Dear Malita,

thank you for everything, every word. Thank you especially for being that clear-minded and self-aware. Being clear is what I at least can feel sometimes about myself, but guess I am probably not.

They way you put it reminds me on the philosophical side of our quest. The School of Thought is a target which needs interdisciplinary reflections and a kind of metatheory. Wether we call it philosophy or else, I dont care. Surely we have to be aware that we are looking for something beyond different fractions of science and beliefs.

But to get any closer I deeply feel a nessecity of building a kind of fundament for our idea, even though I dont believe in the construction of mental skyscrapers, we definitly need a solid ground to walk on. I also feel that this attempt is a crucial point which will probably seperate us from many people, who may not accept our fundament as their starting point. Nevertheless I believe, we will need it and its just fair to put in the beginning, because there is no fun to trick anybody, not to say that its useless especially in our case.

So my first questions about our basic parameters is adding a Why to what we have tried to explain before (the Who): Why are we thinking for others? Why do we care at all? Why do we want to change the world? Why do we believe in our ability to do something about it? The „Why“ can help us deepening our fundament, sometimes it even hurts. I guess we wont have that much problems in answering that question in a satisfactory way, because I already have an idea about it and my intuition say, you have it the same. Lets see:

Why do we care? I care because, I feel whatever others feel. I feel pain, cold cynic ignorance, love and happiness, anger and so on. And I found one feeling most satisfactory: Happiness. And I realized that about emotions there is a kind of economy. No, there is even more than one kind of ecomomy. I see that there is a lot of people walking around town, who seem to believe they have to spare their positive emotions, as if they have a bank account for these feelings. The same people seem to believe that if they are happy, someone else must be sad, because as money, too, good feelings are limited. I realized, these people are not happy at all – I was one of them. While trying to become a happy person then, I realized, the more I close myself towards others the more desperate I become, even though I closed myself to avoid the desperate feelings others imposed on me. So I stopped running away from others and learned that running away from others is very much linked to running away from yourself, simply because being open also means to get a lot of feedback concerning yourself. I (re-) opened up and found myself, found a way out of self reffering circles of useless mind-squashing. Because of my daily interaction I find it more than evident, that my happiness rely on the happiness of the people in my neighbourhood. And definitly, the world has become my neighbourhood. But the questions remains, why there is people who experience the world differently? My assumption is: They dont know happiness as I didnt knew, because I had lost it before my mind had been ready to realize. Some people never experienced happiness and are (self-) trained to hurt each other and because some didnt even learn to reflect succesfully they dont even have the chance to realize that there is something worth a change. Some learnt to exploite and suppress others succesfully (economically, physically, emotionally) and their reflections turn and turn in these circles of domination and subordination, not realizing that they are most successfully ruining even their own lifes. We are linked to each other locally and globally, as we are humans, socially driven beings. And we have a major ability and therefore responsibility: to make each other happy ... thats what I feel and see. Thats why I do care wether we live up or vanish.

The only „Why“ which is not answered yet, is, how can our letters affect the world anyway? Why do we believe our reflections can do anything about it? I am kind of optimistic about it but miss some clear words to put it. Also I am tired once more as it after midnight. I hope you can find a way to align. I am still wondering if we chose the right way for our high intentions but anyway. Usually i have a good feeling about unorthodox methods.

Yours sincerly, Marco

Dearest Marco,

Thank you for the letter, I just looked through a window into your mind and
I must say I do think I understand, to a certain extent. I am sorry to hear
about the period whereby your mind was overtaken by what you term THE THING,
it must have been a terrible time for you, but I think its a great thing
that out of that dark and depressed phase of your life developed a kind of
"enlightenment", if I may be allowed to use that term to describe your
gradual transition from the oppresed and depressed mind state to the
"universally caring" mentality which brought about empathy for the oppressed
humans of this world. I heard all is well that ends well, so I guess it is
well with you and am happy for you.
I like how you describe yourself as a "lazy and immoral bastard". You are
one self aware and critical person aren't you? I always thought the self
critical and self aware are well protected because they know their
shortcomings and therefore they have the power to change their attitudes,
approaches and mentality at will in order to win or loose, as they choose. I
am one such self critical and self aware person too.......

About me, I happen to come from that end of the world where the oppressed of
this world hail from, a part f the world whose destiny has been shaped by
the endless exploitations and oppression mankind subjects its fellows to.
Personally, am the kind of person who feels other people's pain and would
like to be able to do anything possible to put an end to the days of
ignorance and self-unawareness , because as I see it, the easiest people to
exploit are the ignorant, those not ahead of their times and those that are
not self aware. Much as i appreciate, advocate and even partake in
"mitigating " the impacts of any misfortunes that plague my part of the
world, I am of the opinion that "mitigation" is not the solution and there
has to be a solution. That solution is looking critically at the
vulnerabilities that expose one to exploitation and destruction and
addressing those. Perhaps I do like big words, but hey, how else do you
express big ideas except with big words? But I would be happier if all such
big ideas of the world were put into big action to make an impact that will
be more than big; it will be lasting! I wouldnt describe myself as a fanatic
at any level, but I am a dedicated person without a doubt. Dedicated to my
people, dedicated to my homeland, dedicated to the dream of a better
Africa,a better world even, and in that, looking for a cause to dedicate my
efforts to to realise those big dreams. Well, what would we have to hope for
if it weren't for dreams?

A dedicated person like me, that not only sees what it is like to be on the
receiving end of the world's exploitative and oppressive ideas but walks the
valleys of world dejected by povverty and disease cannot afford to lay back
and sleep, because even if I try, either I cant sleep or go to sleep and is
overwhelmed by the visions of the dejection and suffering that surrounds
me.Therefore a burning desire to do something grows inside and it wont
subside until it finds a way. That is how I came about with the school of
thought of idea.

Basically, the "school of thought idea" is about "enlighting" people,
adjusting their mentalities and ideas in order to keep up with the times and
establish themselves in a world where their existence is sadly strictly
about "survival" and "mitigation", due to many weaknesses and shortcomings,
thats just to begin......

I look forward to this exchange of letters so we can develop our ideas and
see what comes of it.

Precious Malita,

i am very excited by our idea to write some letters to each other to reflect and design this idea, you have called „School of Thought“ in one of our chats of the last year. I always appreciate the conversation with you, and this special way of exchanging ideas I like the more. So let me start and develop some thoughts on our theme, in a special focus on motivations and the context of emancipatory ideas, strategies and activities. I am not quite sure we agreed exactly that way but at least it must be very close to our plan.

Assuming my background ideas which made me instantly support this beautiful term I at first have to point at the importance of people having common ideas about the world as it and became the world of today, at the nessecity of common analyses bringing together our diverse experiences. Hence I have to put the invitableness of basic common strategies amongst people, who care about the living, who share the attitude of resistance, struggle, who keep the will to bring about the most nessecary radical change, to create a new world out of the ongoing run, out of the continuesly recreating oppression of humankind through itself. I am not sure wether I really like big words ... would like to believe I am just making my point. Later we will have it much more detailed and less vain ;-)

By this time you know me a little, even a little more than most people in my area who I consider as friends (in the north of Berlin). You know that I am a fanatic or, as you like to put it, a dedicated person. You also know I am a sundays child. Let me use it as metaphor for being born in safety, having been raised up with love, care and in security! I left home with 17, but stayed in the same area, still secure. But ones I finished my school a short time later the THING came out, which settled down as my shadow some years before. Nothing could safe me from the THING, especially not the social system which shaped me. The THING was striking me hard, was shaking me, mixing me up completly, destroying my personality, pressing me down. The THING was the BARE AWARENESS OF LIFE WITHOUT MEANING, of given privileges taken from many others, who were so in need of even a glimpse of what I was supposed to enjoy. Hatred! Hatred against me in the first place, what I was certainly not aware of by this time. Hatred I felt for them, who might be responsible for the worlds disaster, and for my pain. The more I realized that its everybody, the more I began to realize myself. But it took a long time, it took friends supporting me, being more tough in the abscence of insight in what is keeping us, guiding us, forcing us, pleasuring and lulling us. It took a lot of fortunate coincidance and finally a change of perspective, the discovering of many new perspectives making me able to find love again. The THING strike me hard the more I could get rid of responsibilities. The few I had this time even kept me going, although I didnt had the slightest idea whereto. I felt that my hatred cannot guide myself either, it made me crash. Finally I managed to find a way of identification. I made myself a part of those being oppressed. Still aware of my origin I linked myself up with the struggle of the wretched. Having found this selfdetermined meaning of existence I started to recreate myself and to look for activities which could help me turn this devotion into reality. It didnt take long to find some as I was desperatly keen on everything matching that goal even indirectly. Untill today I am trying to improve the quality and effeciency of my engagment, untill today I am trying to create myself. I am really vain and pathetic today, please forgive me ... maybe its the right point to admit that i am also a very lazy and immoral bastard. Looking for effeciency is seriously motivated by laziness. Being immoral is my secret trick to get of fears and trained selfdestruction as well as to make all kinds of people feel bad skillfully referring to their own morals, when it fits the purpose.

I guess many other, maybe thousands or millions have written lines like this using the same words, having had the same or a similar experiences. I am not writing it to show some uniqueness. Its just important to tell you especially as we chose to have a focus on motivations, backgrounds or context. This is my personal background in brief words, as I see it today, when I am not just depressed as it still occurs at times.

A fanatic dedicated person as me will try to explain, why he thinks a school of thought is a central point in giving the world a turn towards life, a turn towards people, before he falls back into bed to sleep for long as he always love to... nope. He prefers to sleep first :-)