The wonderful but too early deceased dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch once formulated what has been her personal drive: ‘I’m not so interested in how people move as in what moves them.’ Wow, one of those sentences one would like to keep plain! Unfortunately, for several reasons I can’t keep it plain. Running a blog without writing about these things that move me emotionally seems stupid otherwise. The point Pina Bausch has mentioned here is so important in my opinion that I really would like to share some thoughts on this. But one by one…

What has caught my attention to this question? Sadly, I have to admit that the – at least in public perception – intolerable state of the societal debate as well as the coarsening of language and social manners – especially within the so-called social media – has caused me to think about it a lot recently. More precisely, an impressive and thought-provoking speech of thanks for winning a TV award of the German journalist Dunja Hayali put my thoughts back on the right track again. As important as it might be to keep the dialogue even with the most ill-tempered and constantly nagging ones, so important it is not to forget the opinion of the wide – and often too quiet – mass. I have realized that one of the reasons for my moroseness and pessimism concerning the current political situation in Europe – as well as for starting to doubt my project – must be sought exactly in this fact: we are allowing ourselves to be overly influenced by the loud speaking, the simplifying and the hating. Just because they seem to have taken over the supremacy in the debates – in truth they have not! They are just using the comment button more often than others 😉

Returning to the initial question, I think we (all) have to place further emphasis on motivating the vast majority to play a role in this context and to contribute to the debate instead of remaining silent and leaving the stage to the weak-minded. For this purpose, the understanding of what moves people is the key issue. Without knowing what is important – emotionally and rationally – in people’s lives, there will be no chance to turn over the switch and to inspire people to participate actively in society. For all policy-makers and societal active institutions it remains crucial to pick up on people’s concerns and realities, as well as to give anyone the chance to raise its voice and to contribute its individual potential to society. For sure it would be worthwhile to invest much more in this than always just complaining about the dimwits…

‘The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.’
Charles Bukowski