Serene, frank, confident
He sat in his chair. All he did was being there, sitting in his chair. It was a small room, about fifteen had come to listen. There was nothing really spectacular, nothing worth analysing meticulously in that moment I entered the room, except for how this gentleman just sat there.
On this October 2nd, during the Welcome Days of the University of Vienna, me and a friend had quite spontaneously decided to join an open discussion on success and career management, full of hope being told some notional sort of secret we had not heard so far. We were flamingly ambitious and although it did not truly fascinate me what the current discussion was about, I took out my notebook in order to scribble down a few keywords. Then Dr. Helmut Brandstätter - editor in chief of one of the rather intellectual daily newspapers in town, the "Kurier" - took a chance to share some life advice with us. When he raised his voice, I raised my head. In this very moment it came to my attention, in what way Dr. Brandstätter sat in his chair. On first sight, this may or may not seem ridiculous to some readers, but following the next lines will be worth it. The title of this article is my attempt to describe the aura he radiated into the room - even when he just quietly sat there - with three words: serene, frank and confident.
Honestly, I had a feeling of unconventional impression caused by both the content and the style of his monologues. Nevertheless, I am not a defender of hasty decisions and since I was just about to determine, whether I felt rather surprised or fundamentally impressed by him, I took the opportunity to ask a question: "In what place do you put success in your life?"
One could not assert that it would have taken him a long time to formulate his answer. At the same time, it did not at all have an element of uncertainty or doubt in it, neither did his tone.
This man had definitely thought about this question a couple of times in his life. He seemed to be an individual not willing to accept the application of other's ideas on himself because of a strong character. Also, he had managed to find a conclusion of his thoughts on that challenging personal question, which he can now live comfortably and confidently with. Lastly, the casual, likeable, yet still serious style of his whole persona contributed to, but did not overshine the content of his answer:
The most important aim every single one of us has in life, is to find happiness. It is obvious that happiness is coloured in a different shade for different people. In the end, whatever that might mean specifically for the design of your life, you will always find happiness in the middle. Live your life balanced between the extremes of uncontrollably desired wishes and devastating, terrible fears. To actually apply this on our lives, we need one thing like the air we need to breathe and that is freedom. (no citation)
Throughout this little speech of Dr. Brandstätter I felt an inner harmony between my thoughts and questions and his positive answer and glancing through the room I could see some people nodding their heads in approval. My decision was clear: I was deeply impressed.
Let us now look at the connection of all this to actual politics.
What Dr. Brandstätter mentioned in the context of general lifestyle lays within the core of political design as well. Firstly, social anthropology taught us that the pursuit of happiness is the most natural part of human life. Whenever there are two or more people coming together, their interaction is always about an equation of interests. Since the most interests are different in detail or in general, a conflict potential is very likely to arise. This is why it is so utterly important to form compromises. Secondly, referring to personal freedom, he mentioned another point crucial to society. One can easily transfer both into politics. The compromise is the middle Dr. Brandstätter was talking about. We fortunately can spectate such behaviour in politics almost every day: Just think of the milestone that has just been achieved in the Syria conflict during the negotiations in Vienna. The actual power of a valuable compromise is being underastimated much too often. Instead of ruthless fighting over an issue, it would be much more fruitful to just create a solution together. In addition to that, it is important to also bring up the issue of freedom - freedom in two senses: On the one side, we need personal freedom for our search for the implementation of our interests. On the other side, we also need political freedom. Without this essential democratic value it would not only be impossible to influence the course of politics for individuals, but also to create international compromises just like the one recently achieved in Vienna. In a world only run by ideology and without political freedom, the need to act as a union in the Syria conflict would be ignored and the war would continue endlessly. Thanks to a constructed compromise, the world may hope for peace in Syria again.
Concluding, let us return to the phenomenom the article started with.
Dr. Brandstätter, with his appearance and performance in front of an audience, is what you can call a "down-to-earth politician". He, in fact, is a very commendable example for this category, although he is not a member of it himself, of course. These "down-to-earth-politicians" have been what the recipients of daily politics used to ask for. Actual politicians of that group are f.e. the presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in the U.S. and the much polarising former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis.
Serene, frank, confident - these are the key characteristics of the "down-to-earth-politicians", which you can codense out of their behaviour and image. These men and women give you, as a consumer of their persona, the feeling of: "They have seen it all. There is nothing to bother them on a deep, personal level. Acting rational, focussed and honest is their key competence. These are the politicians to finally speak the truth, clearly and downright."
Just watch one of the interviews or debates with these people and you will understand within minutes.
Frankly, there are not many popular members of this category these days. That is not only due to the fact that it is nearly impossible to fake this attitude or personality, but also to the current, internationally visible development of voters' preferences. People of states evaluated as highly democratic, such as the United States, France, Germany, Austria or Poland, are currently screaming for another kind of politicians - the radicals. Donald Trump, with his questionable immigration plans, has been leading the top of the polls for the last couple of weeks. Beata Szydlo and the national conservative party PiS have just won the Polish elections. Marine Le Pen is an already well-known figure for a right-wing mindset, not only in France. The German Pegida movement has just reached a new peak of aggressiveness and the extreme right-wing party FPÖ and Heinz-Christian Strache have recently reached over 30 % of the votes in Vienna and Upper Austria.
Politicians of this kind try to persuade the voters exploiting their - partly - very basic knowledge on all kinds of political issues. They seek to transform the uncertainty of the people into an irrational fear that will justify the disproportionate amount of ideology within their solutions. These "professionals" are a sincere danger to the political traditions the western world has achieved over the past decades. This is why we need people like Dr. Brandstätter more than ever.
Let us all live freely in the middle, there is enough space for everyone.
