I Feel Free

A definition of politics is "...the often internally conflicting interrelationships among people in a society," (from an online source). Certainly as liberals we are concerned with the politics of 'the commons', all it suggests and all it entails; securing it as a free and open space, keeping it safe and keeping it fair. Most of our core principles spring from that and many of our battles are fought to preserve and secure it.

I sometimes wonder if it is worth the time and constant vigilance--if 'we' will ever make a difference, or if anyone notices when we do. Then I see something like the Viennese art project below. Comforting as evidence of an internationally shared vision for the commons is--and that other free and rational thinkers are striving toward that goal too--it is a pedestrian's words of graffiti scrawled on a yellowed-out window that really brings it all home for me:

"But you know, anyhow, i feel free!"

From David Bollier at OnTheCommons.org:

"I am often convinced that it will be the artists first, and the thinkers later, who will most affect our perceptions and feelings about the commons. This epiphany is provoked by my web-based encounter with “Delete!” an improbable and daring art installation project in Vienna that aims to re-imagine the cityscape without advertising.

For a period of two weeks in June, Viennese shopkeepers agreed to let Christoph Steinbrener & Rainer Dempf put monochrome yellow fluorescent foil on all advertising signs, slogans, pictograms, company names and logos on Neubaugasse, a popular street for shopping. (Only signs needed for public safety were uncovered.) The result can be seen in this picture – or by going to the artists’ website."