[Applause]
[Music]
imagination action transformation this
is how reality happens our thinking
shapes our doing our doing shapes our
being ideas are the engine that propels
everything this is a story about how
events in Holland about fifty years ago
and events in communist Poland about
thirty years ago
are influencing a serious issue the way
a soccer ball is kicked on the fields in
what could the Dutch national soccer
team have in common with a street
protest movement and street happenings
in communist Poland
what could connect these two with a
youth soccer club in Ann Arbor today
it’s not location but it’s not the time
frame it’s not culture it is the power
of ideas that connects the three and
binds them together Johan Cruyff was one
of the best soccer players of all times
in the 1960s and 70s
he and his Dutch teammates in their
orange uniforms reinvented the game
Johan Cruyff and his team had a cult
following in Poland in the 70s and in
the 80s we truly admired we loved their
style based on imagination creativity
improvisation and a sense of fun orange
alternative was a street protest
movement in communist Poland in the
1980s
hundreds upon hundreds of young people
came out in his streets pretending to be
Smurfs worrying goofy orange caps
organizing happenings
ultimately they successfully undermined
the communist system in Poland and
contributed in a small and funny orange
kind of way to the collapse of Soviet
Union and the Soviet bloc as a whole
they want a barrel against an oppressive
regime by avoiding any battles they they
won using just like the team in orange
creativity improvisation style sense of
fun sense of togetherness there as their
only weapons in effect they staged their
rebellion by redefining a rebellion in
Poland we have a very long and
well-established tradition of rebellion
for almost 200 years we have been
fighting for our freedom those fights
lasted almost 200 years we we fought
against Russia we fought against Prussia
we fought against Austria and you’re
probably going along with the Russia and
Prussia and then I say Austria you’re
thinking you know pastries walls they
also had an empire and we fought against
the Austrians then the Germans then
Soviet Union over time we accepted a
rebellion script which demanded that we
earn our freedom through suffering and
death our our hours our script for
rebellion which you can see on the
screen behind me and I can almost see
here because I don’t have my glasses I
it was it was a self-perpetuating cycle
we would start with protests these were
the these would inevitably be met with
excessive use of force violent
confrontation then we would have arrests
court proceedings jail sentences and
with each with each rebellion we could
generate new heroes and this would allow
us to stage another rebellion to
commemorate those new heroes
hence the self-perpetuating cycle and
then something happened in the 1980s in
our collective psyche somehow we decided
that we lost taste for suffering and
death it seems like a steep price to pay
although it didn’t for 200 years before
when and about that time early 1980s a
gentleman called Val de Montford Eric
which is a mouthful it’s a Polish name
he’s so tough the founder of orange
alternative that’s better we can say
orange alternative he outlined basic
ideas for how to fight against the
communist regime the three main ideas
that that set up orange alternative are
as follows
number one it will be imagination not
suffering and death that will lead us to
freedom number two our best weapons in a
battle against the communist regime will
be sense of humor sense of togetherness
Joey
general goofiness number three the
communist regime should not be seen as
some evil horrible monster that
oppresses us even though they did they
should be seen as a work of surrealist
art because only a surrealist artist
could have created a system which
surrounded us with absurdities we often
talked how we felt trapped inside a
Monty Python skit there is a reason why
Monty Python was had a cult following in
Poland at that time
[Music]
we the the the favorite word to describe
our daily lives was paranoia so this
kind of tells you how we saw our system
in our lives from this perspective our
good orange our alternative our
politicians our finest leaders should
not be feared they should be admired and
recognized as superb surrealist artists
after all they created a system in which
millions upon millions of people can
enjoy the nonsense from within by the
same token their defenders the riot
police officers on street corners should
not be seen as mindless of pressive
thugs even though sometimes they were
they they should be seen as an integral
part of this monumental socialist
surrealist composition we should admire
them the way we admire paintings of
Salvador Dali in a museum
anger outrage violence are a complete
waste on communist nonsense the best way
to attack nonsense is to create more
nonsense this way you will present the
regime with a mirror and hopefully when
the regime can see its reflection it
will collapse upon itself due to its own
absurdity and this generation of
compounded lunacy was a fun party good
time was had by all
justice Johan Cruyff redefined or we
invented the game of soccer and
redefined what good soccer is or its
alternative redefined what a good
rebellion is instead of suffering and
death they proposed sense of humor and
fun now imagine you are a riot police
officer in Poland in the 80s you and
your unit just got rushed downtown to
pacify an illegal gathering at the time
in Poland any gathering of three or more
people in a public space acting in a
more or less coordinated fashion could
be considered
this was an obvious way in which the
government was trying to suppress any
any and all kind of dissent the streets
were unsafe because there was a lot of
police in the streets so there you are
downtown full gear you got your club
you’ve got your helmets
gas mask because tear gas is going to be
used got your shield you’re ready to
fight the enemy of the state and the
enemy of the state arrives from around
the corner comes out a group of people
and you look it’s a bunch of kids they
probably are high school and college
students and they are coming closer it’s
all bit weird because they are not
marching at you in a managing kind of
way they are skipping with Joey that’s
unsettling but you don’t really have
time to ponder all of this because they
are coming you have things to do and now
you can see their banners and you look
at the banners and the first one is she
says we demand freedom for snow white
okay long live fruit juice
not the problem down with Gargamel now
they give closer now can you hear their
voices there is no freedom without
Smurfs they shout small is beautiful
they shall again this is really really
weird but they are right in front of you
when in doubt and slightly befuddled you
go back to your training you proceed
with rebellion script step two and three
you beat the living crap out of them and
arrest them you feel a little bit better
things are back to normal you think but
a new problem arises now the regime has
to follow up with steps four and five
they are not particularly keen on
standing in front of judges and the
media to explain to the nation well this
is why we had to convict and send to
jail Snow White and her defenders
and if there are more questions
who is Gargamel and and what would his
demise be a good or a bad thing for
communism if there was a lot of laughter
this small beautiful
well if small isn’t beautiful or people
who say it is are they committing a
crime do they deserve to go to jail and
if so how long should they rot in jail
so for the first time our regime does
something that we think makes perfect
sense they cancel steps 4 & 5
no courts no jails this murder to go
back out after 24 hours that’s the new
cycle and non protest beatings arrests
out you go after 24 hours this is how
Orange alternative achieves two big
victories the first victory is rewriting
of the traditional rebellion script
steps 4 & 5 far out step 1 is turned
upside down at least 50% of the script
is done or more the second big victory
is humanizing the enemy so you are this
right police officer the smurfs got
released well within a few days they are
marching again you got to do what you
got to do so you beat them up you arrest
them and then it repeats again you get
to know them you you beat the same
person enough times you get to know them
and and and you you begin to build a
relationship you begin to smile when you
see the next goofy banner and you’re not
supposed to be smiling on a job you’re
supposed to be the mindless thug so what
happens now is the riot police officer
that’s you sorry the riot police officer
looks at that Smurf and and you can see
that under this orange cab there a
secure man being you made eye contact a
couple of times so there must be a human
being there and the Smurf looking at at
you begins to see a human being behind
the riot police shield this is this is
the beginning of the end and this is the
beginning of a process which allows
former enemies now Co participants in
the same new script to sit down at the
same table in 89 and negotiate a
peaceful transition from communism to
democracy probably the single most
remarkable event in Polish history of
the last century so the old script is
out it’s been killed and buried and this
metaphorical killing of the old script
is really the only violence orange
alternative ever committed just like
Gandhi and Martin Luther King they were
completely and absolutely committed to
non-violence they staged a revolution
without staging a revolution let me let
me describe another another event there
wasn’t there wasn’t a holiday more hated
than the celebration of the anniversary
of the October Revolution so to
celebrate anniversary of October
Revolution the Smurfs staged a
celebration of anniversary of October
Revolution as hundreds of participants
are swarming the center of the city and
it was happening in broad swath in
southwestern Poland were wear orange
alternative was founded
the happiness are swarming in dressed in
silly costumes with goofy props then
sing singing communist propaganda songs
this was their favorite thing to do they
would hijack communist propaganda and
presented like it’s a genuine act and
that creates a dilemma for the
law-enforcement making noise with drums
whistles spoons and pots whatever they
had they even built a little replica not
a little decent size replica cardboard
replica of the battleship potemkin to
reenact parts of the Bolshevik coup that
that was immediately dismantled and they
were immediately arrested hugging the
police officers and giving them flowers
complete carnival the theme of the event
was color red the symbol of communism so
the Flyers announcing the event said
please were something red to celebrate
the anniversary of the Bolshevik
Revolution
Red Hat gloves shoes anything red if you
can’t do that please paint your
fingernails red if you can’t do that
please buy a baguette with ketchup and
with this ketchup you will be part of
the red event so the key oh sweet
baguettes is having best business ever
there are swarms of people because
there’s only one kiosk in the center of
Rods were selling burgers with ketchup
the riot voice is trying to stop that
the owner says I never had business that
good I can shut down then she runs out
of baguettes this is when the happy
nurse started walking excuse me could I
have a bucket with ketchup no nobody
gets could I have a cup of ketchup
yeah sure there you go how much nothing
and off they go to join the revolution
with a cup of ketchup and at this point
the riot and this is the most brilliant
moment of the whole event the riot
police starts chasing and arresting
whoever has anything red on them
including the revolutionaries with cups
of ketchup
and then they start yelling and shouting
go get the Reds a resident reading to
get the reds and this is the moment that
aren’t alternative is living for because
we have the communists arresting the
Communists it couldn’t be better than
that so a great time was had by all and
now I would like to tell you about how
all of this the the Dutch soccer team
johan cruyff orange alternative connect
with mps a crush mps a cross a youth
soccer club which i started in 2005 in
ann arbor with a group of very very
brave or absolutely crazy coaches who
were willing to swim with me against the
current we saw the club draw from 15 to
more than 600 players and and this story
is a it’s a tribute to the coaches who
were willing to trust me crazy as it is
and more importantly to hundreds and
hundreds of players and parents who took
a leap of faith trusted our vision and
who made our club what it is today
so what connects these three things well
by now you probably know what I’m gonna
say it’s the ideas commitment to freedom
commitment to creativity improvisation
sense of fun sense of togetherness
ability to your silliness as a serious
tactic to achieve important goals I’m
very attached to your hunk roofs idea
that style and class are more important
than results because style and class are
permanent results are temporary we play
to play and a game is just a game it’s
nothing more nothing less than that
winning is fun but playing well and
playing with style and class is very
more fun than winning
I’m also attached to Valdemar Felix an
orange alternative slogan I am happy
therefore I am
if orange alternate and our orange
alternative
their happenings showed that under very
trying circumstances you can choose to
be happy and if they could do it I felt
we in our small way on a soccer fields
we can do it too no matter what the
referees the league officials the
opposing players parents and coaches may
or may not do
we can choose to enjoy each and every
game matter of fact we probably want to
go further and follow the orange
alternative lead and and not look at the
referees the league officials opposing
players fans and coaches as adversaries
and evil monsters we may decide that
they are Co participants in the same
script and this one will make it way
more fun for everybody it’s it’s a
brilliant feeling when I see one of our
teams warm up for a serious game in a
serious league and as they go through
their pregame warm-up routine they do a
hokey-pokey dance which does raise a few
eyebrows
and then they go on go ahead and they
play and they play at a high competitive
level they play well they play with
skill and style and a sense of joy and
more often than not they went because
somehow not that surprisingly it turns
out that competitive success doesn’t
depend on clenched fists and grim faces
and winner or cost attitudes orange
alternative was a serious anti-communist
movement because they demanded freedom
for snow white and they said that small
is beautiful
mr. Fidler is the founder of the orange
alternative is a serious political
activist because he never ever engaged
in politics he avoided it
well not quite true he actually engaged
in politics way after in late 90s he ran
for well first you got crowned the king
of Poland by orange alternative it was a
big ceremony then he ran for mayor of
Warsaw and he hides
a debate of the candidates by there were
all these candidates talking and at some
point he never said anything he just put
on the orange caps and started walking
there was the end of that debate but by
and large he avoids politics Johan
Cruyff was a serious winner because he
never ever played just to win and let me
go to the best one none of it makes any
sense so it all makes perfect sense and
thank you and maybe made the Smurfs be with you