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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: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 18 2015, @02:38AM
The world is complicated. Too complicated to explain the real solution to any real problem in 20 minutes.
TED provides counterexamples [ted.com]. TL;DR version is that the world is collectively moving to greater wealth per capita (along with many features associated with greater wealth), better education, more democracy, fewer population problems, etc contrary to popular belief. What is traditionally perceived as problems, aren't in the long run. End result is a variety of perceived unsolvable global problems get moved by the lecturer, Hans Rosling to the already solved pile in about 19 minutes.
This also reminds me of relationship advice. A lot of times, the "relationship experts" can find out quickly what's wrong with a relationship, sometimes within a minute or two and give good advice. The problem is that generally this advice is not what the asker wants to hear and thus, that makes it likely that the advice will get ignored. And that's really what's wrong with the twenty minute solution to the complex problem. Sure, you can come up with a solution that readily fixes the issues involved and present them in twenty minutes, but that's not going to result in people embracing the solution, especially if they really don't want to solve the problem.