From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Fear can be useful for political leaders and governments as a screen to introduce unpopular legislation. There are those who argue that 9/11 enabled George W. Bush to pass far reaching surveillance laws under the Patriot Act, which would have been unthinkable without the fear produced by the terrorist attacks.
I used to keep a pair of lizards in an aquarium and fed them live crickets. At the time, I didn't think twice about it—I didn't believe crickets had any inner life at all. But now I wonder if I was actually creating the worst moments of their existence by feeding them to my lizards.
We don't need to have CNN, NBC and their counterparts. Anybody can report on the most important news of the day. The best example recently was the video circulated of that young girl who got killed in Iran; that had an unbelievable impact on our knowledge of what was going on in that country.
Apartheid did not develop because of 'race'. Instead, race was used to justify the domination/exploitation of Apartheid. Once you understand the order, the mechanism, you understand the purpose.
There are various forms of hostage-taking, each with distinct characteristics. Broadly speaking, one can categorise them into political and criminal hostage-takings. Political hostage-taking involves abducting someone to gain a political leverage—this is the first type. The second type is criminal hostage-taking, where the motive is ransom.
There's a joke within Facebook that if you want to know which countries will have a genocide in the next couple of years, look at the ones that have Facebook free basics.
The complexity of the topic combined with significant political and social blindness towards it, has led to disability becoming one of the most significant un-addressed issues of modern time.
Women perform two-thirds of all labour and produce more than half of the world's food. Yet, women own only about one percent of the world's assets, and represent 70 percent of those living in absolute poverty.
There is a degree of laziness and political correctness which has crept into the justice system. Many judges are appointed not elected. They don't want to offend. Instead of making a decision, they 'cut the baby in half' and everyone is left being a little bit miserable.
Unfair taxation cripples economic development in a manner not dissimilar to third-world economic corruption.
It took me 10 years to secure a seed round, even with existing customers. Meanwhile, my Columbia peers would raise millions with just a pitch deck. I've had well-meaning partners suggest that appointing a white CEO would make fundraising easier.
Other components of liberal democracy—civil liberties, rule of law and free markets—may play a larger role as long-term deterrents than simply having free elections. If the country goes all the way to a more complete liberal democracy, then it is likely to significantly decrease terrorism and political violence.