From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
40% of the total number of products bought in fashion eCommerce are never used, what a total waste. Let's also be frank – the luxury fashion industry has some issues in terms of sustainability.
During the twentieth century we saw consumption boom beyond the planets natural limits, beyond what the planet is capable of sustaining. Everything is connected, forest destruction is a major cause of global warming, climate change.
In a democracy, an informed citizenry can act as a driving force for more robust and effective foreign policies and strategies related to national security, thereby fostering peace and encouraging prosperity. However, the lack of such comprehensive education has been a stumbling block.
It's only the latest iteration of post-1980s capitalism which has disconnected us so much from the common good, our collective interest in care and compassion. Before that, capitalism wasn't really like that – and if you think about the style of capitalism we observe in continental Europe and Asia – there's been a much higher emphasis on community.
There's no question that Facebook could have done much, much more in the last few years to address the problem. I don't think we can inoculate people against crazy ideas, they will always have takers- but we can certainly improve the way that platforms like Facebook operate because they don't have any incentive at the moment to restrict the spread of harmful content.
In a society where everything is for sale, life is harder for those of modest means. The more money can buy, the more affluence (or the lack of it) matters.
Out of our cleverness has emerged something almost more important than the cleverness itself. Out of it has come learning about how to share ideas and pass down skills and knowledge. Out of it has come education.
I wish to God she had had an M-4 in her office, locked up so when she heard gunfire, she pulls it out and takes him out and takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids.
What we urgently need is to cultivate a positive narrative, to energize and unite us in a collective movement. This isn't about asking everyone to do the same thing; rather, it's about fostering a 'movement of movements.' We encourage everyone to persist in their individual efforts, with the understanding that they are part of a larger, progressive force striving for a better world.
The police never talk to us, they ignore us, they don't think we're human in this area.
If you look at the countries in the world that are leading in their levels of reported happiness, it's countries such as the Nordics- Denmark virtually always comes out on top. The countries where people are happiest are ones which are much more domestically oriented and not seeking world-power.
My impression however is that the rate of change in society is accelerating as a result of rapid developments in science and technology. Science today is a huge, industrial scale activity and has a far greater impact on society than it did a few hundred years ago.