AGENDA AND PROGRAMME OF WORK

The Circle was founded to pursue the message that the United Nations gave to the world in the 1980s and 1990s through its conferences and summits, notably the Rio Conference on Environment and Development and the Copenhagen World Summit for Social Development. In these times of confidence and hope – the ideological and political confrontation between East and West had come to an end, great scientific and technological innovations were unfolding, democratic values appeared to be spreading – the message that it was possible for all nations, individually and collectively, to move towards freedom and social justice, economic prosperity and protection of the environment, as well as cohesion and respect for cultural diversity.

The World Social Summit, in particular, insisted that public policies had moral dimensions and that governments and international organizations had to address the spiritual as well as material needs of people. Ethics and politics were not separate realms. The economy, local and global, was to be organized for the benefit of all. A safer, more prosperous and more just world was in the horizon. The Triglav Circle, for its part, was to contribute to keeping alive and deepening this enriched discourse on public affairs.

Less than two decades later, the world is engulfed in a multifaceted crisis- in the economy, in the human ecology, in the capacity of communities and nations to coexist and cooperate – and old threats such as those created by the availability of atomic and chemical weapons have not abated. For the leading nations and for the international organizations responsible for the common good, the failure is blatant and enormous. For public intellectuals and organizations of the civil society that tried to expose the shortcomings of the dominant form of modernity, these crises are both a vindication of their critical analyzes and a confirmation of how difficult it is to influence decisions when working against the dominant current.

Many questions arise: Were these critical voices too dispersed, unable to present a coherent and attractive alternative, or simply not politically as strong as the established powers? Are current events illustrating once more the common view that only catastrophes affecting directly the powers in place can generate radical changes in the spirit of the time? Another question, perhaps more important, is the attitude to be adopted in times of crises by these groups inclined to critical thinking. Within one’s domain of interest and competence, which subjects ought to be pursued? Are there assumptions, generally held positions or convictions that are particularly in need of scrutiny? Should reflection be closer to action and politics when opportunities for change are greater than usual?

For this forthcoming discussion, two major themes are proposed: How does the Circle read the current world situation? Where is the public discourse in particular need of enrichment? And, for brief organizational consideration: what is the place and role of the Triglav Circle in the community of non-governmental organizations?

Theme I: Reading and interpretation(s) of the current world situation

At this juncture, a debate on such theme is unavoidable, necessary, but also in need of a focus. Given the perspective of the Circle, the following two questions aim at orienting the discussion:

• Are the current crises exposing flaws in the dominant conception of modernity, or are they accidents along a path that cannot or should not be fundamentally changed?
• How should the view that societies ought to respond better to the “material and spiritual needs” of people to be interpreted today?

A tour de table followed by a discussion would seem to be appropriate for this theme.

Theme II: Domains of the public discourse in particular need of enrichment

In its past debates the Circle has often deplored the excessive domination in world affairs of a narrow form of instrumental rationality, which is a dramatically impoverished avatar of Reason as developed by the Enlightenment and other philosophies of life in society such as Confucianism. The use of such limited rationality led to an economy separated from its political and moral roots, to a polity reduced to a technocratic and mercantilist management of human affairs, and to an entirely disenchanted and predatory vision of humankind, society, nature, and the world. It seems that when a culture eliminates the transcendent, the poetic, and the gratuitous, violence in all its forms becomes a banal mode of relation. Hence the following questions that might be usefully explored:

• What are the measures that could reconcile freedom and morality in the world economy?
• How to establish a balance between rights and responsibilities in the world polity?
• How can we regain an enchanted perspective of the world and the natural environment ? A renewed sense of the practicality of the spiritual dimensions of life, an enlarged conception of beauty? Can the arts fill a void that was hitherto fulfilled by religion?

Brief introductions on these three very extensive domains of reflection will be followed by discussions. The objective at this March meeting will be to exchange views on the relevance and dimensions of these issues and to take steps in the formulation of relevant concepts and approaches.

Organizational issue: The Triglav Circle in the NGO community

Given the character, resources, strengths and limitations of the Circle, and given the fact that opportunities for more direct relevance and influence might be opened by the crises and the reactions they provoke, it would be useful to debate of the practical ways through which this Circle could develop its relations with like-minded organizations.