Despite his success, Mr. Topolánszky regrets that, even though he and his organization tried their best, he still had to witness people dying or not being able to leave the self-destructive path they were on. Also, he wished the political system would stop being middle-class oriented and stop focussing solely on how to keep the well-being of people who are not at risk. As things stand now, Ákos Topolánszky believes that those people who are already marginalised, stigmatized or excluded, are not considered „useful” for the society and, hence, their stories remain untold.

Despite his success, Mr. Topolánszky regrets that, even though he and his organization tried their best, he still had to witness people dying or not being able to leave the self-destructive path they were on. Also, he wished the political system would stop being middle-class oriented and stop focussing solely on how to keep the well-being of people who are not at risk. As things stand now, Ákos Topolánszky believes that those people who are already marginalised, stigmatized or excluded, are not considered „useful” for the society and, hence, their stories remain untold.

Mr. Topolánszky doesn’t complain about the stressful situations he was in, as he considers them part of his work. He believes it is important for activists to understand that if they work with people who are basically excluded from the society and must live with its consequences every day, these people might act in ways that is not usual for most of us. And this completely normal, it has everything to do with what us, as a society, has put them through.

He believes it is not necessary to explain racism to a 5-year-old. Children have not lost their empathy yet; they see the world differently from grown-ups. As the well-known sentence says: No one is born a racist. It is the institutions such as the school and later the work environment that teach us how to hate others. However, when trying to explain racism and extremism, Mr.. Topolánszky values the power of the interactive methods, through which the person gets involved and also emotionally touched by a societal problem. These experiences increase the success of any projects aimed at prevention.

For Ákos Topolánszky, it is the word of the Bible that is keeping him going. He considers “the least of the brothers”, mentioned in Matthew 25:40 and Matthew 25:45, to be the person he is working with. The least brothers are those people who society does not want to accept, because facing and acknowledging their problems would be too disturbing. The Bible indeed is written about those people most in need, who are excluded from the society, humiliated by others and not seen as equal members of society.

Mr. Topolánszky considers that if somebody wants to act against extremism, she or he should calibrate their approach based on their age and on their experience. When he was 20 years old, he lived on the streets with the drug-addicts and offered his help directly. Now, he considers that his work is of more impact when done in an office, taking the shape of advocacy work or policy making.
However, he feels that anybody trying to stand up for the people that are being excluded by the society should understand that they tend to share the same story. And it is mostly about the lack of opportunities. They did not decide to become homeless or to commit crimes, to kill others, or to become addicts, this is a pathway they considered themselves to be forced to, as no other options were present in their lives. Self-destruction in any ways is a process caused by neglection, lack of love, humiliation, abuse, especially in childhood, and what makes this even worse is the stigmatization, that the majority of the society acts like it was their fault to follow that road. It is in most cases not a choice, it is a consequence. We need to listen carefully to their personal stories to be able to help them and provide them with new pathways they can follow, with new perspectives.
If someone understands that all these people who are at the margin of society did not make any mistakes on purpose, but only lacked other options, they will show more empathy towards them. This is how it starts. Paying attention, listening and understanding their story.
One should always believe in the power of pure love. If people in need realise that you show true empathy and are accepting them the way they are, they won’t need to choose self-destructing options. This is a key to changing ourselves and others.