From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Many of us think that you should only believe things that are true, not just things that rally your coalition, sect, or tribe. That belief is by no means universal, but it is a gift of the enlightenment.
Social synchrony is a big feature of human behaviour—it's a weird thing if you think about it, but we do things like marching in time and parading and singing in choirs in ways that are highly coordinated and synchronised.
Fashion is either one of the crowning achievements of western civilization or it is incontrovertible evidence of consumer culture's witless obsession with the trivial and the unreal.
To me literature was, and still is, an existential need. Books and stories have been that gateway for me. I wanted to find a gate to an 'elsewhere', to another land, a Storyland.
I want to take African rhythm and put it into classical music, European jazz, and symphonies. I want people to come together from all over the place, through music. That's my legacy.
A true pet's value lies entirely in its relationship with us, and vice versa. The first fossil evidence of that bond goes back around 30,000 to 40,000 years: dogs buried with humans, including one remarkable case of a dog that had survived two bouts of canine distemper, presumably because its human companion cared for it.
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.
The most important lesson I learned is that you have to show 100% genuine emotion and personality through everything you do and allow that to connect to people. You cannot keep things inside because you think people won't accept you, or will think you're strange; just let your freak flag fly.
The difference between rap, jazz, blues, rock & roll, pop, r&b and all that is that the hip-hop artists held on to it…. MTV didn't play any people of colour until hip-hop came along. They had Michael Jackson then they had Run D.M.C. Run D.M.C's 'Rock Box' and these records were honest and real reflections of what came from these people's communities- from a poetry and music standpoint.
Fear isn't just a neurophysiological phenomenon; it's also socio-cultural. We're enculturated to fear; it's something that we inherit, acquire, and learn – which implies that there is possibility of 'unlearning' our fear.
Be a curious explorer of other people's emotions. Don't approach people as if you know how they're feeling. We often make mistakes when reading other people's emotions because we bring in our own cultural values and belief systems.
'Brand,' is what journalists and industry-people say… we say culture movement. As artists we say culture! Movement! And analysts say brand. I don't know what a brand is, but I know what a freakin' movement is…. if you want to know what a culture-movement is, remember that Dr. Martin Luther King didn't stand up and say, 'here's our brand!' – he created a movement.