24th World Conf report.doc
Version date: Oct. 10, 2005
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ISGF 24
th
World Conference 2005
Conference Report
who want to build a good "railway station" in their lives, to stick to the imagery I just used,
may believe that it's best to build it close to the city centre close to where everything is
seemingly happening, close to the action. But then it turns out that they are erecting their
structure, their railway stations indeed, their whole lives far away from the actual railways
tracks, far away from where we find the truly important things needed for a meaningful life,
those very things that the scouting movement has always put at the heart of its mission. In
short: We live at a time when, much of the time, we're simply in the wrong place! We must do
something about that together.
When we want to build a future together, the key message and ambition at the heart of
everything we do must be to make a difference. Now, I am a moral philosopher, and I
spend most of my time working on questions of ethics and morality in war. One may say that
that's impossible: that there can be no ethics in war! But my experience, which I come back
to again and again, is that it is possible to make a difference that individuals and groups,
even in the hardship and hell of war, again and again have shown that it is possible to avoid
the brutality and inhumanity that seem to lie at the heart of war, and really make a difference
for other people. From a Florence Nightingale and a Lord Baden-Powell, to the countless
heroes of the World Wars for instance, the many Germans who, with huge risk to
themselves, saved thousands upon thousands of human beings from a certain death we
are told that each one of us can make a difference. We can read about General Erwin
Rommel, who refused to obey Nazi orders to torture and kill prisoners of war, or about brave
sailors who picked up helpless men from the sea, at their own peril. These people did it
because they had a moral instinct and a moral compass, based on a faith or deeply held
ideas that gave them integrity an integrity that made a difference! We tend to forget these
moral heroes, in the middle of all the misery we so often read about in war. But we should
must! keep them before our eyes, as guiding stars that set the standard for our work. This
reminds us indeed of what I find to be ISGF's central mission: to show the real possibility for
creating good, solid, moral human communities through scouting.
Let me try building on these ideas to be as concrete and helpful as I can. That is not easy
for a philosopher! We philosophers may seem to like it best when we can be abstract and
strange, and quote from our good old, deceased friends from times past (my brother jokes
that of my ten best friends, five of them are dead Greeks!). Indeed, the old story has it that if
you ask a philosopher "What's the time?" he or she will simply answer "What is time?"
But I will, instead, try to be concrete and share with you those keywords that I believe should
be in the back of your minds as you find your way through your current challenges and into
the wide open future.
First, openness and opportunity! We must remind ourselves that the future is not yet it's
open to us. How open is to a certain extent dictated by factors not under our control. But to a
larger extent than we often care to realize, the openness of the future can be made larger
and wider by us. Many of the greatest achievements of individuals as well as organizations
in history have never been planned in detail; yet, they have in their way come about through
conscious effort through (a) good working environments, (b) an eagerness to grasp
opportunities as they present themselves, and (c) a positive outlook on the vast opportunities
that an open future represents. Just being open to the fact that we can change and shape
the future, and not least that it is up to us what attitude we want to have towards the future, is
hugely important. The fact that we don't know what the future holds, should be a source of
joy and inspiration.
This leads to my second point: Enthusiasm. I have a great idol; a young Norwegian whose
name is Knut J^rgen R^ed ·degaard (unpronounceable in most languages!). He has
become a celebrity because of his enthusiasm for and delight at what he's doing. And what's
