From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
The EU needs reform. Countries have transferred jurisdiction over legislations to a centre that makes decisions in somewhat of a vacuum, featuring a European Parliament that cannot itself initiate legislation. We have a paradox therefore where national parliaments give certain powers to the centre, without being compensated through the creation of an essential federal sovereignty; this is ineffective, and denying this is not helping us debate what is wrong with the EU and how to fix it. We need to work together as nations to reform and democratise EU institutions.
Fictions grant us a semblance of understanding, a hint of control, and a sense of community during times of solitude. This makes misinformation appealing, as it fulfils these basic human desires: comprehension, control, and community.
In the future people will spend the majority of their time online, with their online identity and digital assets. The majority of their interactions with friends, family, relatives and colleagues will be online.
The process of problem definition is a discipline that we rarely teach or learn. It is one of the most important things that we can invest our time in. What are the true underlying causes of a problem? How are people really affected?
For me, sports were a sanctuary, the only place where I felt at home, could connect with others, and navigate my life and pain. Providing sports opportunities to children, women, and men in these settings is vital. Our foundation aims to complement these efforts by introducing sports, emphasising not just participation in sports but also backing these athletes significantly.
Even if we end up with better regulations, we'll still have 300 million guns washing around the US, and that's going to be a huge problem for decades, because guns last a long time.
I don't think about myself as a woman in these contexts, I think about myself as a human. We should take advantage of our qualities and not trying to change or hide them.
In my research spanning the last decade, it struck me that we might be conducting a massive, uncontrolled experiment on an entire generation of humans, without fully understanding the potential ramifications. We're all altering our behaviors due to the advent of mobile information, media, and communications technology.
Much of the mistreatment of animals is due to economics; it's cheaper to raise animals for food when they're kept in a confined 'economical' way rather than letting them graze in fields. In my view, we should actually only have the free-range farms – meat would then be more expensive and more people would become vegetarian, vegan, and find alternative protein foods so that we don't cause this terrible animal suffering.
Being authentic is a privilege. Not everyone has the ability or luxury to do this. Sometimes as leaders, we need to speak less and listen more, to make room for other voices to be centred. We rein in our authenticity by being more adaptive so others can fill this space with their authenticity.
The zeitgeist of this moment is not about charismatic leaders but about an awakened citizenry. This isn't an era of soloists. It's an era of change led by the choir, where everyone is learning to sing their own note by living as authentically as we can.
Populism is the act of politicising and mobilising ignorance to the point of political and moral insanity.