“Zunehmend schlechter” (“Increasingly worse”) is an absurd audio farce that came about after Kanak heard the phrase “increasingly worse” (in the media, in the supermarket, on the street) several times in one day in late 2020 regarding the pandemic.  It’s not meant to downplay the crisis, but rather to provide a bit of humor in the face of an extraordinary situation.  We are told that things are getting “increasingly worse”, we repeat that things are getting increasingly worse, therefore, they must be getting increasingly worse.  Or: perhaps the pandemic is over (“Die Pandemie ist vorbei!”). Alas, no, in fact, things ARE getting increasingly worse…our first inclination was true. And round and round it goes …

The second part, “540,” refers to the sort of circles we’re running around in as we are confronted with this problem, both on personal levels and in terms of society at large.  First we see it one way (180°), but then decide that maybe that first consideration was wrong (360°), but then actually decide that our first guess was actually right (540°).  As Bernhard wrote so beautifully: The truth we know is logically the lie, which, by not getting around it, is in fact the truth.