Ted Talks
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| https://www.ted.com/talks/sisonke_msimang_if_a_story_moves_you_act_on_it#t-45911 |
"Celebrating the flourishing of so many voices"
"Are there limitations of stories in terms of social justice?"
"Stories can bridge divides"
"Firstly, stories can create an illusion of solidarity... You haven't done anything. Listening is an importantbut insufficient step towards social action.""Are there limitations of stories in terms of social justice?"
"Stories can bridge divides"
"Sometimes, it's the messages that we don't want to hear,the ones that make us want to crawl out of ourselves, that we need to hear the most."
"The most important stories, especially for social justice, are those that do both, that are both personal and allow us to explore and understand the political."
"But it's not just about the stories we like versus the stories we choose to ignore. Increasingly, we are living in a society where there are larger forces at play, where stories are actually for many people beginning to replace the news. Yeah? We live in a time where we are witnessing the decline of facts,when emotions rule and analysis, it's kind of boring, right? Where we value what we feel more than what we actually know."
"But it's not just about the stories we like versus the stories we choose to ignore. Increasingly, we are living in a society where there are larger forces at play, where stories are actually for many people beginning to replace the news. Yeah? We live in a time where we are witnessing the decline of facts,when emotions rule and analysis, it's kind of boring, right? Where we value what we feel more than what we actually know."
" And so if it is justice that we are after, then I think we mustn't focus on the media or on storytellers. We must focus on audiences."
Look up - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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| https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story#t-40729 |
"What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story"
"They stirred my imagination. They opened up new worlds for me."
"My roommate had a single story of Africa: a single story of catastrophe. In this single story, there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her in any way, no possibility of feelings more complex than pity, no possibility of a connection as human equals."
"A balance of stories"
"Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanise. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity."
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| https://www.ted.com/talks/chris_milk_how_virtual_reality_can_create_the_ultimate_empathy_machine#t-142184 |
"So, now I'm a filmmaker, or, the beginning of a filmmaker, and I started using the tools that are available to me as a filmmaker to try to tell the most compelling stories that I can to an audience. And film is this incredible medium that allows us to feel empathy for people that are very different than us and worlds completely foreign from our own."
"Deeper emotional reaction"
"But then I started thinking about frames, and what do they represent? And a frame is just a window. I mean, all the media that we watch — television, cinema — they're these windows into these other worlds. And I thought, well, great. I got you in a frame. But I don't want you in the frame, I don't want you in the window, I want you through the window, I want you on the other side, in the world, inhabiting the world."
"It feels like truth"
"(Talking about VR) So, when you're inside of the headset. you're not seeing it like this. You're looking around through this world. You'll notice you see full 360 degrees, in all directions. And when you're sitting there in her room, watching her, you're not watching it through a television screen, you're not watching it through a window, you're sitting there with her. When you look down, you're sitting on the same ground that she's sitting on. And because of that, you feel her humanity in a deeper way. You empathize with her in a deeper way."
"So, it's a machine, but through this machine we become more compassionate, we become more empathetic, and we become more connected. And ultimately, we become more human."
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| https://www.ted.com/talks/joan_halifax/transcript?language=en#t-158337 |
"A line that the Dalai Lama once said, he said, 'Love and compassion are necessities. They are not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.'"
" That compassion is actually an inherent human quality. It is there within every human being. But the conditions for compassion to be activated, to be aroused, are particular conditions."
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| https://www.ted.com/talks/jeremy_rifkin_on_the_empathic_civilization |
"Mirror Neurons - We are soft wired to experience another's plight as if we are experiencing it ourselves"
"New research suggests we are actually soft wired not for aggression, violence, self interest, utilitarianism, but for sociability, attachment, affection, companionship."
"Empathy = Solidarity"
"Empathy is the invisible hand, it allows us to stretch our sensibility"
"Loyalties based on complex energy communication revolutions that annihilate time and space."
"Compassion"
"Were they feeling they were late, or were they absorbed in what they were going to talk about. And this is, I think, the predicament of our lives: that we don't take every opportunity to help because our focus is in the wrong direction."
"New research suggests we are actually soft wired not for aggression, violence, self interest, utilitarianism, but for sociability, attachment, affection, companionship."
"Empathy = Solidarity"
"Empathy is the invisible hand, it allows us to stretch our sensibility"
"Loyalties based on complex energy communication revolutions that annihilate time and space."
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| https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_goleman_on_compassion#t-17723 |
"Compassion"
"Were they feeling they were late, or were they absorbed in what they were going to talk about. And this is, I think, the predicament of our lives: that we don't take every opportunity to help because our focus is in the wrong direction."
"There are these newly identified neurons, mirror neurons, that act like a neuro Wi-Fi, activating in our brain exactly the areas activated in theirs. We feel "with" automatically. And if that person is in need, if that person is suffering, we're automatically prepared to help. At least that's the argument."
"But then the question is: Why don't we? And I think this speaks to a spectrum that goes from complete self-absorption, to noticing, to empathy and to compassion. And the simple fact is, if we are focused on ourselves, if we're preoccupied, as we so often are throughout the day, we don't really fully notice the other. And this difference between the self and the other focus can be very subtle."
"I was doing my taxes the other day, and I got to the point where I was listing all of the donations I gave, and I had an epiphany, it was — I came to my check to the Seva Foundation and I noticed that I thought, boy, my friend Larry Brilliant would really be happy that I gave money to Seva. Then I realized that what I was getting from giving was a narcissistic hit — that I felt good about myself. Then I started to think about the people in the Himalayas whose cataracts would be helped, and I realized that I went from this kind of narcissistic self-focus to altruistic joy, to feeling good for the people that were being helped. I think that's a motivator."