Conspirator
- Brian
- I went out there in search of experience To taste and to touch and to feel as much As a man can before he repents.
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The Individualistic Manifesto, 1 of 3
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In Vienna, as best as I can recall, there weren't a lot of intense political issues. From what I read in the paper and heard on the radio, the perspective of the Austrians is that intense political issues are a thing Americans deal with, but not Austrians. That is, newspapers and radio reported on American political issues that were contraversial much more so than contraverial Austrian political issues. I think this is because the things that are hotbed issues in the States aren't really issues in Austria, like healthcare. (The exception would be immigration. The influx of eastern Europeans, particularly the Turks, and Africans is just as intense, if not more so, as in the U.S. In my experience, I found Europeans to generally be quite xenophobic.)
Some years ago at ACU's Summit (I think it was 2007), it was said (I don't remember who said it): In America, we're first and foremost individuals with rights. We have some sense of communal responsibility, such as, we're all willing to chip in and pay for the fire department, but for the most part, we see ourselves as individuals and not as part of community.
That made a lot of sense to me. We all want the fire department, of course none of us really want the fire department located next to our house. If OKC were to plan a fire department (or better yet, a railroad!) next to my house, I'd probably find the motivation to begin attending city counsel meetings. I'd still want the fire department, but let's put it next to your house. For a while, utilizing my rather substantive skills in abductive reasoning, I determined that Europe must have a greater sense of communal responsibility to so generously fund healthcare, pensions, and education (among other things). I have since learned that this is not the case for Europe, a continent just as steeped in Enlightenment inalienable rights and individualism as the U.S.
One encounter I had was with a group of college students and I asked them if they felt we (I meant humanity) had any responsibility for what's going on in Darfur and then made my question a little more specific after they responded with a fervent "No." (Americans just need to stay out of other people's business they said, regarding the Darfur question.) The homeless and drug addicted tend to congregate in the Karlsplatz Ubahn station of Vienna (the other location notorious for attracting such a crowd is Westbahnhof). I asked if we had in responsibility to help them. The response, again, was an emphatic "No" because there were plenty of options available to such people to receive help and treatment through tax-funded programs. In other words, we've paid not be to bothered with this problem.
Check back tomorrow for the "Empire Strikes Back" of my "The Individualistic Manifesto" series.
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