In a profound talk about technology and power, author and historian Yuval Noah Harari explains the important difference between fascism and nationalism — and what the consolidation of our data means for the future of democracy. Appearing as a hologram live from Tel Aviv, Harari warns that the greatest danger that now faces liberal democracy is that the revolution in information technology will make dictatorships more efficient and capable of control. "The enemies of liberal democracy hack our feelings of fear and hate and vanity, and then use these feelings to polarize and destroy," Harari says. "It is the responsibility of all of us to get to know our weaknesses and make sure they don't become weapons." (Followed by a brief conversation with TED curator Chris Anderson)
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did u watch the video yesterday?
Yesterday I was hovering over the *unsubscribe* button because there have been such poor quality talks uploaded lately. But then, TED came and dropped a very good quality talk today. I actually learnt something new from this talk. Thanks, TED.
You should unsubscribe, u don’t seem to know what ted is about. If you look at the trends the viewership is inherently biased and racist. THis guy is talking about white people problems and even then he still gets massive hate just cause of his skin colour.
It’s pretty good, but he’s wrong about sweden having a strong sense of nationality so I’m not sure what to think about his other statements.
iliveasnatalie may be you should have open mind.
Dyland – You’re a creepy lookin guy, restraining order?
same
More Peoples should watch this video
*He should really be discussing the difference between patriotism and nationalism or just discussing the true true meaning of fascism, but I’m not surprised that a ted talker would angle it this way.*
Philip Ahn Deese that quite seriously depends on how you define these terms. They have not always held the same meaning over time.
Dah true true
So there are usually no big differences between them. patriotism is just a less agressive form of nationalism. Patriotism can easily transform into nationalism and then facism. In my expirience patriots will usually hate you for criticism of their nation or call you traitor if you don’t feel the same amount of “patriotism”.
What do you mean by the “true meaning of facism”? Facism is always build on nationalism and about feeling superior to other countries/groups. Ignoring all different kinds of identities and gather them under one “Volk”(as we say in germany)/nation.
It’s happening right now in Russia, even without hi-tech, they just own all the major media companies, so they can tell people (who weren’t taught to think critically, Russian schools are still Soviet-like) whatever they want. Usually they tell that US and Europe are threatening Russia, that the sanctions are affecting not the friends of Putin, but all Russians, and of course there’s a ban on bad news about Russia. Now they’re trying to get the control of the Internet. Everyone around the world have probably noticed kremlin “bots” stupidly praising Russia across all the major media sites of the “Western World”. So, beware.
lolwhoami look up oligarchy and corporatisim.
lolwhoami well to be fair Europe and the US does kind of threaten Europe I mean what do you think NATO exists for?
I live in Sweden and I can tell you that both media and politicians calls ANY nationalist tendencies NAZISM or RACISM in order to fool people that the import of 2 million muslims from the third world into a country of 8 million is a POSITIVE thing for Sweden even though everyone knows it’s INSANE and a DISASTER. Nationalism is basically illegal here.
??? The Swedish Democrats got over 20% in a poll recently. Being against immigration is NOT “basically illegal” here, hard pressed to call it even controversial.
Well perhaps you should think about why it is that fascism and ‘nationalism’ go hand in hand…
It’s more like 1.5 million over the course of the last 10 years but it’s not 100% muslim, it’s a mix.
Mussi93 first of all I clarified what I meant. So, you should refer to that.
English is not my first language not even second one.
So, rather than attacking me personally, you should put your points.
Last but not least I said what I and thousands of people from different countries experienced. It is your choice to believe it or not.
Changing the demographics of western world is 30 to 50 years game. Once immigrants from certain background gain more than 10℅ not even single political party can ignore them. Because they vote in bulk and democracy become groupism where politicians care about groups not individuals.
jason: you are one good example of the facist way of thinking. great job.
2:06 what?? In the Netherlands and Germany nationalism is one of the lowest in the world and we’re doing just fine I guess… You can’t just pick a random African country and compare it to wealthy countries like that.
He is saying that the countries are poor because of lack of nationalism but I think the nationalism is very low because they are poor.
He means stability. Many african countries are artificial because some powerful dudes drew some lines on an african map over half a century ago. Many smaller clans exist inside these countries. They fight each other for power, ressources or religion/culture. On the other hand countries like japan or switzerland have existed for hundreds of years. Less rivaling groups and more common ground (e.g. language) create a more peaceful and stable society.
Philip Ahn Deese I agree but my point was that this man is comparing 3rd world countries to wealthy countries and blames their problems to the degree of nationalism. I’d say this is a case of “correlation does not imply causation”.
Ok now I get you. Yeah you are probably right
True, it may not be a strong argument, but fortunately, it is not the meat of his argument, he was just using it to create a definition of fascism, not explain his point.
That point did stand out to me, but Yuval is very aware of the dangers of making generalizations. He’s a historian after all. +Xanato explains what Yuval was getting at better.
Also, it’s important to distinguish between “Nationalism” as a political affiliation and “Nationalism” as a human concept. The idea of a Nation would be weird to a human with no experience of modern civilization. Nations are the reason why we pay taxes and obey laws. Nations have set boundaries, and are often associated with cultural identities. In this sense most western countries are highly “Nationalist” as they have fixed boundaries, strong cultural identities, and functioning governments.
Contrast these to less prosperous countries, eg: Chechnya, who were recently part of Russia and so their border is very young, had their cultural identity hijacked by Wahabists and have a government that kidnaps and murders suspected homosexuals.
Google, get out of politics.
You forgot about all of it’s satellite companies, and facebook and it’s satellites, not to mention other tech/data giants.
The USA fascist party, AKA Democrat Party, is indeed tempting for many people.
Abraham Lincoln fascism lies on the right side of the political spectrum not the left
So the Democrat Party to you is right-winged, & communism & socialism must also be right-winged to you while conservatism is left-winged.
The mental gymnastics that went into this comment could probably get you a gold medal
At least you admit your comment is just a troll post doing mental gymnastics, Ben Shiffman.
Abraham Lincoln the fact of the matter is that you are 110% wrong in your claim that the Democratic Party is fascist. If you’re arguing that any party in a democracy like the United States is fascist, that’s just illogical bullshit using identity politics. The Democratic Party is not fascist. The Republican Party is not fascist. Full stop.
so basically jews are fasists, because they feel they are the only nation choosen by god.
Home Wall Everything to the Muslims is a tyranny. If Australia moved into Israel, Australia would be a tyranny.
randomunavailable probably because Australia would be oppressing the Palestinians by occupying their land
Home Wall, the key phrase here is *’the second they learn we’re Jewish’*. It’s many folks’ knee jerk reaction to quiz us on our political stance and it’s absurd.
Tech Blogger All land belongs to the Palestinians. And there in lies the problem.
There’s room for nuance. A lot of religions have their “covenants” with their gods. A believer’s attraction to fascism generally depends on how fundamentalist they are.
“You should never underestimate human stupidity. It is one of the most powerful forces that shape history.” Truer words were never spoken.
Shauday Smith exactly
Shauday Smith stupidity is not a right
Fascism needs Nationalism, and Nationalism easily turns into Fascism. You don’t get one without the other.
Nationalism is like religion: a made up construct by powerful men to keep out “others” (called aliens in the USA) and allow us to kill those we disagree with by claiming “national interest” or some other nonsense unrelated to justifiable defense.
Home Wall yeah… Definitely… Cause those powerful men hate cheap Labour…
There are dozens of examples of nationalism without fascism, he mentioned many of them in this speech, your statement is wildly inaccurate. Home Wall your caricature of nationalism is profoundly ignorant, your confusing xenophobia with nationalism.
Fascism is not about not caring for anything but the Fatherland, as this man says. Fascism, while being centered around loyalty to the Fatherland, is much more complicated than that. A very simple explanation of Fascism is that it demands the submission of the people to a state which encourages national pride, traditional values, and economic corporatism.
Yes, it requires the state to benefit monopolies over competition, blocking liberty in the name of equity, an equity that usually means 99% are poor while 1% rule over you.
Not at all, small businesses was encouraged under fascist rule. And fascism is not at all about having an economic elite like we have in the west today. Fascism promotes to a very large degree economic equality among the people.
I don’t see the difference between what he calls fascism and what you call fascism. Fascism is chosen by the people it is not forced on people. People begin to care only about the father land as he says and what this means in practice is national pride, traditional values associated with there fatherland, requiring fellow citizens to submit to the state, in other words care only for the fatherland, and economic corporatism by supporting corporations that are from the fatherland. I don’t see any conflict with your ideas of fascism.
Treeforged Submitting to the state does not mean valuing families, or economic corporatism. For instance, the US is very patriotic, but they are capitalist, not corporatist.
Sweden a nationalist country? The nation committing cultural suicide for decades? Yeah, no… Also a LOT of mental gymnastics to avoid calling fascism for what it historically is: national *socialism* .Go and tell your fellow Jews chauvinism and narcissism are awful.
Definitely a “was” situation. Now they’re actively subduing nationalism (with the law, even) and as a result of encouraging ‘migrants’ there is unprecedented crime.
The two exteames have a symbiotic relationship…we all are susceptible to the digital “vanity” yval mentions left and right.
FINALLY TED Talks puts out a thoughtful and profound talk again! I had thought that it became a Sociology department completely overrun by Cultural Marxists.
Corporatocracy
So let’s all stop calling people fascists who aren’t fascists. You take the meaning out of the word when it is overused in ways that don’t correlate with it’s meaning. I see little college kids calling people fascists that they simply have no way of proving if the person is a fascist or not. Stupidity is bad on both sides. The right and left.
Kintsugi G Many people in government do have fascist TENDENCIES though
Ben Shiffman You think little college kids calling other little college kids fascists is okay? It’s all identity politics and it is not OK to label someone something just because you “think” their political views make them fascists.
Ben Shiffman I’m clearly not talking about fascists in the government.
Kintsugi G My point was not that it is right to throw identity politics around, I wasn’t clear on that, but you also weren’t clear about who they were calling fascists.
I like it because the uniforms are so slimming.
ALAPINO same bro, same
You seem to be the only commenter here with a sense of humour…