RECENTLY in the cafe around the corner – a conflict story from everyday life

Conflicts can change society 🐮 for the better! Or do they simply point to bad behavior? Climate activists 🙅 demonstrate this. They provoke conflicts 🧨, generate emotions, and force the collective to rethink learned behaviors. Even if this is an unpleasant process at times, the underlying motivation should be viewed as positive. Things become unpleasant when the attitude is based solely on distancing oneself from the community. In this case, offensive behavior simply becomes an expression of a lack of respect.

Conflicts can change society for the better - or they are simply bad behavior.

No, I'm NOT cool 😎. Not that my daughter made this clear to me years ago. In fact, I simply don't want to be cool (anymore). It's too exhausting for me to constantly try to differentiate myself from the crowd 🐮 (new German for "herd"). I'll leave that to the younger people who are actually changing society with new behaviors (gluing, pouring, etc.). But what about behavior patterns that have no deeper relevance than those of bad behavior? Where do we draw the line? A reflection straight from my local coffee shop.

Yes, Sue, feel free to call me a square. Personally, I don't consider it necessary to sit with both feet on the armchair of a prestigious café in a place of institutionalized communication. Not only were armchairs invented as part of human evolution so that we no longer have to adopt this posture when consuming overpriced hot drinks, but I consider it part of the minimum standards of human hygiene. This is how I perceived it in my coffee shop of choice, in the person of a typical representative of Generation Z, loudly talking on the phone with a friend and signaling to the waiter that she was ordering a chai latte (with oat milk, of course). You simply can't get more self-promotional than that.

Is it the cultural appropriation of the typical seating style of the eponymous Turkish population, or simply a demonstration of youthful resilience that, while enjoying my Verlängerter Schwarz (black tea), turns me into a know-it-all who constantly grumbles about youth? Well, Viennese cafes have been above suspicion since the second Turkish siege (1863), as the Turks themselves contributed to the establishment of the local coffee culture by leaving roasted coffee beans behind. I counter the second argument with the above picture as evidence, even though I've sat more comfortably.

Reading the definition of Gen Z on Wikipedia, it becomes clear to me that the dissolution of boundaries that still applied to my generation must also be the result of a process of upbringing. When did it start, when parents let their children do their first walking exercises on the padded seats of the subway? Or when meals were no longer tied to utensils like plates and tables, but were consumed in bouncy castles from Happy Meal boxes? Oops, that must have happened during my time as a new father. I correct myself: That didn't happen; WE consciously chose it.

And so, here I am, sitting in a coffee shop, longing for the days when I would have hidden behind a large-format newspaper to spare myself the disturbing image of cultural decline. Instead, I stare at my phone and read about how young people are fighting climate change.

Conflict Barometer

People involved:	🧨
Escalation:	🧨🧨
Relevance:	🧨🧨🧨
Possible empathy:	🕊🕊🕊
Solution options:	🕊🕊🕊
Achievable compromise:	🕊🕊

The Conflict Barometer is a non-scientific attempt to assess conflict situations. Depending on the severity, up to three sticks of dynamite or peace doves can be awarded.