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Megan Hustad writes in the NYT that while it’s not exactly fair to say that the TED conference series and web video function like an organized church, understanding the parallel structures is useful for conversations about faith, how susceptible we humans remain to the cadences of missionary zeal, and how the TED style with its promise of progress, is as manipulative as the orthodoxies it is intended to upset. According to Hustad, a great TED talk is reminiscent of a tent revival sermon, a gathering of the curious and the hungry. "A persistent human problem is introduced, one that, as the speaker gently explains, has deeper roots and wider implications than most listeners are prepared to admit," says Hustad. "Once everyone has been confronted with this evidence of entropy, contemplated life’s fragility and the elusiveness of inner peace, a decision is called for: Will you remain complacent, or change?" TED talks routinely present problems of huge scale and scope — we imprison too many people; the rain forest is dying; look at all this garbage; we’re unhappy; we have Big Data and aren’t sure what to do with it — then wrap up tidily and tinily. Do this. Stop doing that. Buy an app that will help you do this other thing. "I never imagined that the Baptists I knew in my youth would come to seem mellow, almost slackers by comparison," concludes Hustad. "Of course they promoted Jesus as a once-and-done, plug-and-play solver of problems — another questionable approach."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Tuesday March 17 2015, @10:13PM
The point of the parent is comment is not invalidated by your example. The target audience of the Microfinance talk is NOT the recipients of microloans. It is the feel-good "this is how finance capitalism really saves the world, and acquires a heart of compassion" BULLSHIT aimed at the intelligent but time-strapped young professional. Those who might actually have ethical qualms about corporate capitalism and how they are living well, at the expense of an invisible swath of humanity.
Fortunately, TED performs its cathartic, mega-church function - reassuring the Betas that microfinance will scale capital finance to the needs of everyone on earth - from Warren Buffet to anonymous South-Asian child-brides.
But? Microfinance has been a complete failure - and grown a protection/extortion racket of exploitation in the rural areas it was purported to benefit.
Shockingly, micro-loans aren't all that they've cracked up to be. After years of observation and multiple studies, it turns out that the people benefiting most from micro-loans are the big global financial players: hedge funds, banks and the usual Wall Street hucksters. Meanwhile, the majority of the world’s micro-debtors are either no better off or have been sucked into a morass of crippling debt and even deeper poverty, which offers no escape but death.
https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/extraordinary-pierre-omidyar/ [nsfwcorp.com]
TED - like a mega-church -is just another way to make the sheep docile, as they are led from the pen to the abattoir.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2015, @12:47AM
Have you got another (more reputable) citation than nsfwcorp.com? McAfee's URL filter database is blocking this one.
The question isn't who is benefiting the most from the micro-loan programs but whether micro-debtors are benefiting substantially (or, at all) from these micro-loan programs. You obviously think they are not. Which leads me to ask, what would you suggest instead? I am genuinely curious to know.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2015, @04:22AM
He's right in that there are plenty of examples of indiscriminately managed microfinance programs that have caused great harm - one of the more common problems happens when people "borrow from peter to pay paul" going from one lender to pay off the previous lender. The basic lesson is that while good management doesn't guarantee success, bad management guarantees failure. The big finance corps essentially guarantee bad management because their goal is self-enrichment, not community enrichment. Operating under the "greed is good" premise they maximize the greed part, not the good part.