From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
That constant re-entry back into who we are if we're acting like someone, we're not is laborious and exhausting to do over and over.
Only relatively recently in our own culture, five hundred years or so ago, did a distinction arise that cut society in two, forming separate classes of music performers and music listeners.
Without what Becker called 'cultural world views' we would be overwhelmed by existential terror. Beliefs about reality that we share foster psychological equanimity by giving us a sense of meaning and value.
History is the story of those who wrote it… I have been trying very hard to add people back into the history of art who should have been there all along. I see this like Pompeii, these artists exist, but they're covered in ash. We must excavate them.
I should deal with the term 'antisemitism' itself, which gained popular usage in Germany during the 1880s. This was largely due to individuals who considered being an antisemite as something commendable. In the 1880s, to be an antisemite meant to oppose equal rights for Jews.
If I could snap my fingers today and make every STEM program in the world into a STEAM program I would do it now. The idea that science, technology and mathematics are enough to build a world forgets the importance of the humanities.
Corruption is a collective mindset, anchored around a cultural mindset that shifts to become tolerant to corruption, and increased levels of corruption. When we talk about corruption it's easy to think of it as governments, but for corruption to work- and to be effective- it has to contaminate all the bodies of society.
I'd argue it's easier now than ever, given the world's increasing openness to varied perspectives. Society's acceptance of homosexuality was a significant milestone, and now we're witnessing similar progress concerning gender issues. I perceive these shifts as testament to the world's growing receptivity to new ideas.
Culture is not aspirational, it's observational. It's not something you and your co-founders sit down, dream-up, put into PowerPoint, and create some posters from. Culture, simply, is how you behave and how you treat your co-founders, employees, and customers.
When you're behind a camera, you have this incredible power to freeze a moment in time. But with that power comes responsibility. You're not just taking a picture, you're creating a narrative, you're telling a story.
A crucial aspect of addressing antisemitism involves recognising that we are confronting not only ideological Jew-haters, the overt antisemites, but also the more pervasive cultural phenomenon of antisemitism. While we often think of antisemites as 'the other guys', antisemitism is part of our broader culture.
Etiquette is the glue that holds society together. Humans are social creatures, after all—we need connection to survive. But with global cultures in flux and the post-pandemic digital age, shadow epidemics of anxiety and loneliness are on the rise.