A letter to all who have lost in this era | Anand Giridharadas

How did we get a world of such disconnect, fracture and fear? Writer Anand Giridharadas tackles this question by reading a letter to his fellow citizens in which he confesses to his and others' part in ignoring people's pain until it turned to anger. There is another way, he says: "Dare to commit to the dream of each other."

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[CharlieWilkinsonRes]

I think this guy hit the nail on the head perfectly.

[craiginzana]

As someone from a collapsed town in the Pennsylvania "rust belt" but also completely engaged by futurism, this hits hard. I can feel both sides of the world pulling further apart and it feels like I'm being pulled apart. Those same things that many of us can agree make the world a better place make the immediate world around me progressively full of more unemployment, addiction, crime, and depression than ever before. These people are my neighbors, my cousins, uncles, grandparents, childhood friends. It's hard to watch and try to intervene but the forces of the world progressing without them are too strong.

[ScreamingTc]

Yep, the majority of people are being screwed over for the benefits of the few.

[mistymagique]

What he has said has been in my heart since a long time.. This was so needed

[astrophonix]

Greed has destroyed human civilisation. The suffering will end when we do.

[boatman]

One of the greatest thinkers of our time! Please listen to what he has to say! Refuse to listen at your own peril...

[Himani_inamiH]

This is everything I have thought spoken so beautifully and poetically you are bound to listen and understand at a deeper level. WE need to work out how capitalism and our global economic situation is affecting everyone and if we do not work together it is gonna turn into a revolution or something worse. I hope diplomatic situations start with a public honest global conversation where we can all participate together for a better reform.

[edzeameh]

how I wish this would be broadcasted in Ghana live

[bodnotbod]

Tip: Change your settings to 1.5x playback speed.

[a_diamond]

It isn't about dwindling privilege.
It is about raising up those who lack it. The answer to unequal education is not to do away with good education people might get in one place, but to raise the level of education that has been lacking in another place, so both enjoy a good education. So no. Privilege should not "dwindle", it simply shouldn't be a "privilege". It should be common.

[mauritiusdunfagel]

Well, the people who have lost sure wouldn’t be in that audience, sir!

[Anita-mdze]

I thought you weren't allowed to have notes for a TED talk? Love to listen to you Anand.

[parhhesia]

This is brilliant, although I wonder how many of the people he's addressing listen to TED talks.

[jamespoppitz]

This is what real talent looks like.Brains married to compassion and self critique.

[TheManasmita]

A nice beautiful and lovely letter to all summoning all as a family.
We should always remember a thing that together we stand, divided we fall always for sure

[iliveinthekingdomofpain]

A good title for this dark poetry is “I Am the Rich Man’

[VioletMud]

The binary (you-me) structure of this talk is what makes it both powerful and fallacious at once. I find myself in both categories at different points and imagine many who if honest would also. For instance, when he says he had been dreaming of life on Mars and life extension I was thinking of tech billionaires's projects of rockets and freezing their organs versus all the homeless and drug addicted on the streets of their cherished city of San Francisco. So I thought he was taking the position of money and power. But later I really identified with the "you" who don't get to have their children do better, or grow up to buy houses. So then I thought he was taking the position of the rising third world. I have mixed skin and the historically less powerful body parts. Language, which as he says may be the only thing that we have in common, seems to trap us in dualism. Mixed race is the largest growing US census group. Am I the only one for whom this binary conflict falls apart through thinking? Perhaps no "one" can truly win or dominate. With this realization how could war be justified?

[michaelcarlone]

The poor had no part in this dilemma, they were sold out by the greedy. Now you want to dialogue with them?
Ask Marie Antoinette how that's going to end.

[peterfazio]

This is the most coherent and powerful explanation AND rebuttal of the Trump era I've heard to date. Anand, you're a good man.

[tanzhiwen]

Revealing our pain in this era which we still need to face after back to life, after walking out of the TED room.