a few weeks ago we had the day of the
open society in Berlin it was a day to
come together in a very casual
environment to eat drink and talk it
should have been an easy task for demo
the youth movement I found it two days
after Trump got elected as president
because Timo wants to motivate people to
get political again to cast their vote
in September and it wants to provide a
platform for an open dialog so I thought
perfect this is the home run
well it wasn’t my team was out of town
only last minute I found a few people
who helped me get the furniture out of
the basement and some drinks on the
table and some food five people to be
exact one was my little brother so I
could force him the second one was my
agent so he might have felt forced as
well the third one was an old friend and
she owed me a favor only two out of the
five people who came and helped thank
you again to Hollett and Felix Hallett’s
it’s up there and so he’s a true
supporter and only two odd out of the
five for actual supporters of Timo two
out of 4647 people who follow us on
Facebook out of 660 who follow us on
Instagram and out of over 3 million who
saw me on TV and really quite a lot of
them wrote raving emails afterwards that
they wanted to support us and help us
well okay a few more came still six
months ago the day of the open society
would have probably been packed with
people in the aftermath of the u.s.
election in this scary time that sparked
so many great speeches and
demonstrations and articles it was
really easy to get people out of the
house in my case it only took me one
Facebook post and I wrote dear Facebook
I hereby found a youth movement the post
ended with the words this is an
experiment
and I have no idea where it will lead us
but it’s worth a try let’s beat demo so
to my big surprise to our first meeting
over 50 people came 50 strangers people
I had never seen before
one couple even rode the bus from
Stuttgart to Berlin to come because they
didn’t want to be political bystanders
anymore but when politics change people
change and this worked in our favor at
the beginning but until now it doesn’t
anymore because a lot has changed within
the past six month macaw happened and
lepen didn’t what happened
and vadas didn’t labor one among the
young Brits and a lot less people voted
for the AFD then we thought last year so
does this mean that the populist Sargon
does it mean that the haters stopped
hating on social media does it mean that
democracy have has been saved I didn’t
think so there was something in the air
when I started demo it felt like we had
all just woken up woken up from some
kind of 11 year old Angela Merkel coma
we the lazy optimist this generation of
people who are kids who are well taken
care of and therefore radically
self-centered we were outraged we were
afraid and we felt under attack and we
were many so founding a youth movement
was actually the easiest part what was
hard to get people in action and what is
even harder is to make them stay in
action because since the outrage has
gone the many are gone so I asked myself
how can we make outrage last and since I
myself couldn’t quit because I found it
the whole thing so I couldn’t chicken
out and I’ve asked the ones who stayed
like Hallett for example emoni why they
stayed because they are not all my
relatives promised and there are 60
young people all over germany who
organize workshops and they invite
people to discussion rounds and they try
to foster this idea of
being a catalyst for a more political
way of being and they want to provide a
platform for an open dialog one that is
open and honest and nonpartisan so I got
these people these 60 people off the
couch away from watching Game of Thrones
when our winter called trump was coming
and I asked them why did you stick to
demo and what they told me really
surprised me actually because yeah I’ll
tell you that a little bit but I think
it could be a hint for anyone who wants
to do something similar to what I did
because the first one said that she was
politically active before but she always
felt very alone in her activism so demo
gave her a community in which she could
thrive the second one said that she
always wanted to get political but it
was like a little a little bit like when
she wants to tidy up her room and
there’s just so much stuff going on so
she doesn’t do it after all so it was
the easy entry team will provide it the
fat one said it was the open format that
really intrigued her to come and work
with us because everyone can contribute
their own ideas for their own regions
because I guess it’s really different
when you have to mobilize in PNR in sec
Sonja or instacharge time for example
and then there were two things they
could all agree on and that was to unite
with others for something and not
against and to stop talking about people
and start talking to them again so four
out of the big five of mobilizing a
generation of lazy optimists were
actually about connecting about
overcoming the individualism and I felt
there was this sense like this longing
for community within all of us within
our own age group for some kind of
tender revolution and I found this very
interesting because our generation is so
often described as one of lonely hearts
and lonely wolf but maybe that’s the
reason why and there was one aspect and
all these conversations and the
really stood out it was what one guy
said he said he didn’t stay because all
of the warmth and the happiness and all
the bright colors and the happy happy
joy joy we try to provide with demo it
was actually the encounters we are now
trying to provide that are not also
happy and nice that are sometimes
overwhelming and even daring and often
they’re especially exhausting and I
thought wow exhausting it’s like a
really tough adjective to use for a
conversation but well who did ever say
that a democracy is not allowed to be
exhausting I think it’s a really good
sign for a democracy if it’s exhausting
because it shows that there are
different conflicting opinions and
forces and it shows that compromises
take time and that we as we live in a
representative democracy in Germany may
not or we can’t leave it to our
representatives that on the contrary we
as citizens might start representing our
democracy in our everyday lives so in
order to do that I guess we have to get
out of our filter bubbles I know I can’t
hear this word anymore either filter
bubble bad word but I don’t mean the
digital ones I actually mean the filter
bubbles that are analog the one that is
the world that we create around us
because I mean ask yourself when was the
last time you talked to someone who was
non academic who lives on the
countryside someone who was highly
religious I mean I have a really long
time people learn through experience and
if we don’t make these experiences
anymore of connecting with strangers
with people who don’t share our
worldview I guess we lose something that
might or that does really make us strong
as a society is to feel for each other
and I know this sounds really naive but
it’s what made people stick to demo to
see and to be seen to hear and to be
heard and also to identify what divides
us but also what unites us although this
can be really exhausting sometimes so
now this picture I have
a little example for a workshop we did
in Hamburg three weeks ago we invited a
group of students from a professional
school they will one day maybe work at
your local drugstore as retailers and we
invited them to come to the weekly deed
site to their meet two of the
journalists and talk to them about fake
news and things like that so we brought
two groups together that normally don’t
really yeah don’t really meet each other
anymore in their everyday lives because
these kids they don’t read the news and
they especially don’t read site and they
really didn’t feel as if they belong to
this place and the journalists they
don’t get in touch with kids like that
like that more often or very often so
everyone was a bit tense in the
beginning mmm but in the end they got
along really well and we asked what they
learned that day and there was this one
guy who I thought was really fun he said
well I was just glad to see that also
journalists from deed side and normal
people and that they that they say words
like I was like okay um yeah and
then the journalist said that he was at
the beginning of it scares what what was
going to happen with these kids if
they’re nice or not and in the end it
worked out really well and he said it
was really worth it to get to them
although it was a bit harder than he was
used to so this was a really simple
event it didn’t take much time to
organize but I think it left a mark on
both sides and it showed me as a member
of the open society or their so-called
open society that I cannot expect from
people to not buy into the politics of
fear when I myself am scared of the
world out there I mean if I’m too lazy
to talk to the caretaker although I know
he’s lonely if I’m too lazy to discuss
politics with a conservative family
member because I’m afraid we’re going to
get into a fight or if I’m too lazy to
organize a demo meeting on a Sunday
night when it’s tattered time although I
know it keeps us all focused and
politicized and motivated and the great
thing is leaving our analog filter
bubbles is
in my experience a lot easier than
leaving the digital ones because we can
all just get out there tomorrow and talk
to the people we meet every day like the
grumpy woman in my bakery or the girl
who hands me my coffee in the morning or
the guy who works in the library and
takes my coat every day I myself I think
I’m going to talk to the Turkish boy who
lives on the first floor of my building
because we ride the bus together every
day we live in the same house and have
never talked to him so that’s not a good
sign I guess
so I have to change that because I think
he could tell me something about my
country that I didn’t know before I
think it’s all about seeing and being
seen and that way all the lazy optimists
out there might not even have to come to
our demo meetings or lift furniture with
me when they manage to transform the
outrage that they felt when Trump was
elected into a more tender and in that
sense also more political way of being
like all the demo people do who are
still with me then we might already be a
lot more supporters than I think thank
you
[Applause]
open society in Berlin it was a day to
come together in a very casual
environment to eat drink and talk it
should have been an easy task for demo
the youth movement I found it two days
after Trump got elected as president
because Timo wants to motivate people to
get political again to cast their vote
in September and it wants to provide a
platform for an open dialog so I thought
perfect this is the home run
well it wasn’t my team was out of town
only last minute I found a few people
who helped me get the furniture out of
the basement and some drinks on the
table and some food five people to be
exact one was my little brother so I
could force him the second one was my
agent so he might have felt forced as
well the third one was an old friend and
she owed me a favor only two out of the
five people who came and helped thank
you again to Hollett and Felix Hallett’s
it’s up there and so he’s a true
supporter and only two odd out of the
five for actual supporters of Timo two
out of 4647 people who follow us on
Facebook out of 660 who follow us on
Instagram and out of over 3 million who
saw me on TV and really quite a lot of
them wrote raving emails afterwards that
they wanted to support us and help us
well okay a few more came still six
months ago the day of the open society
would have probably been packed with
people in the aftermath of the u.s.
election in this scary time that sparked
so many great speeches and
demonstrations and articles it was
really easy to get people out of the
house in my case it only took me one
Facebook post and I wrote dear Facebook
I hereby found a youth movement the post
ended with the words this is an
experiment
and I have no idea where it will lead us
but it’s worth a try let’s beat demo so
to my big surprise to our first meeting
over 50 people came 50 strangers people
I had never seen before
one couple even rode the bus from
Stuttgart to Berlin to come because they
didn’t want to be political bystanders
anymore but when politics change people
change and this worked in our favor at
the beginning but until now it doesn’t
anymore because a lot has changed within
the past six month macaw happened and
lepen didn’t what happened
and vadas didn’t labor one among the
young Brits and a lot less people voted
for the AFD then we thought last year so
does this mean that the populist Sargon
does it mean that the haters stopped
hating on social media does it mean that
democracy have has been saved I didn’t
think so there was something in the air
when I started demo it felt like we had
all just woken up woken up from some
kind of 11 year old Angela Merkel coma
we the lazy optimist this generation of
people who are kids who are well taken
care of and therefore radically
self-centered we were outraged we were
afraid and we felt under attack and we
were many so founding a youth movement
was actually the easiest part what was
hard to get people in action and what is
even harder is to make them stay in
action because since the outrage has
gone the many are gone so I asked myself
how can we make outrage last and since I
myself couldn’t quit because I found it
the whole thing so I couldn’t chicken
out and I’ve asked the ones who stayed
like Hallett for example emoni why they
stayed because they are not all my
relatives promised and there are 60
young people all over germany who
organize workshops and they invite
people to discussion rounds and they try
to foster this idea of
being a catalyst for a more political
way of being and they want to provide a
platform for an open dialog one that is
open and honest and nonpartisan so I got
these people these 60 people off the
couch away from watching Game of Thrones
when our winter called trump was coming
and I asked them why did you stick to
demo and what they told me really
surprised me actually because yeah I’ll
tell you that a little bit but I think
it could be a hint for anyone who wants
to do something similar to what I did
because the first one said that she was
politically active before but she always
felt very alone in her activism so demo
gave her a community in which she could
thrive the second one said that she
always wanted to get political but it
was like a little a little bit like when
she wants to tidy up her room and
there’s just so much stuff going on so
she doesn’t do it after all so it was
the easy entry team will provide it the
fat one said it was the open format that
really intrigued her to come and work
with us because everyone can contribute
their own ideas for their own regions
because I guess it’s really different
when you have to mobilize in PNR in sec
Sonja or instacharge time for example
and then there were two things they
could all agree on and that was to unite
with others for something and not
against and to stop talking about people
and start talking to them again so four
out of the big five of mobilizing a
generation of lazy optimists were
actually about connecting about
overcoming the individualism and I felt
there was this sense like this longing
for community within all of us within
our own age group for some kind of
tender revolution and I found this very
interesting because our generation is so
often described as one of lonely hearts
and lonely wolf but maybe that’s the
reason why and there was one aspect and
all these conversations and the
really stood out it was what one guy
said he said he didn’t stay because all
of the warmth and the happiness and all
the bright colors and the happy happy
joy joy we try to provide with demo it
was actually the encounters we are now
trying to provide that are not also
happy and nice that are sometimes
overwhelming and even daring and often
they’re especially exhausting and I
thought wow exhausting it’s like a
really tough adjective to use for a
conversation but well who did ever say
that a democracy is not allowed to be
exhausting I think it’s a really good
sign for a democracy if it’s exhausting
because it shows that there are
different conflicting opinions and
forces and it shows that compromises
take time and that we as we live in a
representative democracy in Germany may
not or we can’t leave it to our
representatives that on the contrary we
as citizens might start representing our
democracy in our everyday lives so in
order to do that I guess we have to get
out of our filter bubbles I know I can’t
hear this word anymore either filter
bubble bad word but I don’t mean the
digital ones I actually mean the filter
bubbles that are analog the one that is
the world that we create around us
because I mean ask yourself when was the
last time you talked to someone who was
non academic who lives on the
countryside someone who was highly
religious I mean I have a really long
time people learn through experience and
if we don’t make these experiences
anymore of connecting with strangers
with people who don’t share our
worldview I guess we lose something that
might or that does really make us strong
as a society is to feel for each other
and I know this sounds really naive but
it’s what made people stick to demo to
see and to be seen to hear and to be
heard and also to identify what divides
us but also what unites us although this
can be really exhausting sometimes so
now this picture I have
a little example for a workshop we did
in Hamburg three weeks ago we invited a
group of students from a professional
school they will one day maybe work at
your local drugstore as retailers and we
invited them to come to the weekly deed
site to their meet two of the
journalists and talk to them about fake
news and things like that so we brought
two groups together that normally don’t
really yeah don’t really meet each other
anymore in their everyday lives because
these kids they don’t read the news and
they especially don’t read site and they
really didn’t feel as if they belong to
this place and the journalists they
don’t get in touch with kids like that
like that more often or very often so
everyone was a bit tense in the
beginning mmm but in the end they got
along really well and we asked what they
learned that day and there was this one
guy who I thought was really fun he said
well I was just glad to see that also
journalists from deed side and normal
people and that they that they say words
like I was like okay um yeah and
then the journalist said that he was at
the beginning of it scares what what was
going to happen with these kids if
they’re nice or not and in the end it
worked out really well and he said it
was really worth it to get to them
although it was a bit harder than he was
used to so this was a really simple
event it didn’t take much time to
organize but I think it left a mark on
both sides and it showed me as a member
of the open society or their so-called
open society that I cannot expect from
people to not buy into the politics of
fear when I myself am scared of the
world out there I mean if I’m too lazy
to talk to the caretaker although I know
he’s lonely if I’m too lazy to discuss
politics with a conservative family
member because I’m afraid we’re going to
get into a fight or if I’m too lazy to
organize a demo meeting on a Sunday
night when it’s tattered time although I
know it keeps us all focused and
politicized and motivated and the great
thing is leaving our analog filter
bubbles is
in my experience a lot easier than
leaving the digital ones because we can
all just get out there tomorrow and talk
to the people we meet every day like the
grumpy woman in my bakery or the girl
who hands me my coffee in the morning or
the guy who works in the library and
takes my coat every day I myself I think
I’m going to talk to the Turkish boy who
lives on the first floor of my building
because we ride the bus together every
day we live in the same house and have
never talked to him so that’s not a good
sign I guess
so I have to change that because I think
he could tell me something about my
country that I didn’t know before I
think it’s all about seeing and being
seen and that way all the lazy optimists
out there might not even have to come to
our demo meetings or lift furniture with
me when they manage to transform the
outrage that they felt when Trump was
elected into a more tender and in that
sense also more political way of being
like all the demo people do who are
still with me then we might already be a
lot more supporters than I think thank
you
[Applause]
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