In this paper I describe three similar projects, and investigate origins of their success. All of them are non-governmental and non-profit voluntary international initiatives that developed from small local projects. I claim that the basis of their success is universality of their underlying philosophy.

Two streams of political thought will be presented: metaphysics of State (that started in the 14th century with the Ockhamian nominalism and ended with the “political theology” of Carl Schmidt and Weberian rationalization and “dictatorship of form”) and metaphysics of Power (from Nietzsche and Kierkegaard to Derrida, with power as imposed discontinuity). An impact of globalization concealing both traditions (and leading to de-politization, de-hierarchization and de-ontologization of power) will be analyzed, with the present evolution of European Union as an example. Structural violence (as a case of structural power, characteristic of globalization) will be shown in a post-communist context.

The word “wisdom” has a multitude of different meanings. This occurs both in popular language and in academic circles. It has that in common with other words of special significance and grandeur in the many languages of our species—think of “justice”, “peace”, “love”, “beauty”, and “reality”. Consider these various meanings of the word “wisdom”: being wise beyond her years, wise old man, wise guy, wise use, the wisdom of the ancients, conventional wisdom, the wise judge, the wise old crone, the three wise men, and so forth. Wisdom is associated with tradition, cleverness, moral rectitude, contemplation, resignation, wonder, keen insight, ripe old age, the received view, judicious balance, acute foresight, superior understanding, solace in time of trouble, and stoic endurance. The list could go on, but even just this much reveals a riot of meanings—and a great deal of confusion. Many of the things we think of as wisdom seem to be at odds with other things we think of as wisdom, and some seem wide of the mark, if not downright mistaken and wrong.

Praxis, especially the daily decisonmaking of political praxis, should, if possible, be accompanied by theoretical reflection. Such reflection helps view matters from a proper distance, separate that what is temporary and short-lived from the endurable and timeless and the unordered, spontaneous and accidental from the systemized, planned and well-probed. A long-year university staffer mainly dealing with the economy of natural resource exploitation, for the past decade I have also been in the fortunate position to work on the political scene as an employee of the Ministry of the Environment.