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Twenty-first century humanity has mapped oceans and mountains, visited the moon, and surveyed the planets．But for all the progress, people still don't know one another very well．
That brings about Theodore Zeldin's“feast of conversation”－events where individuals pair with persons they don't know for three hours of guided talk designed to get the past“Where are you from?”
Mr．Zeldin, an Oxford University professor, heads Oxford Muse, a 10-year-old foundation based on the idea that what people need is not more information, but more inspiration and encouragement．
The“feast”in London looks not at politics or events, but at how people have felt about work, relations among the sexes, hopes and fears, enemies and authority, the shape of their lives．The“menu of conversation”includes topics like“How have your priorities changed over the years?”Or,“What have you rebelled against the past?”
As participants gathered, Zeldin opened with a speech：that despite instant communications in a globalized age, issues of human heart remain．Many people are lonely, or in routines that discourage knowing the depth of one another．“We are trapped in shallow conversations and the whole point now is to think, which is sometimes painful,”he says．“But thinking interaction is what separates us from other species, except maybe dogs…who do have generations of human interactions．”
The main rules of the“feast”：Don't pair with someone you know or ask questions you would not answer．The only awkward moment came when the multi-racial crowd of young adults to seniors, in sun hats, ties and dresses, looked to see whom with for hours．But 15 minutes later, everyone was seated and talking．They would be‘intimate’, continuing full force until organizers interrupted them 180 minutes later．
“It's encouraging to see the world is not just a place of oppression and distance from each other,”Zeldin summed up．“What we did is not ordinary, but it can't be madder than the world already is．”
Some said they felt“liberated”to talk on sensitive topics．Thirty-something Peter, from East London, said that“it might take weeks or months to get to the level of interaction we suddenly opened up．”
