Confessions of a public speaker

Ring true

It all started last september when I used the occasion offered by the Post-Growth conference at the European Parliament to recruit for a non-authorized rally in front of the EU representation of North Rhine Westfalia  (the German region still recklessly pursuing the expansion of open cast coal mines.)  I had written a short speech the night before, which I was now screaming into a megaphone in front a supporting crowd, competing with the loud noise of nearby roadworks. It started with: “We are concerned citizens, no, we are furious citizens...”

I had negotiated to quit my job some months before, and, as I was delivering my punchlines, I was thinking on how everything now was starting to make sense, all the pieces of my identity somehow falling into place. After all those office years as a preparation to jump, I was now in the world of free men. Not ashamed about my affiliation anymore, but rather proud of my new job title of “furious human being”....

The flavour of the megaphone, which I was tasting for the very first time, proved addictive...

If we count the incendiary leaving talk at my former workplace at the end of my notice period, I've been giving so far four public speeches since my departure last December.

Time to write a few lines on my new life as a preacher man.

All my talks have been faaaar from perfect, but overall I am doing a decent job. These are the reasons:

• I am transmitting something important and being an inspiration to others. Not everyone I speak to (yet!!!!), but at least a few showed visible signs of being marked...
• I feel liberated by saying what I really think, and boosted in my creativity by having no constraints or vested interests to serve
• I am learning fast from mistakes and getting better all the time. (still far from being smooth and flawless , but isn't that part of the game?)

My talks – all related to radical critical thinking in a period of ecological breakdown- could not be more different in format and style, going from:

• An exit talk during my last week at work in front of 40 astonished colleagues. A fast-paced powerpoint under the hostile eyes of the company's HR department
• A symposium in an open evening workshop, part of a Winter School at RITCS – an institute of performing arts in Brussels. Here I was with friends from an informal discussion group “the happy transitioners society”. A relaxed and very interactive session with group reflections and exercises around the theme of collapse.
• A 2-hours “ex-cathedra” lecture in French at Louvain-la-neuve school of management in front of almost 100 young students. A very in-depth analysis of current ecological breakdown and a narration of my personal path towards emancipation from the ecological dilemmas which were tormenting me.
• A lively presentation at the FuckUp Night Brussels, an event expecially targeted at entrepreneurs to openly discuss their failures in an entertaining and constructive way
• .....And hopefully much more to come!

I do believe that a general introduction about the current historical period followed by my personal story (explaining how for me the only way to conciliate my ecological beliefs and my job was to quit) is a a good formula to win people's attention and trust. “You gotta have skin in the game” to be credible, they say. Well, in a world were a payed job is considered as the most important source of meaning and self worth, quitting a full time research position in a prestigious multinational constitutes pretty good credentials to show you are serious about the destruction of our living planet...

Other parts of the winning cocktail are:

• using the concept of “critical thinking” as a ruling principle of my life. Looking back at my experience as an evolution of critical thinking allows me to admit when I was wrong and explore the root causes of mistakes. Being a process needing constant renewal, critical thinking is also a very constructive way to encourage others to start considering problems they were not even aware of before. As Jeff Schmith explains so well in his book “discipled minds”, reappropriation of the “political” component of our work (and of everything we do) is a battle for our very identity.Biologically we are individuals, but socially what defines us as individual is constant application of critical thinking.
• Vulnerability: the open admission of being bewildered and lost is often a taboo nowadays, as much taboo as talking about uncomfortable topics such as climate breakdown. But it works! Far from making you less credible, it increases receptiveness of the audience and, most importantly, breaks one of the expected patterns of our society: always showing you have a plan and that you are a winner. We are living in a very complex and troubled time, so the norm should be the opposite of self-reassurance: being humble in order to really start questioning and deeply changing society..
• Passion: people just see it straightaway when you are passionate about something. Some healthy rage at how things are going can only boost your popularity in a world where many people ought to get mad but are forced into accepting all sort of injustices as normal.

“Ring True” are the words carved on the emblem of Wolfson College, where I lived during my Cambridge period. After so many years, the time has come to live up to this motto.

Break patterns

Most people are very poor critical thinkers. They don't question superficial explanations of reality coming from the ruling ideology because they are too mentally lazy to do so and to follow it up with action. I'd dare to say those in position of power and privilege are even more prone to this deficiency because the amount of benefits they draw from the current state of things is disproportionally high. Such self-imposed limitation of intelligence happens on a subconscious level, so that (except a few cases of premeditated wickedness) people see themselves as righteous angels. Hence the importance of breaking expected behavioural patterns to structurally undermine people's certainties and push them out of their habitual thinking.

We are all affected by this. Only after breaking a pattern deliberately or by accident we start seeing its true nature and can challenge it.

After my exit talk at work, for instance, I kept asking myself why didn't I “come out” before?

After unsuccessfully trying to write up detailed plans for my life and  pretend I have clear ideas, I embraced uncertainty and decided to openly declare my disorientation...

Even the feeling of unease when not being constantly occupied in some sort of task, or learning some specific skill, or writing this blog (!) comes from a productivist mental habit of dubious origin. The initial resistances and fear that I had towards fighting off these habits did not stand the scrutiny of critical thinking and proved therefore unfounded.

Everything we do daily stems from habitude and unchecked assumptions. This is a resonable way to conduct your life in a period of stabilty and progress, but what if you are living in a period of fast ecological and social unraveling?

To those who want to drill into the subject of patterns and on why people seem to be paralized in front of the topic of climate change I can recommend the well-researched book “Living in denial” from K. Noorgard. The author claims that:

our individual psycology (micro level) is deeply linked to the social norms of our community (meso level), which is in turn influenced by the socio-economic superstructure of society (macro level). The macro level ruling ideology is today the narrative of fossil fuel corporations, which are literally buying public consent by the use of sophisticated techniques of social control..

I believe that once this manufactured consent starts crumbling, everyone will follow...and a new paradigm can spread faster that we imagine...

The resolve of desperation

The more you look at the injustice of what's unfolding under our eyes and the contrasting paralyis all around you, the bolder you become.

For my exit talk at work I had invited via email about eighty known colleagues, but there happened to be a “mole” in the audience who reported my invitation to HR as suspect. The full repressive apparatus of the company fell on me a few hours before the talk: a chat with my director, then a call from an HR psycologue trying to make sure I was not mentally ill and making sure my liberty of speech would be kept on an adequate leash. They went as far as calling me disturbed, intimating that I should not “disturb others”, and to state that my liberty of speech was limited – stating the need, for example (of course!), to prevent far-right proselytism to happen on company premises. I obviously reassured them, refrained from inviting them and moved forward, but felt the need to moderate some parts of my presentation. Their true goal of making sure I did not speak against the company was, to a partial extent, achieved. But that was only the beginning. When arriving to the auditorium, I am faced with two armed safety gorillas and my HR manager, visibly upset. Under my utter astonishment, they body-search me for weapons, following security procedures – they say. They will wait at the entrance of the room during all my talk, while the HR person- who in the meanwhile I had kindly invited in (as she was going to attend anyay...), left after ten minutes, probably more out of embarassment than lack of interest. Despite such a privileged treatment after 8-years' employment, the thought of giving up the speech never crossed my mind. No pride, no ego, only the message counts. Denouncing these facts and reassuring I was not there to kill anyone was the perfect way to start…

Bonus materials

The contents of some of my public appearances will be available soon on this blog to please all my fans. Stay tuned….

1)– commented exit-talk presentation and subsequently recorded audio track (Not yet available)

2) – small video track of speakers' introduction round during the event at the RICTS winter school (Not yet available)

3)– commented slides of the presentation given at the course of Critical Management at a prestigious belgian university (Available -translated in EN)

This was a great one, going in depth on my work experience and my subsequent emancipation attempts with regards to the ecological question. Crystal clear explanation of the structural contradictions between the business and ecological protection, the management tools with which the company was dealing with the issue, and why that was largely insufficient, if not counter-productive. Arguments supported with plenty of examples.

4) – live video of my talk at the FuckUp Night Vol XXIII at Beurscafè. https://www.facebook.com/funbxl/videos/394798811099396/?t=600

Check out the Q&A session too, pity I was interrupted by the presenter before I could reply to the last question. Note to the self: be ready to claim my space next time, if treated in an hostile way...