We’re back in the States after our whirlwind trip to Vienna. The expedition was a success: Lily, who turned ninety-eight today, bore up well, though it was exhausting for her. She was glad to visit her hometown one last time, and although she is almost completely blind, she enjoyed being taken around to some old familiar places. The opening of the exhibit was, as it turns out, rather a big deal in Vienna: there were reporters there, and on Wednesday we had coffee and cake with the Mayor, Michael Ludwig.
Here’s a photo of Lily and der Burgermeister, taken in a reception room at the magnificent Rathaus:
We’re worn out, but I look forward to catching up on current events and getting things back to normal around here.
3 Comments
That’s remarkable Malcolm. It must have been a terribly moving experience for Lily, your family, and the good people of Vienna.
Ludwig is yet another run of the mill socialist but at least it’s not HÁ¤upl’s fat face on these photos anymore, that would require trigger warnings. I wonder what this city would be like under a mayor that does not hate the middle class.
Dividualist,
Perhaps there’s room for improvement, but Vienna is already a delightful place to live. It generally tops the list of world cities for overall quality of life.
The milder forms of socialism can work just fine, if necessary conditions are met: low diversity, high social cohesion, high trust, industriousness, civic virtue, and a substantial “smart fraction”. Vienna, for now at least, still meets these criteria. Taxes are high, but public services are lavish and the physical infrastructure works very well indeed. People love living there; my daughter and her young family are living there as members of the middle class, and I don’t think they feel “hated” at all.
It is the commitment to this sort of arrangement in places that do NOT meet these criteria — in ignorance or denial of their importance — that is so terribly destructive.