|
|
Historically speaking, Styria is a borderland between four different European cultures. The province has always viewed itself as a bridge between regions which have recently moved once again towards the centre of Europe. The Geist & Gegenwart forum, which was held for the first time in the year 2005, is dedicated to the political, cultural, economic, and social questions arising from the “new Europe”. How can this new Europe be shaped in order to allow countries and peoples to successfully meet the challenges of the 21st century?
In 2005, the event took place under the title of The Discovery of Europe. Its aim was to look beyond those familiar things which we take so much for granted that we no longer recognise them as uniquely European. This is an approach which challenges us not merely to cheer on the process of European integration, but to be critical, innovative, and original – to participate in a thought laboratory. Because nobody can say with certainty what the new Europe will look like, and because it will be unlike anything we have seen in history. Despite everything that has been said and written about its identity, Europe has yet to be discovered.
If Europe must discover itself, it must discover too those layers of consciousness which cannot be easily read, and which may even resist discovery. The forum’s title for 2007 – Europe: Dreams and Traumas – admits of a number of different associative links.
- The Sigmund Freud jubilee year, which ended recently, reminded us of the importance of dream interpretation: for decoding one’s own emotional state, for dealing with hidden problems, and for understanding one’s own potential. The dream of a rational, sensible, and moral society inevitably clashes again and again with the inadequacies of the real world. However, Europe has always had a talent for using its sense of dissatisfaction with this reality as a constructive motor for changing it.
- The past century was rich in utopian dreams, which culminated in totalitarianism and its attendant atrocities. The dreams of creating a perfect society turned into nightmares, and the consequences of those nightmares took the form of traumas with long-lasting repercussions.
- However, some positive dreams too became reality: dreams of unprecedented wealth, of free and democratic countries, and of the unification of feuding European states. The advanced industrial states were able to make these dreams come true; however, we are aware that these countries encompass only a small proportion of humanity as a whole. For most people on the planet, these achievements are nothing more than a distant dream.
- To many people, the “American Dream” is a fascinating idea because it gives them personal opportunities within an open society. The “European Dream” is as yet insufficiently powerful to compare with its American counterpart. Indeed, many people regard the new Europe as a nightmare. They associate it with problems such as the demographic decline, multicultural conflicts, the dismantling of the welfare state, and the polarisation of society. However, there are good reasons to believe that a united Europe, a Europe that values its roots and its heritage and works to build its future with confidence and optimism, can represent an exemplary social model with incomparable advantages – and can also have the power to make individual and collective dreams come true.
- This is not to say that we should give up dreaming in the future. On the contrary: we must preserve our visions of a peaceful and tolerant multicultural society, even if those visions are currently beset by hostility and fears in many countries. We must develop our visions of a high-tech society which nevertheless retains a human face, even if those visions go hand in hand with dangers which may sometimes cause anxiety levels akin to nightmare. We must keep our visions of a dynamic market society which does not ride roughshod over justice and human dignity, even if we dare not hope that such a society will come into being spontaneously, although the possibilities of controlling this process are open to question.
- We must deal wisely with our dreams. Dreams should not turn to illusions – because when they do, they are in danger of mutating into traumas. But there is one dream which we cannot abandon: the dream of a Europe which offers space and scope for all its citizens to live a good life.
|
|
|
