A letter to all who have lost in this era
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0:01 - 0:05June 29, 2016.
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0:07 - 0:09My dear fellow citizen:
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0:11 - 0:13I write to you today,
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0:14 - 0:18to you who have lost in this era.
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0:20 - 0:24At this moment in our common life,
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0:24 - 0:26when the world is full of breaking
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0:26 - 0:28and spite
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0:28 - 0:30and fear,
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0:31 - 0:33I address this letter
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0:34 - 0:36simply to you,
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0:36 - 0:38even though we both know
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0:38 - 0:42there are many of you behind this "you,"
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0:43 - 0:47and many of me behind this "I."
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0:51 - 0:53I write to you because at present,
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0:54 - 0:59this quaking world we share scares me.
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1:01 - 1:03I gather it scares you, too.
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1:05 - 1:08Some of what we fear, I suspect,
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1:08 - 1:09we fear in common.
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1:10 - 1:15But much of what we fear
seems to be each other. -
1:17 - 1:20You fear the world I want to live in,
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1:21 - 1:24and I fear your visions in turn.
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1:26 - 1:30Do you know that feeling you get
when you know it's going to storm -
1:30 - 1:32before it storms?
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1:34 - 1:36Do you also feel that now,
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1:37 - 1:39fellow citizen?
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1:40 - 1:43That malaise and worry
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1:44 - 1:46that some who know
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1:48 - 1:50feel reminds them of the 1930s?
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1:52 - 1:54Perhaps you don't,
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1:54 - 1:56because our fears of each other
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1:56 - 1:58are not in sync.
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1:59 - 2:03In this round, I sense
that your fears of me, -
2:04 - 2:07of the world that I have insisted
is right for us both, -
2:09 - 2:11has gathered over a generation.
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2:12 - 2:16It took time for your fears
to trigger my fears, -
2:17 - 2:20not least because at first,
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2:20 - 2:22I never thought I needed to fear you.
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2:25 - 2:26I heard you
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2:28 - 2:29but did not listen,
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2:30 - 2:35all these years when you said
that this amazing new world -
2:36 - 2:38wasn't amazing for you,
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2:39 - 2:40for many of you,
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2:41 - 2:43across the industrialized world;
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2:44 - 2:47that the open, liquid world I relished,
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2:47 - 2:51of people and goods
and technologies flowing freely, -
2:51 - 2:54going where they pleased, globally,
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2:55 - 2:59was not, for you, an emancipation.
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3:01 - 3:04I have walked through your towns
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3:05 - 3:09and, while looking, failed to see.
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3:11 - 3:15I did notice in Stephenville, Texas,
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3:16 - 3:18that the town square was dominated
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3:18 - 3:21by one lawyer's office after another,
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3:22 - 3:25because of all the people
rotating in and out of the prison. -
3:26 - 3:30I did notice the barren shops
in Wagner, South Dakota, -
3:32 - 3:35and the VFW gathering hall
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3:36 - 3:38that stood in mockery
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3:39 - 3:42of a community's dream to endure.
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3:43 - 3:45I did notice
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3:45 - 3:49at the Lancaster, Pennsylvania Wal-Mart,
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3:49 - 3:54that far too many people
in their 20s and 30s -
3:54 - 3:56looked a decade or two from death,
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3:57 - 4:00with patchy, flared-up skin
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4:00 - 4:02and thinning, stringy hair
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4:02 - 4:04and browning, ground-down teeth
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4:04 - 4:07and a lostness in their eyes.
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4:08 - 4:13I did notice that the young people
I encountered in Paris, -
4:13 - 4:15in Florence, in Barcelona,
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4:15 - 4:18had degrees but no place to take them,
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4:20 - 4:23living on internships well into their 30s,
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4:24 - 4:27their lives prevented from launching,
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4:28 - 4:31because of an economy
that creates wealth -- -
4:31 - 4:33just not jobs.
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4:34 - 4:40I did notice the news about those parts
of London becoming ghost quarters, -
4:41 - 4:47where the global super-rich
turn fishy money into empty apartments -
4:48 - 4:52and price lifelong residents of a city,
young couples starting out, -
4:52 - 4:54out of their own home.
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4:56 - 4:59And I heard that the fabric of your life
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4:59 - 5:01was tearing.
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5:02 - 5:04You used to be able to count on work,
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5:05 - 5:06and now you couldn't.
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5:07 - 5:10You used to be able
to nourish your children, -
5:11 - 5:13and guarantee that they would climb
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5:14 - 5:18a little bit further in life than you had,
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5:18 - 5:19and now you couldn't.
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5:20 - 5:26You used to be made to feel dignity
in your work, and now you didn't. -
5:28 - 5:31It used to be normal
for people like you to own a home, -
5:32 - 5:34and now it wasn't.
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5:35 - 5:37I cannot say
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5:38 - 5:40I didn't know these things,
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5:42 - 5:44but I was distracted
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5:46 - 5:49creating a future in which
we could live on Mars, -
5:51 - 5:54even as you struggled down here on Earth.
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5:56 - 5:58I was distracted
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5:58 - 6:00innovating immortality,
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6:03 - 6:07even as many of you began to live
shorter lives than your parents had. -
6:09 - 6:12I heard all of these things,
but I didn't listen. -
6:14 - 6:15I looked
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6:16 - 6:17but didn't see.
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6:17 - 6:20I read, didn't understand.
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6:21 - 6:23I paid attention
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6:23 - 6:27only when you began to vote and shout,
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6:28 - 6:31and when your voting and shouting,
when the substance of it, -
6:32 - 6:34began to threaten me.
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6:36 - 6:41I listened only when you moved
toward shattering continental unions -
6:41 - 6:44and electing vulgar demagogues.
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6:45 - 6:49Only then did your pain become of interest
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6:49 - 6:51to me.
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6:52 - 6:54I know that feeling hurt
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6:54 - 6:58is often prologue to dealing hurt.
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7:00 - 7:01I wonder now
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7:02 - 7:05if you would be less eager to deal it
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7:05 - 7:07if I had stood with you
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7:07 - 7:10when you merely felt it.
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7:11 - 7:13I ask myself
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7:13 - 7:15why I didn't stand with you then.
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7:17 - 7:20One reason is that I became entranced
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7:20 - 7:22by the gurus of change,
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7:23 - 7:28became a worshiper of the religion
of the new for novelty's sake, -
7:28 - 7:30and of globalization and open borders
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7:30 - 7:33and kaleidoscopic diversity.
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7:35 - 7:39Once change became my totalizing faith,
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7:40 - 7:42I could be blind.
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7:43 - 7:47I could fail to see change's consequences.
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7:48 - 7:50I could overlook the importance
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7:50 - 7:53of roots, traditions,
rituals, stability -- -
7:53 - 7:54and belonging.
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7:56 - 7:59And the more fundamentalist I became
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7:59 - 8:03in my worship of change and openness,
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8:04 - 8:07the more I drove you
towards the other polarity, -
8:08 - 8:09to cling,
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8:10 - 8:11to freeze,
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8:11 - 8:12to close,
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8:13 - 8:14to belong.
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8:16 - 8:19I now see as I didn't before
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8:19 - 8:23that not having
the right skin or right organ -
8:23 - 8:27is not the only varietal of disadvantage.
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8:28 - 8:31There is a subtler, quieter disadvantage
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8:31 - 8:35in having those privileged traits
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8:35 - 8:39and yet feeling history to be
moving away from you; -
8:39 - 8:42that while the past was hospitable
to people like you, -
8:42 - 8:45the future will be more hospitable
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8:45 - 8:46to others;
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8:46 - 8:49that the world is growing less familiar,
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8:49 - 8:52less yours day by day.
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8:54 - 9:00I will not concede for a moment
that old privileges should not dwindle. -
9:00 - 9:03They cannot dwindle fast enough.
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9:04 - 9:07It is for you to learn to live
in a new century in which -
9:07 - 9:12there are no bonuses for showing up
with the right skin and right organs. -
9:13 - 9:16If and when your anger turns to hate,
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9:16 - 9:20please know that there is no space
for that in our shared home. -
9:22 - 9:25But I will admit, fellow citizen,
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9:26 - 9:32that I have discounted the burden
of coping with the loss of status. -
9:32 - 9:34I have forgotten
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9:34 - 9:39that what is socially necessary
can also be personally gruelling. -
9:41 - 9:42A similar thing happened
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9:43 - 9:47with the economy that you and I share.
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9:48 - 9:51Just as I cannot and don't wish
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9:51 - 9:54to turn back to the clock
on equality and diversity, -
9:54 - 9:57and yet must understand
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9:57 - 9:59the sense of loss they can inspire,
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10:01 - 10:05so, too, I refuse
and could not if I wished -
10:06 - 10:10turn back the clock on an ever more
closely knit, interdependent world, -
10:10 - 10:14and on inventions
that won't stop being invented. -
10:15 - 10:20And yet I must understand
your experience of these things. -
10:21 - 10:24You have for years been telling me
that your experience of these things -
10:24 - 10:28is not as good as my theories forecast.
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10:29 - 10:32Yet before you could finish
a complaining sentence -
10:34 - 10:40about the difficulty of living
with erratic hours, volatile pay, -
10:40 - 10:41vanishing opportunities,
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10:41 - 10:46about the pain of dropping
your children off at 24-hour day care -
10:46 - 10:47to make your 3am shift,
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10:48 - 10:52I shot back at you -- before you
could finish your sentence -- -
10:52 - 10:54my dogma,
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10:54 - 10:58about how what you are actually
experiencing was flexibility -
10:59 - 11:00and freedom.
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11:03 - 11:07Language is one of the only things
that we truly share, -
11:09 - 11:12and I sometimes used
this joint inheritance -
11:12 - 11:13to obfuscate
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11:14 - 11:15and deflect
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11:15 - 11:17and justify myself;
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11:18 - 11:20to re-brand what was good for me
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11:20 - 11:23as something appearing good for us both,
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11:23 - 11:27when I threw around terms
like "the sharing economy," -
11:28 - 11:29and "disruption"
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11:30 - 11:32and "global resourcing."
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11:33 - 11:36I see now that what I was really doing,
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11:36 - 11:37at times,
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11:38 - 11:41was buying your pain on the cheap,
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11:42 - 11:43sprucing it up
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11:44 - 11:46and trying to sell it back to you
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11:46 - 11:47as freedom.
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11:50 - 11:53I have wanted to believe
and wanted you to believe -
11:56 - 11:58that the system that has been good to me,
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11:58 - 12:00that has made my life ever more seamless,
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12:01 - 12:04is also the best system for you.
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12:06 - 12:08I have condescended to you
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12:08 - 12:12with the idea that you are voting
against your economic interests -- -
12:12 - 12:14voting against your interests,
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12:16 - 12:19as if I know your interests.
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12:20 - 12:25That is just my dogmatic
economism talking. -
12:26 - 12:28I have a weakness
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12:28 - 12:33for treating people's economic interests
as their only interest, -
12:33 - 12:36ignoring things like belonging and pride
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12:36 - 12:40and the desire to send a message
to those who ignore you. -
12:41 - 12:43So here we are,
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12:44 - 12:49in a scary but not inexplicable moment
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12:50 - 12:52of demagoguery, fracture,
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12:52 - 12:56xenophobia, resentment and fear.
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12:58 - 13:02And I worry for us both
if we continue down this road, -
13:02 - 13:04me not listening,
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13:04 - 13:06you feeling unheard,
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13:06 - 13:09you shouting to get me to listen.
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13:11 - 13:14I worry when each of us is seduced
by visions of the future -
13:14 - 13:17that have no place for the other.
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13:18 - 13:20If this goes on,
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13:22 - 13:23if this goes on,
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13:24 - 13:26there may be blood.
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13:27 - 13:30There are already hints of this blood
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13:31 - 13:32in newspapers every day.
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13:33 - 13:36There may be roundups, raids,
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13:36 - 13:39deportations, camps, secessions.
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13:39 - 13:42And no, I do not think that I exaggerate.
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13:44 - 13:46There may be even talk of war
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13:46 - 13:50in places that were certain
they were done with it. -
13:51 - 13:55There is always the hope of redemption.
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13:56 - 13:59But it will not be a cheap,
shallow redemption -
13:59 - 14:03that comes through blather
about us all being in it together. -
14:03 - 14:05This will take more.
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14:06 - 14:12It will take accepting that we both
made choices to be here. -
14:14 - 14:17We create our "others."
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14:18 - 14:22As parents, as neighbors, as citizens,
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14:23 - 14:27we witness and sometimes ignore each other
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14:27 - 14:28into being.
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14:29 - 14:32You were not born vengeful.
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14:33 - 14:35I have some role
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14:35 - 14:39in whatever thirst
you now feel for revenge, -
14:40 - 14:42and that thirst now tempts me
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14:42 - 14:44to plot ever more elaborate escapes
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14:44 - 14:46from our common life,
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14:46 - 14:48from the schools and neighborhoods
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14:48 - 14:50and airports and amusement parks
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14:50 - 14:52that we used to share.
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14:54 - 14:57We face, then,
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14:57 - 15:00a problem not of these large,
impersonal forces. -
15:02 - 15:07We face a problem
of your and my relations. -
15:08 - 15:11We chose ways of relating to each other
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15:12 - 15:13that got us here.
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15:14 - 15:17We can choose ways of relating
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15:17 - 15:18that get us out.
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15:19 - 15:23But there are things
we might have to let go of, -
15:23 - 15:25fellow citizen,
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15:26 - 15:31starting with our own cherished
versions of reality. -
15:33 - 15:37Imagine if you let go of fantasies
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15:37 - 15:41of a society purged
of these or those people. -
15:42 - 15:45Imagine if I let go of my habit
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15:46 - 15:49of saving the world behind your back,
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15:50 - 15:51of deliberating on the future
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15:51 - 15:53of your work,
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15:53 - 15:55your food,
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15:55 - 15:56your schools,
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15:56 - 15:59in places where you couldn't
get past security. -
16:00 - 16:05We can do this only if we first accept
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16:05 - 16:08that we have neglected each other.
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16:10 - 16:13If there is hope to summon
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16:14 - 16:15in this ominous hour,
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16:16 - 16:17it is this.
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16:19 - 16:21We have, for too long,
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16:22 - 16:25chased various shimmering dreams
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16:26 - 16:32at the cost of attention
to the foundational dream of each other, -
16:33 - 16:36the dream of tending to each other,
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16:36 - 16:39of unleashing each other's wonders,
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16:39 - 16:41of moving through history together.
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16:42 - 16:46We could dare to commit
to the dream of each other -
16:47 - 16:52as the thing that matters
before every neon thing. -
16:52 - 16:54Let us dare.
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16:54 - 16:56Sincerely yours,
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16:56 - 16:57a fellow citizen.
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16:58 - 17:03(Applause)
- Title:
- A letter to all who have lost in this era
- Speaker:
- Anand Giridharadas
- Description:
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Summer, 2016: amid populist revolts, clashing resentments and fear, writer Anand Giridharadas doesn't give a talk but reads a letter. It's from those who have won in this era of change, to those who have, or feel, lost. It confesses to ignoring pain until it became anger. It chides an idealistic yet remote elite for its behind-closed-doors world-saving and airy, self-serving futurism -- for at times worrying more about sending people to Mars than helping them on Earth. And it rejects the exclusionary dogmas to which we cling, calling us instead to "dare to commit to the dream of each other."
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 16:37
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A letter to all who have lost in this era | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A letter to all who have lost in this era | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A letter to all who have lost in this era | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A letter to all who have lost in this era | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A letter to all who have lost in this era | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A letter to all who have lost in this era | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A letter to all who have lost in this era | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A letter to all who have lost in this era |