Solidarity instead of fear: why this is now decisive

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I sit on the train. Remember how the feeling of sickness spreads in the body, while we are now race in the dark for the fifth hour. It would be good if the nosebleed ends at some point. The fellow traveler stares at the laptop in front of me, soundproof headphones on my ears.

I feel a mixture of leading fatigue and the feeling of being invisible and think about when exactly this point will come in which what has been learned, long internationally internalized, gives way to everything that is not familiar. When this dictation of the request is not briefly interrupted towards strangers, non-button, non-liberal. The moment when we decide that it is no longer attacking to ask if everything is ok, but important.

Of course, my nosebleed is not worth talking about. I am rather glad that nobody appeals to me. But what if it were more than a handkerchief full of blood? What if your own body suddenly, in the middle of everyday life, not just imposes a short break button? When you get really helpless? Would you be in good hands in the middle of people?

I think of the father of a friend who collapsed a few days ago in the middle of a department store. A grape full of people around him. Heast first, then tried, later courageous - but without success. He dies a few days later. The moment passed when there wasn't time.

I think of the homeless person who runs barefoot through the subway and the rigid views of the travelers on their smartphone or out of the window. And to the sentence of a homeless, which I ultimately read somewhere: "The worst of everything is when they don't even look at me".

The world has become strange, I think at such moments. As compassionate as we are with those who are nice and close, the dividing line is so clear. Behind it are strangers. Or what you call our society so beautifully.

While children still say freely when something is wrong what they see, it stops at some point. Because they are told that they shouldn't speak so loudly if they ask why the man has no shoes there and his clothes put on the smell of the subway tunnel. At some point that stops, after the hundredth “quiet. You don't ask that loudly. "

The gap between them apart and together

Nevertheless, this is not the image of society that I want. Because there is so much good in her. I just have to open my eyes. Not just seeing the negative. The silent connection between women in the waiting room. The seller who smiles at me so incredibly warm that I almost scare.

The moment when thousands of people on a demo like from a throat "hold together!" scream. And so many other moments when you think: yes, there is a coexistence. Not only on the demonstrations of the past few weeks, when many people wanted to make connections visible, tangible and loud, but also on so many other days. Precisely because it happens every day without much noise and excitement, I find these moments very valuable.

In a comment in theHE DOESI read: "The AfD is not chosen by many because of their program, but despite." What a fire -threatening approach in an election that will ultimately determine politics for all of us for four years.

"Fear is not a good consultant"

Yesterday the news was about the current situation before the election. The word that fell most frequently on the part of the politicians was "uncertainty". "The main thing is currently influencing democracy," explains the neuroscientistMaren UrnerLater in a show.

And that is somehow the basic feeling in my environment. Adults people who suddenly become silent and then talk about being afraid. That this time it cannot end well. That everything is getting worse. And yes, before the election in the USA, not everything was pink and simple. They knew about the conditions of this world. But since then it has become much worse than before. Whenever you think that the world is currently no longer to be beaten, a new dimension of madness opens up.

Just think of the toxic connection of oneWith a musk. One suspects that we can change a lot very quickly now. Much of what appears to you as safe and natural could suddenly be under question. Just like in the United States, where significant foreign aids and diversity programs were canceled and climate protection measures were discontinued.

The neuroscientist asks the question: "Is it an emotion or an issue that makes a choice?" Because we often mix both, she says. “Fear is a good consultant when it comes to my survival now and here. And at the same time she is a bad consultant when it comes to sat down and thinking: How do we actually want to shape democracy? And I can't fear and panic. "

I sit in front of the screen and wonder where this emotionality comes from. People tend to negativity. But what brings us in such closed anxiety? FromHassAnd I don't even speak to social media. And above all, I ask myself: How do we get out of it? Not just every single one, but all of us as a functioning society? It should be clear that it is not enough to trust that everything goes by itself. The fat years in which one might think that others will already take care of are over.

The first way is certainly to choose. But what comes after that? Resignation in the event of a blatant election result? Resignation in the event of a narrow election result still found for "OK"? Both would certainly not be the right way for a fair and just society.

My train has arrived. I walk through the almost deserted train station. Hardly anyone can be found here at night. Just a few people looking for protection and a place to sleep. I throw a few euros into a cardboard cup, look into my eyes tired and think: How well would it be if "solidarity" would be the word that we hear most frequently from politicians in the election campaign.

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