Tuesday, September 16, 2014


In The Twilight Zone, astronauts are greeted affectionately when they arrive on a new, familiar planet, are escorted to strangely familiar suburban living quarters, then discover, the next morning, that they are a new zoo exhibit. Vienna has a very good zoo, old and yet progressive, well organised. There are enough tourists that one shows up every five minutes or so, almost anyplace. One gets the feeling of being a zoo animal. One begins giving one's own tour, as a running commentary on one's life. That is a strange existential problem just because animals in a zoo are not part of a real eco-system. They exist to be looked at. Historical exhibits, palaces, most monuments are not part of real political life. They are splendid leftovers. So, one finds oneself saying, "My life does SO have a meaning," and then wondering what that's all about. This is one way that philosophy is close and touchable here. The place sets a problem.

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