From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
One of the psychological effects of that is it can blur the boundaries between self and group and create this feeling that you are the group, and the group is you. And this obviously has the capacity to promote quite strong forms of pro-group action.
The key for the development of the poor is to include them in the democratic process as well as in the market economy. Therefore, inclusion is the key for getting rid of poverty. Political inclusion… social inclusion… environmental inclusion… education and knowledge inclusion… network inclusion… all these types of inclusion which are taken for granted by people who are inside the growth process.
You are all so smart… and this was so bad… how could your discipline have not seen it coming? Implicit in the Queen's question was the assertion that economists don't get out enough and talk to people in the wider economy.
The rumour is often significantly more interesting than the facts. And the rumour is often very persuasive to the people who've heard it; they've heard it from somebody they trust. When the target says, 'No, that's not true,' the audience says, 'Oh, of course he or she would deny it,' and so it really puts the target at a disadvantage.
What happened was that people saw their place going down while London was booming. It's not countrywide; it's not that everyone in the country is poorer. London's doing fine. So people ask: why are they not doing fine when London's doing fine? They start to blame each other.
I think it's that dynamic of information coming from your trusted peer. This has always been the source of the most trusted information. Your reinforcement is coming from people that you like, people that you trust. And you're shaping and having that discussion amongst yourselves.
I think you're going to see impact models that challenge many of our incumbent industries. The most vulnerable in our society are currently overcharged because the system assumes, they are higher-risk, and so those in our society who are least able to afford charges, are being charged huge overdraft and borrowing rates.
Social media has changed everything for companies. Within 24 hours, people on the other side of the world were cancelling flights because they were outraged. You can't segment your message, you have to take ownership.
Most people do not realise what will happen when they cross the divide- they've already accepted a story about who's on the other side, and have already decided that the other is frightening, delusional and dangerous. In truth, we are all confused. This era is nothing if not confusing. We all see some things with clarity, we all see some things upside down, and we all have blind-spots.
Just take a look for example, at NFL players with pink socks, bringing their babies on the field. You would never have seen that just 10 years ago. The culture is changing as we speak.
A lot of people in society understandably want to feel important, and one of the ways you do this is to show people how busy you are… and one of the ways you show people how busy you are is to describe how little time you have for sleep.
Society feels broken because society is broken. When the most powerful nations in the world are spending billions of dollars on ways to kill each-other, and a fraction of those resources on ways to heal each other, we're broken.