Ivan KOPRIVCHIN
The path to prosperity of Bulgarian society has known many deviations, delusions and dramatic upheavals. We, the Bulgarian youth, are still experiencing the consequences of these upheavals today, being hostages of the universally articulated lack of alternatives to the future.
This apparent lack of alternatives is formed primarily under the weight of the recent past, the lost hopes of our parents and the growing complexity and unpredictability of the new world. At a time when the threads between generations are breaking, historical memory is thinning, identity is blurring, then the transmission of that spirit that connects the individual human destiny with the destiny of Bulgaria is interrupted.
The world in which we will live is marked by geopolitical challenges, digital revolutions and the search for new spiritual paradigms. We also face exceptional difficulties related to competitiveness and personal realization. The strength of Bulgarian youth is called upon to overcome the challenges of today and realize the alternative of tomorrow!
Through this strength, Bulgaria will have the opportunity to win its role as a bridge between the worlds— between historical tradition and the era of modernity. It is through forms of innovative creativity, initiated by the young, that our country will revive its cultural, historical and spiritual capital. This means that economic, social and technological progress should activate the free, enterprising and talented person as its driving force.
However, such a perspective can hardly be realized in the conditions of deepening divisions and crumbling trust. Native politics has finally abandoned its original purpose of defending the interests of citizens. We need to shed light on the dependencies of the political and business class! We need a responsible state that combines personal freedom with public solidarity and provides support for every generation! Accessible education, modern universities, worthy scholarships, opportunities for innovative training and professional realization are not luxuries, but basic conditions for a free life and self-realization.
Achieving this goal requires young people to establish themselves as a self-organized public entity, capable of conducting an equal dialogue with the state and business and to defend the decisions that determine their own future. Young people should not be the sole recipients of inconsistent policies or periodically mobilized energy for foreign causes.
This self-organization is also of particular importance for overcoming the growing crisis of community in our country and globally. We have never been so virtually connected and at the same time so spiritually alienated with a sharply noticeable lack of belonging and value orientation. An urgent step is the construction and separation of spaces and forms for action and communication in universities, science, culture, entrepreneurship and civic life.
Only through this creative energy can Bulgaria find its place in the new global reality. We need such historical creativity that connects personal and spiritual development with the national perspective and restores the interrupted dialogue between generations, as well as the transmission and communication of life experience and knowledge. Most of all, we need a new social contract that will restore trust between citizens and institutions and turn the state into a project for a shared future!
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The author is the leader of the youth club "There is a Future" and the initiator of the student initiative "STOP"