As early as 1991, Niklas Luhmann stated in his lecture ›Are there still indispensable norms in our society?‹:

»If we consider today what it is that actually connects individuals to society, I believe we arrive at the concept of a career. We build careers. Good or bad, rising or falling, stagnant, rapid, faster than others, and careers are always such that what we have achieved is assessed in terms of what we can do with it. So that this career structure – much more so than the old order – is built not on roots, but on future.«

The current motto is: IF YOU WANT TO, YOU CAN…

…and the cheerful imperative that goes with it:

The jump is going up:

It follows an imagined growth curve. It shows towards above:

Above is the sky:

In the sky, the jump freezes …

… at the boiling point of happiness.

This sense of happiness knows no roots. It is boundless. And the future remains uncertain, because, as Luhmann says:

»(…) we face risks. We don’t know whether we’ll be able to put our training to professional use, for example; we don’t know whether we’ve joined the wrong company, one that might go bankrupt after just three years, leaving us out on the street again.«

(Motif from the essay-performances ›HIC SALTA! – a study of jumping‹ (2013–2015) and ›WOUNDED WORLD #1: Imperatives of Identity‹ (2017-2024))