“Cool, what you’re doing there, that’s exactly what we need right now – but unfortunately that’s too political for me”

Too political. All other criteria met: committed, well prepared, many people behind you, exactly in line with the foundation, the funding program, the film company, the interviewee – but unfortunately too political.

Since we started taking the big problems in Europe seriously 2 years ago, since we realized that they can only be solved through better politics, we have stumbled across a phenomenon: the shyness of being political.

For some, political interest is still possible: It’s good to know about topics and the latest developments, so it’s easier to discuss them over dinner. And some topics are really important to one or the other. But if you really let the taste of the words “EU”, “Brussels”, “Parliament”, “Party”, “Elections” melt on your tongue, then you can taste tap water with the taste of dish soap.

Reality is: Most of us have completely lost touch with politics. Politicians are people on the news feed whose decisions have little to do with our lives. Or whose decisions we have no influence on anyway.

Raised in the years of middle politics and boredom, we focus on internships, travel, relationships and the rest of our own complex lives. A freaking Lindner might just get to us, but that’s about it.

At least that’s how it was for me. And now that I have realized for myself that we are leaving politics to the wrong people, that we are not tackling the great challenges of our time, I realize how dangerous this alienation is.

Because the problems don’t go away and democracy relentlessly moves on whether we’re looking or not. Since last year, members of the AfD have sat in every German state parliament. A populist alliance rules in Italy. Hungary has just been downgraded by Freedom House for becoming increasingly autocratic. And for the European elections, it is expected that over 30% will sit in Brussels anti-Europeans who will slowly hollow out the EU from within. At the same time, the planet is blowing up, in Spain every second young person has been unemployed for 10 years and asylum seekers are packing up their things at home to embark on a potentially fatal journey.

Elections are our decision about our future and our society. And right now people are deciding about our future who are so angry that they are going to vote. Who are so angry that they have become political. And angry people want an angry future. But do we want that too?

So where does this reluctance to be political come from? Why doesn’t politics fit into our yoga lifestyle? Why do I prefer to say “founder” than “top candidate”?

No idea. But I know that we have to change that urgently and very quickly if we want to keep believing in tomorrow and a better society.