Dear Friends and Supporters, since the November 2024 elections, we have been inundated with inquiries about where existing groups are and, if there is not one in your neck of the woods, how to establish one.
We are a mom and pop operation – despite our great global success, with more momentum than ever since Ceci and I started in 1996, the fact is that the traditional philanthropic industrial complex (none more so than the myopic ‘trust-based philanthropy industrial complex’) that claims to support organizations to create open societies looks down their noses at us, because we are genuinely inclusive, we have staying power, we have a real method and ethos (unlike the civic/ civil discourse initiatives they fund with gazillions of dollars, almost always establishment Left-leaning, with no discernible method of any sort, just mere protocol, and little if any staying power, in contrast to what we achieve). When they ask us to submit a proposal for funding, we spend scads of time doing just that, scrupulous to every requisite detail no matter how Kafkaesque, they do a site visit, they turn us down — and one of them even said, ‘What you do is too good to be true.’ No words…
Forgive if this comes across as snarky, but the long and short of it is, we just don’t have time right now to respond to the inundation of individual inquiries, much as we wish we did – we’re totally focused on carrying out our mission, including our newest projects, Spirit of ’76 Cafe, Shakespeare Cafe, Socrates Space Cafe, and helping out when we can with our existing palette of initiatives in addition to these, first and foremost Socrates Cafe.
All of this is to say:
Please do a Google/Bing/DuckDuckGo search (or whatever search engine of your choosing) — Search for a Socrates Cafe in your neck of the woods, and also a Meetup-type group. If your search comes up empty, then the odds are there isn’t one. If that is so, please please please start your own. The guide for how to do so is on this very site. If you have any questions about ‘troubleshooting’ or whatnot, when you have a group ongoing or are in the throes of starting one, please write us at SocratesCafe@gmail.com
Thanks, Chris and Ceci