DEEP THOUGHT

Flicking The Moral Switch

A friendly conversation on stuff that matters
with Andreea Petre-Goncalves

Conversations / Sat 25th Jan / 5-7pm

Open to everyone | Booking required
Bar open

2025 starts with a caricatural crystallization of the value system that has made possible the dominance of capital over our societies in the last couple of centuries, and probably the feudalism that preceded it. The tyranny of self-interest. Invade whoever you like, pillage what pleases you, buy Greenland, extract rent, “grab them by the pussy”. Be free to say and do exactly as you like. Develop dystopian technology for your own profit, manipulate and lie for your self-advancement. Enslave, exploit, dupe, threaten – as long as you come out on top. Let the Earth go up in flames, you won’t be around long enough to fully face the consequences. “Externalities” are someone else’s problem - amen. 

Today’s moral reckoning means it makes sense to start disowning these selfish permits. We can be unlike Trump and Musk, unlike Putin, unlike De Wever, unlike Le Pen and also unlike each and every member of a tired and mediocre elite who can’t countenance a way of being that upsets our selfish moral code. 

Our complicity can be cured. Our systems can still tame the techno fiefdoms, they can legislate to protect us, and flick the “off” switch if they must. Care, respect, sharing, looking after our commons, looking after each other, ensuring no one has to face their vulnerability alone - this can be the moral code that fills our airwaves. This is the purpose of society. As the tech bros of disinformation and incitement profit from our disarray, nothing (but fear) stops us from dancing to a better moral tune.

Our problems are not failures of reason, they are failures of values. Putting this right starts with naming what should be, and there’s no time like the present. Join us for a hopeful exchange and flick the moral switch.

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ABOUT

Andreea was 8 years old when totalitarian Communism collapsed overnight in her native Romania. She saw then how quickly yesterday’s absolute truth can become tomorrow reviled atrocity. She knows that societal narratives can shift fast, and when they do, they make deep system re-set possible.

For two decades she worked for international development, human rights, health and sustainability in the EU institutions and international NGOs. In 2019 she set up Flare, a Brussels-based think-and-do tank that experiments with practical ways of shifting the collective ideas we hold of what is normal and desirable. This work builds on 15 years of her researching and writing about societal narrative shifts. She is a BMW Foundation Responsible Leader and a member of Global Diplomacy Lab.

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ADDITIONAL INFO 

FOOD & DRINK	EVENT SIZE	WHEELCHAIR
Bar open with snacks	Small (10-20)	Available on request