Penguins in the desert: searching for well-being and culture
'People have started to think and live differently in recent decades. The multitude of changes has led to a multiplication and intensification, even overheating of human contacts. But at the same time our relationships are in danger of evaporating and we are becoming alienated from each other.
In our attempt to bring imagination to power, we have left familiar paths. The horizon has expanded but the fixed points of reference seem to disappear in the mist of a mirage. In his new essay, Luc Martens asks whether we have become like 'penguins in the desert'?
He thinks about how we can once again create fertile biotopes in which people and their relationships can thrive?
Welfare and culture can make a significant contribution here. A new cultural concept and policy can strengthen sustainable cultural development and the cultivating capacity of people.
The carrying capacity of primary environments such as family and relatives, the neighbourhood, the work environment, the school can also be strengthened. New networks of solidarity can be developed. Culture and well-being can put us on the track of 'what really counts'.
Politics has a special responsibility in all this. At a time when it is being questioned more than ever, it must mobilize talents to break through the problems through the imagination of power. In addition to integrity, this mainly presupposes taking people seriously and a constant investment in keeping the dialogue with the citizen broad and deep.''