The word on the streets

Vienna's freedom of expression includes street art. Permits are issued for spaces along the Donau Canal. Walking along the canal, one can get a feel for the concerns of the day. This is always an uplifting sentiment, that the youngest generation, not yet jaded, will pick up the gauntlet and effectuate fresh ideas to improve the world. There have of course been times when youth movements have been more active than others. The threat of being drafted and killed in a foreign war no one really even understood was imminent enough to incite massive protests in the US in the 1960s. The racist police killings in the US shortly after the pandemic arose incited national civil unrest and Russia's invasion of Ukraine incited worldwide civil unrest. While income equality is a sore issue, and has at times toppled governments, US plebiens remain comfortable enough to keep their jobs and forego questioning their slavish status vis-s-vis CEOs, the undeserving aristocracy of modern times. Youth of course continue to protest other issues across the world: gender equality, freedom of speech and religion, genocides, with varying degrees of success depending upon the strength and tyranny of their opposition. History has and contemporary invasions and slaughters shown us that the human race, homo sapiens are barbaric and too, that the nefarious qualities that go hand-in-hand with power are not being quelled to any remarkable degree, and yet.... technological and scientific advances give us hope that perhaps a third of the human race is redeemable and has the ability and willingness to look forward. To, for example, consider the importance seventh generation principle as articulated by the Iroquois nation, to consider the consequences of each action seven generations from now. Had the magnates of the Industrial Revolution done so, our environment would not be in the serious mess it's in today.

I have thought of massive billboard campaigning with bite-sized information to help the populace connect the dots between overpopulation, consumer spending and the impact of overexploitation and pollution of natural resources on the earth's ability to sustain us, but wonder whether special interests just won't silence it.

The message below brings back a balance. While things may seem like garbage, the truth is that this may be one of the best times in mankind's history to be alive and life, brief as it is, should be cherished and enjoyed.

In its sweetest sense of simply promoting anti-fascism. I mean, who can argue with that?

Biological evolution humming along.

Crickets dancing. Oh, what a night.

Civilization. Why not? Sure! Dish me up some.

After all, we're just cosmic dust.

Sometimes it seems that the images are just what is comprising the artist's mind at the time of the rendering. That ability to translate feelings into images is refreshing to those of us who don't, causing us to question if the same images are extant in us and if so, what do they reflect?

The consciousness of Vienna is global.

International Street Workout. I love that someone took the effort to signify this outdoor fitness space along the Donau, often filled with athletes from anywhere working out. There are usually testosterone fueled basketball games in nearby cages there too, adding a little glamor to the scene.

The energy expenditure makes a passerby a bit more attentive. Always puts a little pizzaz in my step.

These are not the same stairs leading to that space. There are many walkways down to the canal from the streets above. I just like this one cause you can feel the movement, the flow, when no one is even there!

Ideas set in stone, twisted metal, images of corruption and war, of course these will all be reflected. Many here are refugees with families back home suffering.