Abraham invited me to scale the Schloßberg. The day was clear, the air was crisp but not yet cold. The topic of our discussions always slips into the gutter of geopolitics and economics, two themes we are both unqualified to discuss. He's a smart guy but I was curious to know where he got his information and what formed his perspective. As if in response and affront to our last conversation about the influence of media outlets on social perception, and alternative ways to learn about current events, he told me that he has no choice but to get his information from news media; he has no time to become an expert on the topics. That was his phrasing. He wouldn’t disclose the exact media names, which I noted in absentia. Still, he feels strongly about his perspective on geopolitics. It was a time when we all were expected to have a perspective.
Abraham recounted an anecdote about one of his colleagues gloating about being possibly hired by an American startup. Ultimately nothing ever formalized for her, but I got the impression that there is implicit prestige or explicit high-earnings in Silicon Valley were something that was both attractive to and disdained by him. As a mathematician, statistician and tri-lingual Mexican, Abraham could be a competitive candidate for many Silicon Valley startups. I suggested that he looked into jobs in the U.S. He retorted with the textbook answer of young men: “I never really think about making money. That’s not what interests me.”
I didn’t flinch at the answer because I’ve said the same thing, and still believed the same thing. I still gravitate toward the belief. But isn’t having a moonlight career the inherent excuse for not caring about money? But he isn’t moonlighting as a mathematician, he works as a mathematician. I mean, if you don’t have a passion that you’re pursuing while you gig and you’re just working, isn’t money exactly what you’re interested in, given the tasks being the same? Having walked away from my job, I demonstrated my belief. But I can’t lie to myself and say that money is not a high-priority in my life, not only in the lifestyle to which I’ve grown accustomed but the fact that, once I’d acquired some money, my perspective has shifted on many topics. (The latter is as predictable as Abraham’s and my answer.) But returning to the answer I wondered if he, or I, really could “not think about money.” As if, not having it excused him or I from the world around us.
Equally, I wondered, as Abraham had admitted, how much a luxury it was to not have to prioritize money. I contemplated this not only on an individual level–since both he and I are part of a small part of the world’s population that has completed post-secondary education–but also on a national level. The existence of some infrastructure–social, medical, environmental, criminal–allows us to not to seek out life-saving financial support. And if the capricious variable of where you are born offers this luxury, are there constituents to the geopolitical world that are requisite for this condition? More succinctly: What is wealth?
A siren sounds at 12 noon every Saturday, which dates back to the war days, as a test of the emergency communication program. The rooftop horn was at eye level as we descended the Schlossberg. The tone reminded me of the fire siren that sounded in Goldendale summers as a child. One long scream meant a fire in town; two long screams meant a fire out of town, and the volunteer firefighters would report for duty. I would always look out the sliding glassdoor to the porch, cast yellow by the corrugated plastic roof, to the backyard grass brown by summer sun, to the hedges and Rhet’s backyard, through the fence to the horizon for a distant signal. Sometimes I saw smoke.
The European Balcony project was scheduled at 16h at Freiheitsplatz in Graz. It is an international project intending to make European countries more united, the Freiheitsplatz was chosen in Graz due to its historical significance. Allegedly, a politician made the announcement from the balcony of the Schauspiele that the country of Austria was born, 100 years before, on November the 12, 1918. [1]
At the event I saw a few familiar faces: Marleen and Michael from Studio Asynchrome, Heidrun from Forum Stadtpark, and Stefan Schmitzer from Kork cafe. About forty people congregated and read from a page-length statement in German. For posterity, I filmed a few people who didn’t seem self-conscious of being recorded. After the short reading, Stefan generously explained the project and calculated its value and relevance in the larger European political context. The ensuing exchange, or rather expression of Stefan’s anxieties, about the future of Austria, the political right was entertaining. Some of his accusations were expected: the right-wing’s ignorant, anti-immigrant perspective; their cutting of social welfare programs; ethno-nationalist fervor. But his anxiety for his daughter’s future equality was unexpected and he explained it to me as part of the political right’s journey back to a traditional social arrangement with women pregnant in the kitchen, barefoot.
[1] "Zur Erinnerung an die Proklamation der Republik vor 100 Jahren," Tag Des Denkmal
https://tagdesdenkmals.at/de/objekte-2018/steiermark/graz-schauspielhaus-balkon-zum-freiheitsplatz/