More and more people interested in politics are asking themselves whether the world has gone off the rails. Terror in the Middle East, wars on the borders of the European Union and in Africa, sanctions and tariffs, social media hate speech, fake news, and AI hysteria at its peak: Answers, analyses, and clarifications are now available. The anthology on our turbulent present is available in bookstores starting today; it reflects the results of the 2025 European Tolerance Dialogues.
In politics, the future is decided—on a single day, “election day,” and every single day, “payday,” writes editor and Tolerance Dialogues curator Wilfried Seywald in the anthology’s foreword. But unlike in business, there are no test runs, no pilot phases, no room for optimization after the go-live in politics. Everything that came before is obsolete, a thing of the past. Everything decided today can trigger extreme changes, even chaos, tomorrow.
In politics, the future is decided—on a single day, “election day,” and every single day, “payday,” writes editor and Tolerance Dialogues curator Wilfried Seywald in the anthology’s foreword. Contemporary politics is “programmed madness,” as this year’s opening speaker, Cathrin Kahlweit, is also convinced. And therefore, it is pointless and utterly grotesque to call for order, security, and peace—when the whole world lives in disorder, indeed, in conflict. All of human history is not a history of peace, as we know from history lessons, but an endless succession of wars, conquests, and subjugations.
According to Seywald, the ability to make decisions under conditions of madness, disorder, and uncertainty is a key factor for the future of any organization that wants to assert itself in a volatile environment, and of course, for the happiness of every individual. No one should despair, therefore, that we live in a world of madness and disorder, says the Fresach curator. The only thing to do is figure out how best to manage it, recognize negative developments in time, and react calmly.
The latest edition of the Tolerance Talks 2025 brings together not only poetry slam poets but also prominent thinkers from literature, media, and academia, including journalist Cathrin Kahlweit, political scientists Reinhard Heinisch, Vedran Dzihic, and Karl Lengheimer, peace researcher Werner Wintersteiner, futurologists Christine Ax, Frederik Fischer, and Franz Nahrada, literary experts Gerhard Ruiss, Peter Wawerzinek, and Irmgard Bohunovsky, and theologian and cathedral pastor of Klagenfurt, Peter Allmaier.
This refreshing publication is available from Edition Denk.Raum.Fresach and can also be ordered on their website and via print-on-demand services: www.fresach.org/publikationen – ISBN: 978-3-6951-1599-0 – Price: €9.90.
About the European Tolerance Talks
The European Tolerance Talks have been held annually at Pentecost since 2015 and address social developments and political education surrounding issues of social integration, democracy and human rights, as well as civil society and religion. The talks originated from the Fresach Writers’ Conferences, which took place in the 1970s and 1980s – until after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. The next Tolerance Talks are dedicated to the theme “RESISTANCE & RESPONSIBILITY” and will take place from May 17 to 24, 2026. www.fresach.org
