Conversations that make a difference

Don't be deceived by this seemingly innocent word, "conversations". Here is where the real action begins.

If you, like us, consider another news about Donald Trump or a terrorist threat to be old news, then you might be thirsting for some really new and really good news. These conversations are designed to not only provide such news, but also to create them. And and most importantly, they will also engage you in creating the good news. You will no longer be an observer of the de-volution of our public sphere; you will be an active participant in creating a whole new one!

This new kind of news will not be a single bit boring; on the contrary! Just think, to name an example, of the news that there's been a huge and exotic invisible animal omnipresent in our lecture halls, our media news and our conversations. Present in our university labs and auditoriums; present in both our concern about the "global issues" and in our lack of concern; present in our media reports and in our conversations, which were about everything else except this most sensationally spectacular creature.

Every century in history had its challenges and its opportunities, which often became visible only from a historical distance. The 19th century changed our industry, family, culture and values. The 20th century accelerated this change, and led to an accelerated or "exponential" growth in our important variables. It also brought the knowledge by which the nature of our new situation could be understood – and handled – in a new way. But we remained stuck in the paradigm that the 19th century left us, and in the routine of updating and growing this paradigm, in its values and the institutionalized practices that grew out of those values, and that socialize every new generation to obey them. Recall once again the image of Galilei in prison. Today no Inquisition, no imprisonment and even no censorship is required. As Italo Calvino observed, the overabundance of our unstructured information will do just as well, and probably much better.

When in Federation through Images we talked about the mirror existing at every university, we may have made it look like an entrance into something – an academic underground, or underworld. You may now perceive the mirror as not only an entrance but also an exit – from an academic and more generally creative reality where our creativity is confined by an outdated paradigm, to an incomparably freer and yet ore responsible and responsive one – where we are empowered to change it.

As we have seen, on the other side of the mirror into a hugely freer and more creative one. As you might wish it to be.

The nature of our conversations

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