Professor Nicole Leapley, Associate Professor, French Studies at Saint Anselm College hosted a viewing of the new TED Talk series “TED Dialogues: an urgent response to a dangerously divisive time” on Wednesday, Feb. 15, at 1 pm in Dana 1D. Students, staff and other Saint Anselm Community members gathered to watch the talk and discuss.

TED has developed this series of lectures and discussions to address the current national and political climate. Each episode will be held in their New York City theater and available for free viewing live through Facebook Live.

TED’s website states, “These are astonishing days. Amid rapid-fire policy changes, America has grown even more divided; similar divisions are spreading across the world. Vitriolic rhetoric roars from all sides, and battle lines are hardening. We aren’t listening to one another.”

TED presents this series as a sort of solution to the national and global division which has shut down dialogue along political divides.

Their website says these dialogues “will focus on the burning questions of the moment; questions about security and fear, democracy and demagoguery, neo-nationalism and neo-globalism”.

The first talk, “Nationalism vs. Globalism: The New Political Divide” was led by the acclaimed historian and author Yuval Noah Harari.

At the beginning of his talk Harari stated most political division is due to the fact that “We have lost our story about what is happening in the world.”

He claims there has been historical trend towards a globalized economy and liberal politics but that in 2016 people “lost this story” when they realized they were left out of this globalization.

He states that the current political divide around the globe is really between the global and the local. He states that “we have a global economy but national politics.”

He claims that a lot of major world leaders like President Trump have introduced a “retrograde vision” in which they encourage people to go back into their history to when they felt secure. He states that slogans like “Make America Great Again” harken back to a time when most of the world’s countries were predominantly nationalist.

Harari does not make the claim that all nationalism is bad. But he states that “the major problems of the world today are global: climate change, bio engineering, artificial intelligence.” He claims that these problems cannot be solved by the U.S. or any one nation alone. He instead suggests that global cooperation is necessary to solve them.

For example, he states that “The only way to have effective regulations on things like genetic engineering is to have global regulations because no one [nation] wants to be left behind.”

He says that because our modern issues like Climate Change are “loose, loose” there needs to be a “global authority” to enforce regulations.

He states that people can have “several layers of loyalty; family, community, nation, humankind.”

One question from the live audience in New York was asked by a woman from Ghana. She asked him how we can justify Globalization to countries which have suffered from imperialism.

Harari answered that it is these third world countries like Ghana which will suffer the worst from global issues like Climate Change because the poor will not be able to escape the worst effects. He states that Globalization is the only way these countries will have a fighting chance.

Harari also brought up questions about the search for meaning in life.

He states that artificial intelligence and global economy may one day leave an entire class of “useless” people with no jobs. He then asks “what is their purpose?”

In addition Harari touched upon the loneliness and alienation in our modern society. He states that the chief problem is not global capitalism but rather disconnection with the body and senses as more attention goes to screens.”

After watching the live stream Leapley led a discussion with faculty and students regarding the first episode of the “TED dialogues”.

Both students and faculty discussed some of the big ideas from the discussion.

Drawing on the talk’s themes of mass communication one student brought up access to platforms like YouTube and how this has created a virtually universally accessible platform for young people to reach mass audiences like never before. He mused whether this is a benefit or detriment when the content is being unchecked.

A faculty member questioned the validity of Harari’s claim that the Bible is “fake news”. He stated that Harari somewhat discredited himself when claiming that religion has no stake in people’s search for meaning in their lives.

The conversation was diverse and dynamic as students and faculty responded to and drew off of each other’s comments.

Anyone wishing to join the dialogue can access the next three “TED dialogues” on Facebook Live on the TED Facebook page. The Ted website states that future talks are tentatively scheduled for: Thursday, February 23, 1pm, Wednesday, March 1, 1pm, and Wednesday, March 8, 1pm.

You can also access the first dialogue featuring Harari at ted.com or on their Facebook page.

The lead organizer for TEDxAmoskeagMillyard, Eric Ratinoff, husband of Leaply, was also in attendance at the “Ted dialogue” event on campus. Leaply is also involved with TEDxAmoskeagMillyard, having volunteered for the organization on multiple occasions.