by Mary Wakefield Buxton –
Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5 • Part 6 • Part 7
Urbanna, Va.— Austria was once part of the empire ruled by the Hapsburgs which included Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Serbia and other Slavic nations for many centuries. It did not become a republic until the end of WWI when the Hapsburg Empire collapsed.
At the end of WWII, the Russians entered the city and introduced communism to the Austrians. I saw a statue of a Russian soldier holding a gold shield which celebrates the coming of the Russians to liberate Austria from the Nazis in 1945. The Russians lost 15,000 soldiers in the battle and occupied Vienna for 10 years along with France, Britain and the U.S. One provision the Russians insisted upon before finally leaving Vienna was that the Allies would never take down the statue of the Russian soldier.
I was feeling better. Two days had passed from our arrival and travel fatigue and the outings in Vienna were slowly acclimating me to the 6-hour time change. I resolved to put aside my dark mood and be “positive.” Then I looked out my hotel window. It was raining again (it rained every day but one during our visit) and the streets four floors down were glistening silver in the morning mist.
I looked directly across the street into a building as massive as the Imperial Hotel. The usual height of buildings in Europe is 5 stories high, and I counted 25 windows across of what appeared to be a business office of that building’s 4th floor. I did the math in my head, 25 times 5 floors: thus there were at least 25 office cubicles on this side alone of the building. Seated at every window as far as my eyes could see was a man in front of a computer.
What a vision of modern man! My feeling was rather like the strange sensation I have when I walk into an appliance store and see a multitude of big TV screen pictures all on the same channel or walk down the street and see others passing me with earphones plugged in and staring at their hand-held device.
What a lonely vision of contemporary world, the fate of mankind . . . alone, in an office cubical shut off from real human contact, and staring at a computer screen day after day, week after week, year after year.
I imagined man drowning in his new world of technology, losing total communication skills, culture, literary knowledge, ability to speak and write in full sentences, unable to express feelings, describe ideas, imagine, wonder, create and even be amazed . . . worse, unable to even look into the eyes of another human being.
I saw his return to the cave from whence he came, forgetting his language, vocabulary, conjugation of verbs, function of nouns, adjectives and adverbs, even the ability to talk to his neighbor over the back fence to describe what had happened during the day.
“What are you thinking about, dear?” Chip asked suddenly coming back to the hotel room on break from his continuing legal education seminar.
“I have just had such a depressing vision of our modern day world.” I pointed to the dismal array of lit cubicles in the building across the street.
“Ah, business at work, money being made, great services provided to others with the magical touch of the keys on a computer!” was his response.
What one man sees in despair, another sees as great human progress. I marvel at the differences in human thought and definition.
I realized I spent most of my time each day in front of my computer writing, but I used language fully expressing thoughts in complete sentences. And after I spent hours writing, I socialized, talked with people, laughed, shared ideas and stories and I certainly looked at other people in the eyes.
In Vienna everyone speaks German and English which takes the stress out of travel for most Americans, and the Austrians are very nice to us. It’s a pleasure to be in Vienna. I loved most of all hearing the beautiful classical music, Mozart, Strauss, Haydn and Beethoven, all composers who worked in Vienna. Air Austria played “The Blue Danube” before we took off both coming and going. One can’t help but feel some ecstasy with each waltz written by Johann Strauss.
But it was now time to explore Vienna and forget negative thoughts such as the terrifying image of the lone man in his office cubicle times 125 staring at his computer. I shall be happy, I told myself. I shall run Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” through my brain any time I feel bad.
The brain is a powerful organ and can cancel stress of time change, long hours of travel and various aches and pains from within. I chose to feel well, be happy and to have a good time.
(To be continued)
©2019
