Building A More Peaceful Society – One Story At A Time

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Logo MTOSA card game that brings people together

“Tell a story from a moment you will always remember”.

You sit together with a group of strangers; you are all from different cultures, ages, ethnicities and mindsets. You hand around cards with this question and similar questions tackling topics from all the aspects a human can face during his or her lifetime. You laugh together. You cry together. You argue with each other; and afterwards you feel that something changed within yourself or your opinion of someone.

Magical icebreaker

What happened during this session is what the inventor of the card game, Seth Selleck, refers to as “magic”. The game is called “More Than One Story” and is a project that started in the small Swedish town of Simrishamn. Since Seth has been working with young people during the past 15 years, he knows the difficulties and challenges to get people to know and interact with each other. The idea of the card game was born out of the frustration for a really good “icebreaker” and the inspiration of the TED talk of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie where she describes the “danger of a single story”,the danger of judging people when onlygroup mtos assumptions are made about that person or only little information is known.
The game unfolds its power in its simplicity. The cards have the questions written on them in three languages. It is best played in a group setting of up to 8 people. The game goes as follows: you pick a card and tell your story regarding that question. Then your fellow group members do the same. It is that simple. It was designed and worked on by Seth and the youth of Simrishamn with input and insights of storytellers and teachers. The inventing team was overwhelmed by the positive feedback from the public: In only the first month they sold 1000 decks of cards!

The game unfolds its power in its simplicity. The cards have the questions written on them in three languages. It is best played in a group setting of up to 8 people. The game goes as follows: you pick a card and tell your story regarding that question. Then your fellow group members do the same. It is that simple. It was designed and worked on by Seth and the youth of Simrishamn with input and insights of storytellers and teachers. The inventing team was overwhelmed by the positive feedback from the public: In only the first month they sold 1000 decks of cards!

Intercultural Innovation Award

The individuals and organisations always reported that the game helped witAward pic More than one storyh their communication and created a feeling of acceptance. And this was only the beginning: Last year they won the Intercultural Innovation Award which is given out by the UN Alliance of Civilizations. The game has been translated to over 20 languages and more are planned. More and more people all over Europe are starting to play it. Organisations can purchase the game and can also add information about their work on a card. A small amount of the printing fees are reinvested back in the project. A professional research executed from a team in Great Britain is planned to actually explore the magic of “More Than One Story”.

The little game has a big vision: to establish and create a more peaceful, pluralistic society, free from many fears, through the interaction and communication which starts and is encouraged by the card game. Seth and people believing in this game share the same opinion: “The less fear-the more open hearted is your mind”. It has already reached a great popularity in Sweden and Seth’s wish is that: “Every child on this earth should grow up playing this game”.

Democracy needs Storytelling

If we want to create a democracy where all our citizens feel safe and valued, then we have to work on breaking down prejudices, discrimination and segregation, all of which can be summed up as: fear. This card game starts this movement with the help of communication. It uses an old tool society has used for centuries: storytelling. And what is more powerful and inspiring than the stories from your fellow humans, people that might be culturally so different than you, to maybe change your opinion about certain prejudices you have had? This attitude will spread and hopefully result into reconsiderations of people employing others or renting out apartments and many other aspects.

So let’s start to share our stories with others, it’s the start to (re)build our foundation for a pluralistic and lively democracy.

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