Today we talk about For They Don’t Know What They Are Doing, a book by Goerdt Abel published with our publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author Goerdt Abel to get to know him better, where and when he found the inspiration to write his book For They Don’t Know What They Are Doing, as well as the sensations he felt by “reading” his life on the pages of his book.
Below you can find our interview. Take a seat and enjoy your reading!!!
- Where and when did you find the inspiration for your book?
In the early 1960-ties I studied in Vienna at the Technical and Economical Universities in Vienna, Austria. After a life spent in Germany, USA and Mexico and a lot of worldwide travel my wife Maria and myself decided to move back to Vienna. The old customs of meeting friends at the so called “Heurigen” (a place where you meet with a glass of local wine and some light food) in the “Vienna Woods” still exists today. We met a group of old university friends in the fall of 2019. It was usual to talk about politics after a while. The subject of the “Qualifications of Politicians” came up and it became the theme of the evening by exchanging a lot of controversial opinions. The summary was: In our days nearly every profession and job need a clearly defined and ever more demanding qualification. The exception seems to be “politicians”, there are no standardized or well-defined qualifications. Voila, there was the theme for my book and it took me until late 2023 to finish it and had it printed.
- What it the message you want to convey to the readers?
Since the French revolution and the founding of the United States us humans have had the chance within democratic structures to determine ourselves who should become our leaders and how long they can be in service. We have seen similar systems already in existence both in Greece and in Rom functioning well over centuries. There might have been some other examples on a smaller scale in indigenous societies, but they are not well enough documented to use them as examples in the book. It is up to us all living in democratic societies to improve our systems of selecting politicians and make sure that they serve as much as possible the “common good”. This applies for all the politicians on all levels of governments. In case that we still have to live in autocracies or dictatorships of all sorts we have to stand up and make sure that these systems can’t last.
- What significant life experiences find expression in your book?
I was born in 1944 when Germany still suffered its worst time in history under the extremely brutal and primitive dictatorship of Hitler and the Nazis. Many people until today are not aware that Hitler never finished school, became a drop out, living in the streets of Vienna, and could be considered a petty criminal, cheating his sister out of his mother’s pension. I was born only 10 months before the war ended, with the complete defeat of the “German Third Reich”. It was supposed to last for a thousand years but finished luckily enough for everybody involved after 12 years of existence. These circumstances have influenced me and the generation which grew up with me strongly and negatively. We all had to suffer, that Germany was considered a pariah state for many years to come. We all had to face the questions how most of our parents had accepted or even supported this inhuman regime. During my business career I travelled to the majority of the bigger countries in the world, and I learned to speak 5 European languages. I have to say that until today, which is appr. 80 years later, this shadow has not completely disappeared. May be the book can help to some extent to eliminate these or other similar terrible mistakes in the future.
- What sensations did you feel by “reading” your life on the pages of your book?
This is not easy to describe. The complexity of human behavior is always perplexing, and it is astonishing to see the ongoing battle of personal and common interest. I fell some satisfaction that I could point out some of these contradictions which exist in the political arena. But I have to admit that there are no easy solutions or cooking recipes. Though I am hopeful that we are learning, and we are improving the academic knowledge regarding this field of human behavior called politics. I am especially hopeful for one recent development: We have reached a much better balance of the distribution of power between the sexes. This can give a hope that the power of males is being reduced substantially by giving woman full access to all education and their own right to determine their reproductive wishes. This should give us hope to break the vicious cycle that appr. 30 % of the male population killed itself continuously over the last 2 Mio+ years of our existence on this planet.
- Are you working on a new writing project, you can tell us about.
My interests are diverse. I also like botany and have written a little book and catalogue on a garden we have had in Mexico, where we lived for 20 years. I also have published a book on the family history and one on “German unification” with autobiographic features. My Ph.D. thesis was partially published. I would like to see how this book will be accepted by the public and I would possibly be interested in expanding on the subject.
Europe Books thanks the author Goerdt Abel once again for taking the time and answering our questions. We are really pleased to have walked alongside him on the editorial path that led to the publication of his book For They Don’t Know What They Are Doing. We wish him the best of luck for his book and for his future works.
To you, my dear reader, may this book be a source of reflection and inspiration to ensure that we all behave trying to serve and preserve the „common good“ and fight against every dictatorship that prevent us from doing so.
So, my dear reader, all I have to say is to enjoy your reading!
Your editor!