around recognising and then pushing back against cognitive distortions (including via Thought Records) can be okay for this changing/rewiring the mind in similar ways, but I think it is less effective (for me) as compared to straight up Buddhist (Pema Chodron) or MBSR (Jon Kabat Zinn) mindfulness practice, a life steeped in poetry, cultivating a wonder-filled child-mind, being actively nature-saturated, having a daily exercise-enriched life.  These practices change my attitude, mindset, neural pathways I have access to, chemistry, level of belief in my thoughts, perceptions of what matters and what isn’t going to be helpful within my own body, and so on, much more than an hour of therapy a week, even years of it.

These three resources might slightly support further what I’m getting at about this:

1. Jon Kabat-Zinn on mindfulness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcVmRUm3ok8 
2.  List of 15 common cognitive distortions
   
   
   (You can find this image & more details here: https://positivepsychology.com/cbt-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-techniques-worksheets/)
3. Thought record, blank (consider filling in once): 
   

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FROM PAM:

Here are a few prompts for conversation: 

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/antidepressant-microbes-soil.htm

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/296779

https://www.neurologylive.com/view/neurobiology-forgiveness

________________________________________

FROM JARED:

I will admit my own ignorance on this topic because I do not see how positivism relates to changes in neural pathways. Perhaps if I better understood the origin of this topic, I would understand better.

At the risk—nay as proof—of my ignorance, I am sending a few thoughts. 

Some psychologists call Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) the most effective method for treating “depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug use problems, marital problems, eating disorders and severe mental illness.” https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and-families/cognitive-behavioral. As that website explains, “CBT treatment usually involves efforts to change thinking patterns.” Twelve-step groups would relate it to the “tapes” that play in people’s heads. As I understand CBT, individuals learn thought patterns from our parents and friends when we are young, and some cognitive distortions spring to mind in related situations. 

Often, those cognitive distortions take the form of “all-or-nothing” statements that undermine self-esteem. This website provides an example of all-or-nothing thinking in an interview in which the interviewee did not answer one question correctly. https://cogbtherapy.com/cbt-blog/cognitive-distortions-all-or-nothing-thinking. It proposed the subject could conceive of an all-or-nothing thought that “the interview went terribly.” Just as easily, the subject could stretch that into “I screw up every interview,” or “I never answer tough questions correctly,” or "Whenever something good is about to happen, I screw it up." None of those statements reflects the breadth of reality. 

I see logical flaws in these thoughts. Logisticians would call those statements fallacies of hasty generalization: taking one example and extrapolating to a general principle. The psychological impacts arise from the general principle the thoughts establish: a feeling of worthiness or unworthiness. CBT helps people learn those logical fallacies in their own thoughts, and people can use those skills to combat the cognitive distortions toward a view that better approximates reality. 

Separately, mindfulness can change thought patterns. Scientists call those potential changes neuroplasticity. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeenacho/2016/12/27/the-science-behind-how-mindfulness-helps-you-to-break-negative-thought-patterns/?sh=4ef7066f4119. This article describes several changes in thought patterns that mindfulness can create. https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn3916

I met one woman who convincingly described the difference between the light side and the dark side of the Force as mindfulness. 

 http://brainknowsbetter.com/news/2014/10/22/mindfulness-is-the-essential-psychology-of-the-star-wars-universe 

Letting feelings of hate, anger, frustration, and disappointment control the individual leads an individual to the dark side. Letting those feelings wash over leads to the light side. 

Banter 60: Talk Amongst Your Selves - consulting with your past and future incarnations

Our 60th Banter topic is about 'checking in' with your younger past self and/or your older future self when evaluating your life paths and choices.

Did you make commitments to your older self or promises to your younger self? Do you ponder what your older or younger self would think of you now? If not, why not? If you truly could talk to your older or younger self, would you even understand one-another? Which direction would any advice flow...forward or backward in time, or both? 

The intent of this topic is not so much to discuss your personal life goals and regrets (though you can), but more to look into philosophical, psychological, scientific, spiritual literature on this topic for broader discussion. As one of the few (only?) earthbound creatures aware of our own mortality, are we the only species that hold these internal dialogues with ourselves in different life phases? Are there other cultures, spiritual beliefs, or times in our human past where this concept would seem ludicrous (ex. those who believe in reincarnation, that do not see time as linear, are strict causal determinists, or whom, simply, don't have the luxury of such rumination because of a need to just, simply, survive each day). For those that do seek advice or wish to please their older and younger incarnations, is there value in doing so at all, or is this a 'Ship of Theseus' problem where you really are no long the old you anymore?

As a primer to get the thoughts flowing here is a three and a half minute, humorous video on of a 32 year old interviewing himself at 12.  It has 32 million views so you may have seen it. If so, or you need more inspiration, this is a one minute NPR story that references a similar self interview video.

Sabine’s contribution:

When it comes to selves and reconciling my different selves, or talking amongst them, or taking inspiration or scolding from them, what writers do in each sentence comes to mind, especially creative nonfiction writers, dealing in autobiography and classical essay form (Phillip Lopate, Virginia Woolf, Hazlitt).  I think these resources might explain what I mean. I think, being a writer, I see my selves in this way too - there are a lot of them to converse with just to get one sentence down accurately about how I really felt/feel about any of the more impactful experiences or lovely moments in my life: 

“When you’re writing an essay, you as the essayist are both moving forward and circling back to what you said and arguing with yourself, or at least asking yourself if this is what you really think. That’s part of the scrupulousness of this kind of writing. It’s not, is this what others think I should think? but, is this what I actually think?” - Phillip Lopate 

Phillip Lopate is now an older writer in New York (very interested in his younger selves & current self), and was a professor of mine at Bennington.
Listen to 1:10 to 1:39 in particular from Lopate on a key concept he takes on in his essays all the time and in essay writing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaNQgMhKTi4

Then read/listen to one or the other of these (one a written interview and the other an audio recorded interview with Phillip Lopate on a conversation with his present self, former self, and his mother, relating to one of his more recent books): 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyshF-_TVI0
https://lithub.com/phillip-lopate-revisits-a-30-year-old-conversation-with-his-mother/

And, last (sorry to be hoggish with space), but thinking about and reading Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” also seems quite important to bring up when we are thinking about our young self and our current self facing each other from either vantage point (looking ahead to the unknown older self, or looking back at the known younger self).  Either of them might have a tendency to not tell all the truth, to be disappointed, to want something one or the other couldn’t give.  Frost reading it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie2Mspukx14 

And, a quick overview of how it is often misinterpreted/misread, being Frost’s “tricky poem": https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/555959/robert-frost-road-not-taken/

We can’t be all the things nor walk down all the paths, as Lopate said above in the 1:10-1:39 and in his own “The Roads Not Taken” in The American Scholar.  My own insistence on that has exhausted me by my mid-40s but I think (hope) I have taken enough roads now to satisfy both my younger and upcoming, yet-older self. I could use a rest to simply assimilate now all of my aspects of selves and experiences in situ with a pen in hand on Columbia Avenue, where banters began.  How smart we were then to think of banter nights, and what joy and camaraderie we’ve brought to our subsequent selves. That first banter has made all the difference to this 60th banter night. 

Banter 59: Healing Divides: How did the German People Heal their National Culture after the World Wars

Date and Time: Sunday, December 20th at 1100 MST

Location: Zoom Meeting. Mitch sent meeting info by email on 11/25/2020.

Please email materials to Mitch by 12/11 so he can post them to this blog.

This should be an interesting topic, especially with two members of our banter group residing in Germany. It is timely, as well. At the risk of over-dramatically comparing the ravages of post-war Germany to the U.S. today, there may be some parallels and lessons that could be learned about bringing a divided nation together (before war starts and reconstruction is needed).

The focus of this topic isn't so much about rebuilding cities from rubble, the Marshall Plan, the way that Germany was divided by the Allied Nations or, even, the disease, hunger, and economic issues that the German people suffered. Nor is the topic about pre-war Germany and how Hitler could have risen to power with the support of such a large portion of the German populace. Those concepts may weave into the discussion, to some extent, but, as I understand it, the intent is to look for materials on, research, and discuss how Germany, more or less, succeed in a post-war societal and cultural reconstruction.

How did the German people come together and build a nation with a new community, a new culture and new socio-political beliefs after the war? When and how did those that supported the Nazi Party come around to recognize that they were the 'baddies'? How did those that made the switch more quickly deal with the underground Nazi resistance?  What was the guilt like for those that always opposed the war but were afraid to speak up? Most importantly, what was it like for German family, friends, and neighbors, all in different stages of grief, acceptance and denial, with different opinions on the future of the nation, when they gathered around the post-war dinner table? 

From Kirk B.

 

The German recovery from the Nazi period is a very interesting topic and has to be looked at from many angles, especially the differences between East and West Germany.  As I understand it, Neo-nazi groups are re-emerging in the East where the economy is weak, but not so much in the West where the economy is much stronger.

When we had the baby boom Germany had the opposite.  It was predicted that this would lead to an economic collapse.  The opposite happened proving the economic experts were wrong.  Expensive labor was an asset, because it forced Germany and Japan to be more efficient. 

From Sabine

 

Leave it to the German language to give us a single word to summarize this complicated topic: Vergangenheitsbewältigung.

It is the German term for efforts to deal publicly with the Nazi past.

Sabine recommends reading Wikipedia's overview on the word here (link).

 Here are some more materials from Sabine:

A 23 minute video: Mr. Rogers and the Power of Persuasion (link)

 

A 15 page article on Vergangenheitsbewältigung (link) as revealed by German literature in Boston’s great literary journal, AGNI.

 

A 20-ish page article about Vergangenheitsbewältigung (link) as it applies to the United State's problematic history that it won't face with race etc.

Note: The links to the two papers, above, will take you to a webpage where you can read them in your browser or, if you prefer, look for the download icon in the upper right where you can save it to your computer as a .pdf document.

 

From Isaac:

 

I'm thinking the aftermath of world war one might be a somewhat more relevant time period? And the questions posed at the end are exactly addressed by Sabine's mr. Rogers video:

 https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2020/12/06/exp-gps-1206-macmillan-on-political-lies.cnn

 

Also pre-World War II, but I'm really interested especially in hearing what our current residents of Germany think of this. And again, it seems awfully relevant to the question of how to deal with the present moment

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/copenhagen-speech-violence

 

I mean, I'm interested in what everyone thinks about it, and I'm especially curious what residents of Germany have heard relevant to this while living there.

From Mitch:

 

I'm going to take publisher's privilege here and post a silly placeholder, for now. After I've had a chance to read Sabine's posts and do some research I may find something to post with some more depth. In the meantime, I am submitting a short segment from the BBC's 'That Mitchell and Webb Show'. It is quite well known so, I'd imagine, that many have already seen it....just the first thing that came to mind when the topic was proposed. Here is the less than three minute comedy sketch (link) of Nazi's having a sudden battlefield epiphany. I'd imagine that the civilian German population went through a similar (albeit, slower) realization in the days and weeks after V-E Day.