What We Can Learn from Traditional Societies - Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond -- the Pulitzer Prize-winning 'master storyteller of the human race' -- reveals how traditional societies provide us with important and often overlooked insights into human nature.

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[Whodatbuoy]

I loved that someone addressed this issue. Thank you x

[thisissme]

Reminds me of The Way of All Flesh: The Romance of Ruins. Excellent read for anyone intrigued about the contrast between how western countries perceive youth and age and the integration of age in our lives in various ways. It was definitely one of the best books I ever read.

[marieinvienna]

Very anxious to read Mr. Diamonds book. Thank you for this intro.

[Zerepzerreitug]

fascinating talk. It's quite a challenge for modern society to find the new role older people will have and re-gain their value.

[hungfadth]

Getting older is a beautiful thing. Why on Earth that they want to kill the elders?. Elders should live with their children and grand children. That's a lovely thing to have.

[bahrom]

Everyone grows old, even the young. It's the cycle of life whereby the old have to be taken care of by their young who had been taken care of when they were just infants.

[flintjp]

While i liked the talk, the things he listed old people as being better at near the end of the talk seem to be everything they tend to be worse at. The one that stands out where they might be better is the older obsolete systems they might have more experience with. Raising children, babysitting, teaching ... all seem better done by someone educated in the most modern setting... Better at administrating is the worst, especially in areas they "think" they understand (i.e. technology sectors.)

[GuardianKnightoftheRealm]

His accent is to Boston what Christopher Walken's is to New York.

[roninviking]

i was looking for you yesterday and last night. looking for the crescent where the have everything come from. age knowledge is wasted, i think technology has a high fatality rate for those that think keeping up is more valuable than experience.

[amritama]

it is very rarely true that older people are better at 'teaching'.. After retirement very few stay active, and even before that they often lose multiperspectivity and become rigid in their teaching methods.

[Regimeshifts]

I wouldn't be so quick to flag that as a 'traditional societies' thing...think oil, mining, etc which are happening as we speak

[hungfadth]

This is the problem of modern societies. But finding a solution and making it happen is a huge challenge. Hope the our modern societies will not collapse as ROME. All roads lead to Rome.

[mrdotbryce]

he is giving justifications to those who cannot think beyond pushing modern culture and destroying unique life perspectives. i personally see nothing wrong with renouncing life over 80, all the better with the support of your family, and i am not the only modern individual to think so. it doesnt take much to fall into mass communal delusion, and unique tribes are the only remedy against the shortcomings and blindedness of modern society.

[robgilchrist]

You really need to look at why though.

[Mattteus]

Northeastern US... possibly an older New England accent.

[ceaderf]

It's a weird version of Boston's. I think accents from his travels and study rubbed off on him.

[ForeheadBrick]

This man is spell-binding. What a genius. Shame about his Jewish ancestry I guess, but still.

[keeelane]

How about things like handcrafting objects? True we can use 3D printing to a large extent but I don't think they replace craftsmanship because they use synthetic plastic materials. Any master craftsman knows organic materials such as wood are not pliable in the same way as synthetic materials. Organic materials are highly valuable and needed in today's society as they have always been. I think we have too much synthetic low quality plastic crap. Where are the master-disciple workshops of our era? We produce too much of cheap garbage that breaks down quickly and pollutes.

[theforestero]

we want some kind of lifeforms, maybe humans, to make it to 256 years of age, at least

[ashliebelle]

What is his accent? The way he says "Tribal Societies" is quite distracting, haha