The Spirit of an Age
“It is said that what is called ‘the spirit of an age’
is something to which one cannot return. That this spirit gradually
dissipates is due to the world coming to its end. For this reason,
although one might like to change today's world back to the spirit
of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important
to make the best out of every generation." 1
*****
Normally it is hard to see the spirit of an age you are living in, as one is too involved in it with all of one's feelings and thinking, with one's whole being. It needs a special occasion, a special person or an unbelievably strong force to make this spirit noticeable.For me the sudden death of a very close friend and the realization of Heinz's (Von Foerster) inescapable death being close at hand were the original trigger which led me to get this…….I still cannot properly describe it……feeling, not just for the passing of time, but for myself being part of a process, being part of many different processes, which accumulate themselves in the actions of a group of people or can even be personified in a particular person.
Though almost impossible to describe “the spirit of an age” seems to be only terminus expressing the wholeness when one is grasped by such a vast process.
Both Heinz and my friend Helge were part of a spirit which in my opinion brought along the 20th century. A spirit which still lingered within them as they where the ones to whom this spirit was transmitted.
Helga was a very old psychiatrist within whom psychoanalysis was still the spiritual adventure it was in the beginning.
An adventure of those intellectuals who were driven by the humanistic values of the European enlightenment.
It was the final breath of this spirit which was the source from which their identity was created. Heinz captures this spirit in various stories. One I will always remember is his story of the Nobel Prize winner Ernst:
"And there he was this little Nernst, standing in front of us in the biggest auditorium of the University of Vienna.
He said: ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, I have made it my aim to free
the universe from the Waermetod(concept of everything tending towards
disorder)!
So he turned back to his chalkboard, wrote down all the physical formulas,
changed a couple of parameters, and the universe was liberated.
At this moment I understood what science is about." 2
And I too understand what science is about listening to this story. And the more I come to understand the meaning of science and art in its root and function to liberate us physically, mentally and spiritually, it seems to me that that understanding is more and more dissipated through the 20th century.
It seems that this understanding had been replaced by a narrow perspective
which made science a henchman of social and financial demands.
At the age of twenty-four I found myself in the funny position of
feeling that most of my professors, especially those between 40 and
60, seemed horribly immature, seeming like children who try to act
adult
like their fathers and mothers. If they had any passion at all it
was the passion for their longing and suffering, their doubts and
needs for their own personal reputation.
Basically they all where busy, but it was hard to say what for.
Those people with whom I could really connect were generally between
60 and 80 and to put it in a nutshell what basically connected us
was the love of life and the tendency of taking life in general more
seriously than ourselves or our social roles.- Like a very open-minded
gardener-
As much as I can see it the spirit of an age is coming to an end again
Heinz’s, Herbert Brün’s, Gadamers, Batesons have
left us. We are moving into a time which pulses at an unbelievable
heart-numbing speed in which there will be little time for a past
which is about to be
consumed by the insatiable thirst of an arising present.
I would like to bite the snake, of which we are all a part, in its
tail. I want to be part of a process which in the long run should
re- and un-write history.
At the moment we have invented us a history which leaves us with little
hope, with not enough room and possibilities for the "average
person". It leaves us with little trust, a tendency of either
looking away or having the feeling of fighting in Don Quixote-like
manner against the windmills of greed, manipulation and suppression.
A positive view which would enable us to participate in this "his-story",
which should be a "her-story" as well, in a calm, passionate,
and joyful manner is strongly needed.
In my personal 'history' I have drawn back from the academic world
to find and invent such a history for myself. I did this with no concern
for developing a master theory or a chronology of the world's events.
I did it merely to find and create a departure for a more peaceful journey, a point of departure for a dive into this very world I've been so strongly immersed in from my own beginning.
The longer I walk this path the clearer it becomes to me how much such a point of departure or, should I say, homecoming, can only have a lasting existence if it is within a community of people; can only have a lasting existence if it is a point of immersion for a community of people.
I believe that if we took our time to converse in a profound manner we could create a very rich and understandable language/perspective which will be benedictional for us and others. My mind knows no limits. It has always been that way.
A long time ago, when my uncle asked me, what I want to learn in primary school, I said "I want to know what is the difference between god and an idea!"Quite puzzled he wanted to know how I came up with such a question, so I told him.
"My father believes in ideas and told me that the evolution of ideas created mankind; that only the search and understanding of our ideas can give us freedom. Still my grandma and our other relatives would believe in god.
Now from my bedtime stories I know that people once believed in many different gods. How can it be that believers first believed in many gods, then only in one and now in ideas? I can not imagine, I would like to know! And Barbara, I would still like to know it!
I do not expect answers from you, nor have I come to give them to you. But I believe it could be extremely prosperous if we take out time to meet and create a truly open space for ourselves. – a space which allows us to raise and answer our questions. -
If it is possible I think it would be a great idea to organize a little gathering for people who knew or/and loved Heinz.
I think it would be the utmost joy if we share what he meant for us and maybe recreate a common idea how we want to keep him part of our world.
I am already organizing such a gathering with Alan Steward for Vienna
and I think it would be wonderful to do the same in California.
Honestly, I have even spoken on the Heinz-conferences here in Vienna and Berlin and though they were really excellent conferences, I regretfully have to say that this spirit, the spirit of his generation of thinkers has not been touched.
But I think it can be possible when we as humans seriously take the time we need for ourselves and are brave enough to even take time for each other, this would further more than any conference or clever strategy or business plan, could ever do.
And over all I am extremely curious as to what happens if we meet because I bet it would change our Heinz, our world and ourselves if we follow the white rabbit for a while__together.
with love
Lucas
1 Jim Jarmusch (Ghostdog) 1999
2 Susanne Freund, Heinz von Förster— Cyber-(ethics)
A Portrait, ORF 1992.
©
Lucas Pawlik
