hello world

it's been some time since I last had a browse through all my friendly blogs.. on one of them I found an article that I want to share with you: it is called Joker and probably everyone travelling around will recognize themselves in it (at least a little bit). I'd love to share with you all the thoughts it's stirring up in my mind - but I have no words for them.

2009

Wie wollen wir leben?

In-München Dezember 2009 - Belästigungen von Michael Sailer
Ein Vorschlag zur Güte an die protestierenden Studenten (und ihre Gegner)

Eine Frau Wintermantel, so was wie die oberste Verwaltungsverwalterin der deutschen Universitäten, hat erklärt: "Auf den Arbeitsmärkten wächst die Akzeptanz der Bachelor- und Masterabsolventen." Das, meint sie, sei ein Erfolg.

Ja ist es, und zwar für die Durchsetzung vollkommener geistiger Verwirrung in Bezug auf das, was man in Europa unter "Bildung" versteht. "Bildung" ist für Leute wie Wintermantel nichts anderes und nicht mehr als ein Arsenal von Fertigkeiten, die der Mensch braucht, um als Arbeitskraft eingesetzt werden zu können. Idealtypisch verkörpert ist diese Ideologie in der Durchsetzung der "Wirtschaftswissenschaften", im engeren Sinne der Betriebswirtschaftslehre (die nicht umsonst "Lehre" heißt) , als Leitdisziplin aller akademischen Zweige und Richtungen. Niemand traut sich mehr zu fragen, was diese Schulung in den Dogmen der Geldreligion an einer Universität zu suchen hat, seit mehr Menschen BWL "studieren" als irgendein anderes Fach, seit Menschen Dingsbumsklimbim wie "Sporteventmarketing" für akademisch halten, so etwas den Künsten, der Literatur, Sprachen, Philosophie, Musik, Historiographie etc. gleichsetzen und meinen, man könne diese ebenso in ein paar Jahren wie in einer Schule "lernen" und den Lernerfolg mit einem "Bachelor"-Abschluss nachweisen, um dann loszustarten und sich verwerten zu lassen.

Um das klarzustellen: es ist völlig verständlich und im Sinne der kapitalistischen Logik zwangsläufig, dass Firmen und Konzerne möglichst gut ausgebildete Arbeitskräfte haben möchten. Aber uns (alle), als Gesellschaft, geht das überhaupt nichts an. Wenn jemand Menschenmaterial zum Ausbeuten braucht, soll er sich das gefälligst selbst heranziehen. Oder sagen wir's ein bisschen milder: Wer ein Studium als Ausbildung (zum Ausüben eines Berufs) begreift, der ist ein Auszubildender und kein Student (und darf sich nach Ende seiner Ausbildung gerne "Meister" nennen, wie das in anständigen Berufen seit langem üblich ist - wohingegen der Titel "Bachelor" - "Junggeselle" - die schreiende Lächerlichkeit der ganzen skandalösen "Reform" belegt). Das meine ich nicht im Geringsten überheblich; es ist nur eine notwendige Abgrenzung. Ein Studium hat keinen "Zweck" und per se auch kein Ziel, nur das, sich zu bilden um kritisch denken, reflektieren, sich äußern und andere Menschen anregen und lehren zu können. Das wiederum geht die Industrie, den Handel und andere Gewerbe nichts an, im Gegenteil: Es läuft ihnen im Normalfall zuwider. Deshalb gehen sie dagegen vor, indem sie sich die Universitäten unter den Nagel reißen, sie zu Berufsschulen umbauen und mit Depperldisziplinen überschwemmen, die man möglichst gut kontrollieren, normieren und zur Heranziehung von arbeitsfähigem Humanmaterial nutzen kann.

Der derzeitige Konflikt an den Universitäten wäre also ganz einfach zu lösen: durch die Gründung neuer, staatlicher Institute, die ausschließlich für die zugänglich sind, die studieren wollen. Solche Menschen brauchen wir alle, als Gesellschaft deshalb sollte ihr Studium selbstverständlich kostenlos sein; man könnte ihnen auch eine Art Bildungsgehalt zahlen, damit sie sich geistig betätigen können und nicht gezwungen sind, nebenbei zu arbeiten. Die derzeitigen "Hochschulen" kann man dann der Wirtschaft übergeben, damit sie sie nach Belieben zur Ausbildung von Arbeitskräften nutzt. Dafür gibt es selbstverständlich vom keinen einzigen Cent vom Staat. Wenn die Wirtschaft eine möglichst gut verwertbare Ausbildung möchte, soll sie selbst dafür aufkommen - sie steckt ja hinterher auch die Profite ein. Dass sie diese an den Börsen verklappt und dafür die Regierungen Studiengebühren kassieren lässt, dass selbige Regierungen die Studiengebühren dann dafür missbraucht die Steuern der Großverdiener zu senken und andererseits ein bürokratisches Monstrum wie die Bafög-Behörden schaffen, um per Almosen, Leihgabe und Augenwischerei den Eindruck zu erwecken, ihnen sei daran gelegen, Kindern anderer Klassen als der der Besitzenden und Bestimmenden ein Studium oder wenigstens eine elitemäßige Berufsausbildung zu ermöglichen macht den ganzen Circus vollends zur Farce.

Der Konflikt an den und um die Universitäten, der sich derzeit endlich und vollkommen legitim in Demonstrationen, Besetzungen und anderem entlädt (und dies hoffentlich weiterhin tun wird), hat also über den Vordergrund hinaus nicht das geringste mit "Bachelor", "Master" und anderem Bologna-Pipifax zu tun, auch nicht mit minimalen Erhöhungen der Bafög-Almosen und der (selbstverständlich absolut notwendigen) Abschaffung der Studiengebühren. Wer damit nicht einverstanden ist, dem wird es auf die Dauer nichts helfen, zu fordern, die Heizung aufzudrehen, nachdem die Hauswände eingerissen worden sind. Mag sein, dass es davon in der Ruine vorübergehend ein bisschen wärmer wird - aber nur so lange, bis der letzte Brennstoff verbraucht ist. Anders gesagt: Wer nicht damit einverstanden ist, dass wirkliche Bildung und kritisches Denken vollständig aus Europa verschwinden und ersetzt werden durch eine totale Ökonomisierung des menschlichen Lebens, der wird früher oder später nicht darum herkommen, die Systemfrage zu stellen. Und die lautet: Wie wollen wir leben? Oder, erst einmal: Wollen wir wirklich weiterhin und immer noch radikaler so "leben"? Und: Wer hat eigentlich bestimmt, dass wir so leben müssen, und wer profitiert davon?

don't worry?

I wonder if it is any use in life to worry about small things (and maybe even big ones?). I mean, there are certain things that might happen and that won't be nice. But if they need to happen, they will if we worried or not. (Actually, sometimes i guess they might happen even faster..)

So if things happen anyway, the difference lies in our own attitude: do we enjoy the good things we have and the possibilities in life, or do we spend all this time with worrying?

Actually, i wonder if it is about what one believes in; if one is generally optimistic and seeing chances at every corner, or if one is afraid of new things, trying to keep the familiar as unchanged as possible?

living at home

there's some funny things about me living at home again.

there are some people that still ask me for how long i am staying and when i will come back.. they look very surprised (even scared) if the answer is 'since october'

also i had a nice moment recently, when i was asked by my sister if i couldnt rehearse in some other universe at 1 in the morning :P

sharing is caring

recently we were cutting the jasmin bushes in our garden. as we had a ginormous amount of flowering branches, we put them in some vases on the street, to share them with the neighbours.
we felt very pleased as quite some people walked by carrying some branches. however, when my mum checked how much was left, not only the flowers but also one vase was gone!

we were rather annoyed, so i went to put up a sign: please take the flowers but bring back our vase. not long after, a woman stopped by to tell us she had 'found' the vase in some front garden round the corner. these guys were quite surprised when my mum came to see them; and they promised to bring the vase back once the flowers where wilting. mine are doing so by now, so i am curious when i will see that vase again!

curiosity of the day

inviting an apparently acquainted person for tea and realising afterwards that nobody in your house actually knew him. at least the address left for staying in touch gave some hint about his identity :)

another redefenition

holidays = more than 12 hours without lectures

introducing your course of study

you should make sure everybody understands what it is really about, otherwise you might end up with someone asking you:

"Your course is a main course, right?"

13th December

It sounds so trivial, but it is so difficult to get it right: to put the appropriate tone in what you say. If you think of it, this is not so surprising - in the end one is trying to firstly squeeze some thoughts or feelings into concrete language, which already can cause so many misunderstandings. secondly, very often one has a more or less conscious opinion about the person one is talking to and conveys a lot of this in one's manner of addressing them. this might not even be wanted, but bears the potential to seriously (and miraculously) upset the other one. So if some totally unexpected behaviour happens in communication, it could be a good indicator for taking a closer look on the issue.

9th December

just as i looked into my mailbox, i saw that there are 2222 emails in it.. probably most of them are not important at all, most of them came to me on some random mailinglist and not from someone in particular who wanted to tell something just to me.

somehow there seems to be a correspondence to oral communication. people so often keep saying things, which might even be entertaining, but not addressed to anyone in particular and not really conveying something substantiable. i am conscious of doing this myself, sometimes just for socialising and (at least trying) to make people feel at ease. but also to avoid to have to discuss something serious and unpleasant. it's even possible to observe people being conscious of such issue but continuously avoiding clearing it up until they kinda can not help it anymore. but then, i guess, it's human.. because addressing these things takes quite some courage, as one - at least for some time - has to put down one's disguise and take a stance on who one really is. in some ways it is quite a risk, but also i think there's a big likelyhood of a bigger gain in the sense of that an addressed problem can never grow into such monster as an ignored one..

and also another thing. truth and honesty might be unpleasant at times. but (maybe especially then) they are a sign of appreciation for one another.

7th December

What is advent? It's the time for reconsidering one's route and position.. and then to readjust and try again, if things are not the way they ought to be.
Sounds simple and straightforward.. but already in small things in life it turns out to be quite challenging.. so I guess this means: re-try until you get it right!

6th December

Day of St Nicholas If you know someone called Nicholas or sth similar you can congratulate them to their nameday today ;)

Or maybe you are searching for another way of showing some appreciation to people around you? You could try sending real paper christmas cards to them... I find it so nice each year you find a card from a friend far away, of whom you haven't heard in a while and you realise they still didn't forget about you. To me this is quality contact, so much better than all this facebooking, just because it is so real.

The only thing about this game is to not write just to get a letter back (but I guess this is valid for all kind of gifts you give). But then, if you think of it, it's not a big problem when you write just because you feel like it :)

the crux with being innovative

it seems a sad fact that in order to be innovative and form something nice and cool, you have to really know the basics... so no way around the old stuff :(

about the importance of saying goodbye

Ever since I first moved away from home I have felt the urge to properly say goodbye to people and not part in anger or resentment. The reason for this was quite plain: some people dear to me were of bad health and risk was that I might not see them again. Starting from this reasoning, I realised that I could not at all take for granted to meet anyone a 'next time'. So saying goodbye and clearing things up became important to me and looking back it seems a good choice.

Why I am writing this now? I arrived in town today after some months of absence and was struck by a headline telling a 16 year old boy had died having a crash with his motorbike. I felt sad about it, but the real pain came when I met one of my friends who told me that she had spoken and laughed with him just yesterday morning, and now couldn't come to terms with the fact that he was found dead the same day.

so really, there is no guarantee..

remote control

[as this posts caused some misunderstandings: i was not especially getting at informal agreements concerning when to meet for leisure activities, but rather the case when people's work attitudes are making it really difficult to get a serious thing done. of course also in private life this sort of behaviour can be quite annoying but it does not usually have such big consequences.]


there is not much which is more annoying and tedious than trying to organise certain people from the distance.. especially if they are of the sorts

a) "i don't know, maybe, i will tell you later" and then they will tell you bloody nothing, you have to run after them, and in the end they will complain about a suboptimal appointment

or

b) "yes, sure, we will do that, i will organise that" and then nothing is organised, noone knows what is going on, and in the end people will not even bother to tell they're not showing up.

don't get me wrong, it's not that i love planning so much or that i'm so pedantic as to wanting to predict every single bit of the future. i also really value spontaneity and everything. but all this avoidance of commitment is not just being relaxed and cool, it is actually wasting other people's time, nerves, and even money.
i wonder what ways of behaviour are open to me in order to react accordingly. talking to these people seems so fruitless, so in my anger i sometimes think that maybe i also should just stand them up?

the unknown other

it seems to be a real sad truth - but slowly i am involuntarily sliding towards the conclusion that - no matter how hard you try - not even when dedicating a good part of yourself to it - you will not be able to really understand someone else. maybe sometimes a bit; if you have a lot of patience and the other one is helping you. but often enough they do not. i wonder if it is because they do not want to be known, because they are avoiding knowing themselves. somehow i can not believe that it should be because they generally do not want to be understood (i guess everybody in some sense has this need to be understood by people in their surroundings - or are there people who honestly do not care?).
so what is to be done with this? i find it annoying that all these attempts to bribe people out of the security of their shell should be so fruitless.. so i guess the only chance i have is to become very very old and never ever move place again.. maybe then i'll get lucky. other ideas?

the mask

no particular reason

the point where music links to real life... ;)

Why life's like a puzzle

• if two pieces do not fit, they were not meant to be united.
• if two pieces nearly fit, they still do not really.
  
• if you force two pieces together you will only distort the picture and they will be missing somewhere else.
• each piece has it's own place, but the search for it can be long and difficult. at least it is bound to lead to success if one doesn't give up too early.
  
• everybody feels the emptyness of a missing piece. when it is finally found things fall into place and are cleared up.
• filling in gaps holds some surprises and might change your point of view.
• sometimes you can fit together a lot of pieces because you simply see the connections.
• sometimes you can not find any sense in all the chaos.
• either way, you keep going until you are finished.