I don’t know if this is the right community, but I need an answer, I’ve been thinking of this for months.

Twice it happened to me, to meet people who say they are interested in X (generic topic), just like me. So we end up creating a group, all motivated, bold, and hopeful to exchange material (productions, ideas, etc.) about topic X. And twice it happened to me that I was the only active person in the group, ending up being associated with the figure of “head” of the club. Not that I don’t like taking charge of the thing, but evidently I’m not good at it at all: because no one even responds to what I share.

Of course, you can tell me to propose activities; but first of all I have no idea of what it is to be done in a club, having never been in one before; secondly, people simply ignore, or are busy with other things, and I’m not talking about people who have a career, i talk about students during holiday.

I’ve been thinking about it since January and I came up to this: the beauty of a collective entity like the club is that it allows for exchange between peers, but it only works if the peers make it work, if they “self-manage”. And I’m not talking about running a factory, I’m just talking about being able to discuss and propose recreational activities.

This led me to observe that (at least) my generation is brain dead; and I’m not saying this to be edgy, if taken as a whole these people can’t function.

Let me explain myself: when I tried to find a solution, I only found vertical realities, very similar to the school one (note: I’m from italy). Where I, or someone, give the “lesson”; where inevitably there must be a sort of messiah who brings the solution, the information, and there is never a collective construction. In one of my two experiences I noticed how in a “debate” people inevitably ended up (or just straight up answered) agreeing with me (“I think it’s like you say it is”); not because I was exhausting them, but because I was giving a complete opinion: so the “debate” died there, at the beginning. There is no verve. They are all dependent on an entity/element that thinks for them. And if i were there to “conduct” a discourse, I’d feel like the teacher who needs its pupils to develop a thought, i don’t think its fair.

And now I feel like a bit of an asshole, like Heraclitus, asking you how to wake people up; how to activate them and put them on their feet.

P.S. My two experiences involved Poetry and Politics