Suffering as the Basis for Social Solidarity

Suffering– a universal human experience– was the topic for an intergenerational conversation that occurred at the Mariposa Museum in Peterborough, NH, on  the evening of June 10.

Twenty-five attendees– half high school students from the Revolution Ethics group, and half older adults– explored the question of whether the shared experience of personal suffering can provide the basis for social solidarity in a hyper-individualistic age.

People hunger for these kinds of conversations. Opportunities are few for people in our society to consider together questions of meaning and purpose in our common life.

The S1 Project believes that these conversations are good in two ways. First, they’re good because they meet a deep human need. Second, they’re good because we believe that changing our society for the better– including changing our politics– depends on our ability to think and talk together about our common life in deeper ways.

Our current societal and political aimlessness needs our critical moral engagement. That’s how the S1 Project is leading.