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Red means go :: 2022

My - so far - two „favorite places on earth“ (vienna´s 7th, greece of the 90s) share similarities apart from the fact that both places had come to me by chance. One will be described here.

The head ( now former head ) of that viennese district - besides other interesting things - wanted to abolish the traffic signs. I think it would have worked because it already was like this - people didn’t pay attention to traffic signs, they payed attention to each other. I never saw somebody stop at a red light, i saw people „walking“ their dog by bicycle instead, at night with storm lamps on ( because obviously these bikes had no light ). Life was easy. And very funny.
That changed when young people moved in in these last few years, who were different than we were once. Digital young people maybe. They´d stop because of the red light, not because of the traffic like we used to do. Nobody has ever waited here for the green light when no traffic was around. Until they came. What a weird picture !

That reminded me being stuck in a traffic jam on a highway at 3 am in Athens, Greece, once upon a time in the 90s. Finally, after an hour or so, we could drive forward, through the busy streets of Athens in a hot summer night. It ́s red light ! I shouted at the young greek man who I was with that time, because he had just ignored a red traffic light totally. He laughed at me: Red means go, he said. Well, ok. I relaxed and leaned back. He’d pass several red lights that night, just like everyone did it, it was common, normal ( maybe still is, i have no idea ). It was the culture, a culture of people paying attention to other people. And of course everyone was safe.

Red means go. I remember this when I see young ones stop and older ones cross the street in a district that was famous for having its own rules. Red means go. Like a culture of the past. The vedas or the mayas. Something to be re-constructed ( see: linguistics ). Or the hippies. Greece of the 90s. Different :: analog times :: fairy tales :: books :: museum ::