It’s going on 20 years since I first began Socrates Cafe. 20 years. And the first group I started, in Montclair, NJ, still meets weekly after all these years. My grandiose plan had been to have just one Socrates Cafe. But it resonated with people far and wide, not just in the U.S., but abroad, from Athens to Kabul, Aleppo, Syria to Australia to Mumbia to Tokyo.
Why did I start? How are things going? Where will they wind up (will they ever wind up?).
I wanted to revolution the way we encounter one another, I wanted to get us out of debate mode and into exploration mode, to introduce a method of inquiry that’s all about exploration of a methodical sort that leads to new possibilities for human being and doing, that leads to the discovery of uncommon common ground among participants, that makes life more worth living for one and all as, together and alone all at once, we cultivate both keener autonomy and greater social conscience. Just like the Greeks of old. The end? Greater arete — a Hellenic term for all-around excellence, in all dimensions of life, in which duty to self and to others goes hand in glove.
I started during the era of impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton (remember him? Americans were polarized, intolerant of differing views. Debate of a sort in which screaming, yelling, oneupmanship, browbeating, nauseating argument, was all the rage.
Democracy would not long withstand any sort of ‘stress test’ if this damaging way of encountering one another was not altered. I didn’t want to blame others, or society as a whole, much less its institutions. Rather, yours truly, a student of the rise and fall of the greatest of the great civilizations, a Greek-American, looked in the mirror; I asked: what I might do to alter this awful mess. Voila. Socratic inquiry. Of a specific sort. Enter the ‘Socrates Cafe method.’
Thousands now meet on a regular basis the world over to inquire, connect, in ways that make society itself (a kind of self) more thoughtful, reasonable, lovable on local and global scales.
Yet the case can be made that in the U.S., we are more intolerant and polarized, and far more narcissistic than ever. That we have lost our way, that virtues have gone by the wayside. That Socrates Cafe at best is an oasis against an unrelenting tide of democracy destroying vices.
Maybe the best we can do is fight the good fight, so to speak, to (as if one cliche is not enough), go down kicking and screaming, unable to alter things on a grander scale. Maybe. But I have great faith in ordinary people, of all ages and walks of life, to do extraordinary things. This faith is based in large measure on my inquiries with such people (honestly, I’ve never met an ordinary person). Especially if we give our youngest greater rights to self determination and greater involvement in the civic sphere, my hopes will rise even more.
Meanwhile, I keep Socratizing, keep living on a wing and a prayer to do what I can and must to do all I can so my young daughters grow up in the kind of world that makes it possible for them, and for all other children, to discover their fullest potential. It’s difficult. Setbacks the last years have been incredible (not helped by being cursed to have several sociopaths in my life hellbent on 
life unworth living). But it’s only made me stronger (as Nietzsche said, if it doesn’t kill you it’ll make you stronger). I have to do this, for my daughters, but also for me. It makes me leap out of bed in the morning, joyful (filled with eudaimonia) to sieze the day. To child (my philosophy culminating from my experiences philosophizing lo these last score of years).
As a result of my Socratizing, I’ve become more tolerant, patient, understanding. More bewildered, exhilarated, unsettled, more determined than ever to make the most of my mortal moment. More a co-creator of the universe. A sculpture in the making. My goal: To live and die with some measure of dignity, and make sure all my other fellow humans (and other sentient creatures) can do the same. I’ve started quite a few other projects to complement Socrates Cafe (and if you’ve roamed around our website, you’ve come across them). And then there is Socrates Cafe itself; it’s staying power has been thrilling, unexpected.
I know I’ll never finish what I started, will never give up. The prevailing political climate is depressing, to be sure, in many respects. But there are many encouraging signs as well, countervailing trends and winds. Sociopathic tendencies are sweeping across the fruited plain, but here again, there are inspiring countercurrents.
What do you think? Where do you stand? What’s your take?
And what (if anything) has Socrates Cafe done for you, to you?