TEDx Compilation: Global Issues

TED and TEDx have, in my opinion, successfully achieved its ethos in terms of what it tries to do, “spread ideas worth spreading.” The differences between TED and TEDx comes down to invite. Whilst some may see TED talks as more credible and important, given that the presenters are usually invited by TED organisers as experts in their field, notable academics or seekers on the cusp of a new discovery in the realm of thought.

Both streams are definitely some of the best platforms accessible through online media to learn and expand knowledge in whatever area tickles your brain pickling fancy. Although I do admit hearing, in my own social circles, some automatically dismissing ideas or concepts that arise on these platforms when provided through TEDx. Anyone with a computer, can simply fill out an application form for the next held session and present their ideas.

While perhaps the assuredness of peer-reviewed work is not always present in TEDx talks, given by the common individual, I do think it is just as important a platform as the experts that presented by means of invitation. All people, whether traditional educated or not, despite whatever job or industry they are involved with all have important things to say and share. We should collectively respect and appreciate what is special in everybody and what they have to offer and offer our ears to listen to what they have to share with us.

So, like a good little politics nerd, I’ve compiled a list of some of the most accurate (by my own personal background clearances), informing and engaging TEDx talks which discuss global issues and what really happens in the political spheres. More interestingly, many of the below speakers have their own unique relationships with big business, international finance and the likes which adds an element of subjective truth to what they have to say. Not to mention all the topics involved affect you, personally, by the sheer fact that we live in such an interconnected society.

It is imperative that we be well armed and versed in just how we are being governed and represented as a society, so that we are able to participate and act on what colours our lives experience, not merely watch as they unfold right in our laps as uninformed bi-standers. What better way than to let a myriad of some of the brightest people not the internet explain such concepts to us:

Anti-corruptionist, Charmian Gooch, talks about the need for more transparency in big business; a root cause for much of the issues troubling the world and political processes in the world we live in.

Lawrence Lessig, legal scholar and published writer and all around true Republic champion, talks to us about the instrumental faults of public political funding in our systems today, seen in every nation, that intrudes on due process and representational fairness and why/how we, the people, must voice our grievances and reclaim what is ours.

What all current, socio-political issues boil down to is that our current concept and the way we perceive 'democracy' has been eroded and corrupted over time. We've lost sight of what the quintessential ideal and values of it is. We need to remember why it is important, how to attain true democracy and how to live our lives and further evolve humanity not by the current existing order but by growing into the way of life we freedom and loving human's are ultimately capable of.

Writer, Chrystia Freeland, hits the nail right on the head, by exposing plutocrats, the capitalist elite and oligarchy's forming within our institutions that rig the system for everyone else and the importance of how such people need to be held accountable and their threat to our democratic way of life.