OUR MANIFESTO
As children, we all want to do big things like change the world and explore unknown territories. We dream of goals as great as world peace and we value our friends, and family above all else.
Sadly, these dreams often fade as we grow up. As doors close for us, people leave, and we experience rejection, we’re forced to face a reality where dreaming big feels useless. And all too often, society convinces us that, surviving in the “real” world means striving for the individualistic objectives imposed on us by the system we live in.
We’re Activists for a Better World
Here at The Free Conversations Movement, we pride ourselves on being activists for a better world. We believe that we have the right to dream and to experience a genuine human connection with others, regardless of our individual interests and lifestyles. We all have the right to express ourselves and to be heard.
If we look at the history of human beings on earth, the first human groups and primitive societies were formed with the goal of mutual support and collaboration. Every individual mattered. As society grew and became more complex, that original goal started to get lost and, today, has been replaced by a social system that has broken the basic human personal connection and substituted it for the often-misleading illusion of global hyperconnectivity.
The Free Conversations Movement began in 2016, born of the desire to confront this process of dehumanization and isolation that too many of us face today.
The Free Conversations Movement emerged from understanding and acknowledging that our basic needs as human beings are more powerful and more relevant than the needs of a society where the vast majority of people are excluded from the process of making decisions that affect their lives and where human beings themselves have become irrelevant.
This movement was born to reclaim the space where each person can recognize themself in their own story, and recognize that expressing that story to another person is exercising a right that we all have in common as human beings. This movement was born to help, to connect people, and to promote the free flow of ideas.
We Promote Connection Through Face to Face Communication
The Free Conversations Movement understands that the increase in technological and scientific advancements since the 20th century, especially in information and communication, has offered the world incredibly valuable tools to pursue big objectives. But, on the other hand, this has also given rise to the increasingly frequent mass phenomenon of people feeling lonely and insignificant, even while being hyperconnected.
Talking and communicating with another person face to face, as equals, is an essential activity in order to reclaim meaning and significance. This is why the Free Conversations Movement doesn’t marginalize or discriminate.
Our aim is to share stories and describe our experiences, to grow in humanity. There’s room for all of us in this simple act of talking and communicating: right-wing, left-wing, young people and old people, wrong-doers and those who have been wronged, believers and non-believers from every corner of the planet.
Let’s take to the streets and fill our cities with places where we can sit down and talk. Let’s reclaim the noble art of sincere, selfless conversation – without judging one another.
Talking to someone new, an unopened book, an untold story… We’re missing all of this, and for what? In exchange for selling our lives to technological advancement, trading real conversations for the false belief that we are more “connected” than ever before.
Arrange to meet up with a friend you haven’t seen for a while. Talk to the boss you had an argument with. Introduce yourself to the neighbor you haven’t met yet. Call your parents, your siblings, your children – just to tell them how much you love them.
Get out there! Let’s reverse the process of dehumanization – there’s still enough time.
Let’s challenge the idea of a solely virtual society and start being present for each other.
Let’s create spaces in cities where people can express themselves freely and be heard. Let’s work together so that everyone, regardless of their background or beliefs, has someone to talk to and have a conversation with.
Let’s learn to look each other in the eyes and really listen.
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