Gery Seidl
I walk through Vienna and meet a former neighbor by chance. We chat as we are, if all are well, until she tells me that she has just made the departure from Macedonia. She visited her family. It should have been a party, but everything turned out differently. At five o'clock in the morning, the city burned three kilometers away from her parents' house. Were they radicals? The president himself? Will it be a civil war or is it already? Shots, fire, helicopters, noise! For two hours the borders are opened and whoever manages, happens. The word border takes on a whole new meaning for me. My year has not experienced a limit to this extent.
We, the "post-war generation". We have no task. What should I build, if everything is already and tear away I may not, because everywhere the monument protection draufsitzt. What they gave us is: "It does not matter, it does not matter, it can make noise." And we do too.
The question is, do we really have no task? I have the feeling that there is something to do everywhere. To cultivate the boundlessness of our generation alone requires a great effort. Time and again man builds fences.
"The stupidity of humans and the universe are limitless, though I'm not sure about the universe."
I write the article, the phone rings. My friend Charly Rabanser, director of the Cine Theatro in Neunkirchen am Großvenediger, calls me and quotes Albert Einstein: "The stupidity of the people and the universe are limitless, although I am not so sure about the universe." He tells me that A fence is built around his theater that makes it almost impossible for an artist to create props in the theater or in the theater. Upon closer inquiry, whether the meaningfulness of the project was handed him a business card of a lawyer. What's left is disbelief.
Again an example of the fact that it is up to each individual to build borders or demolish border fences. The iron curtain has fallen. We are Europe! A nice thought, but it will take a few more generations to be lived. The Austrian is not Europe, because he may be from Vienna. And not from Vienna, but from the sixth district. And not from the sixth district, but from the Windmühlgasse opposite the Apollo cinema. And there he lives on number four, stairs two. From there he is Austrian. And yes. Austria is in Europe, but we were once bigger under the rule of the man with the white beard. Since we even had a private beach by the sea. We Austrians from the Windmühlgasse. Also, it has not really spoken in the district offices and authorities that we are Europe, if our bus does not pass the district border between two Lower Austrian municipalities, because there is a discrepancy in the "border area" on the settlement of the driven bus kilometers.
Are we Europe if we are not even Austria at the legislative level? What creates New York with 16 million inhabitants and a mayor, distributes with us nine federal states with nine provincial governors, their deputies, the district captains and their deputies. The Federal Council, the Landtag, the municipal council, the city council, the Gschisti Gschasti ... The list could be continued endlessly. All of these representatives have sensitivities and a rat tail to people who have put them there. Likewise, their sensitivities must be satisfied. When you consider all that, it is often impossible to make a decision that benefits the common good. No one could explain to me why we have nine different building codes in our country. Not to mention the laws regarding kindergarten regulations, etc. Borders are the reason. A staked power territory of a federal state and its representatives.
"Let's start from the best possible, because less will happen by itself."
The hope that the next generation or even my other tick dies last. Independent young people who question systems and uncover inconsistencies freed from any authority thinking, put the THING in the foreground. They could not help themselves if we were to show them right. Mature people with their own opinion. "Limitless" freedom in the head. If anything can be possible in our thinking, then the good can work as well. Let's start from the best possible, because it will be less by itself.
Photo / Video: Gary Milano.
