Dave Meslin: The antidote to apathy

105,736 views ・ 2011-04-14

TED


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00:15
How often do we hear that people just don't care?
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How many times have you been told
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that real, substantial change isn't possible
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because most people are too selfish,
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too stupid or too lazy
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to try to make a difference in their community?
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I propose to you today that apathy as we think we know it
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doesn't actually exist;
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but rather, that people do care,
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but that we live in a world that actively discourages engagement
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by constantly putting obstacles and barriers in our way.
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I'll give you some examples of what I mean.
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Let's start with city hall.
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You ever see one of these before?
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This is a newspaper ad.
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It's a notice of a zoning application change for a new office building
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so the neighborhood knows what's happening.
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As you can see, it's impossible to read.
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You need to get halfway down
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to even find out which address they're talking about,
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and then further down, in tiny 10-point font,
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to find out how to actually get involved.
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Imagine if the private sector advertised in the same way --
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if Nike wanted to sell a pair of shoes --
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(Laughter)
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And put an ad in the paper like that.
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(Applause)
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Now, that would never happen.
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You'll never see an ad like that,
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because Nike actually wants you to buy their shoes,
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whereas the city of Toronto clearly doesn't want you involved
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with the planning process,
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otherwise their ads would look something like this,
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with all the information laid out clearly.
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As long as the city's putting out notices like this
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to try to get people engaged,
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then of course people aren't going to be engaged.
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But that's not apathy; that's intentional exclusion.
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Public space.
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(Applause)
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The manner in which we mistreat our public spaces
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is a huge obstacle towards any type of progressive political change,
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because we've essentially put a price tag on freedom of expression.
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Whoever has the most money gets the loudest voice,
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dominating the visual and mental environment.
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The problem with this model is there are some amazing messages
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that need to be said, that aren't profitable to say.
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So you're never going to see them on a billboard.
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The media plays an important role
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in developing our relationship with political change,
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mainly by ignoring politics and focusing on celebrities and scandals,
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but even when they do talk about important political issues,
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they do it in a way that I feel discourages engagement.
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I'll give you an example.
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The "Now" magazine from last week: progressive, downtown weekly in Toronto.
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This is the cover story.
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It's an article about a theater performance,
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and it starts with basic information about where it is,
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in case you actually want to go and see it after you've read the article --
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where, the time, the website.
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Same with this -- it's a movie review.
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An art review.
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A book review -- where the reading is in case you want to go.
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A restaurant -- you might not want to just read about it,
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maybe you want to go there.
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So they tell you where it is, the prices, the address, the phone number, etc.
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Then you get to their political articles.
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Here's a great article about an important election race that's happening.
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It talks about the candidates, written very well,
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but no information, no follow-up, no websites for the campaigns,
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no information about when the debates are, where the campaign offices are.
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Here's another good article,
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about a new campaign opposing privatization of transit,
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without any contact information for the campaign.
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The message seems to be
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that the readers are most likely to want to eat, maybe read a book,
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maybe see a movie, but not be engaged in their community.
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You might think this is a small thing, but I think it's important,
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because it sets a tone
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and it reinforces the dangerous idea that politics is a spectator sport.
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Heroes: How do we view leadership?
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Look at these 10 movies. What do they have in common?
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Anyone?
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They all have heroes who were chosen.
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Someone came up to them and said, "You're the chosen one.
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There's a prophecy. You have to save the world."
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And then they go off and save the world because they've been told to,
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with a few people tagging along.
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This helps me understand
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why a lot of people have trouble seeing themselves as leaders --
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because it sends all the wrong messages about what leadership is about.
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A heroic effort is a collective effort,
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number one.
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Number two, it's imperfect; it's not very glamorous,
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and doesn't suddenly start and suddenly end.
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It's an ongoing process your whole life.
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But most importantly, it's voluntary.
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It's voluntary.
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As long as we're teaching our kids
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that heroism starts when someone scratches a mark on your forehead,
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or someone tells you you're part of a prophecy,
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they're missing the most important characteristic of leadership,
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which is that it comes from within.
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It's about following your own dreams, uninvited,
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and then working with others to make those dreams come true.
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Political parties: oh, boy.
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Political parties could and should be one of the basic entry points
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for people to get engaged in politics.
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Instead, they've become, sadly,
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uninspiring and uncreative organizations
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that rely so heavily on market research and polling and focus groups
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that they end up all saying the same thing,
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pretty much regurgitating back to us what we already want to hear
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at the expense of putting forward bold and creative ideas.
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And people can smell that, and it feeds cynicism.
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(Applause)
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Charitable status.
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Groups who have charitable status in Canada aren't allowed to do advocacy.
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This is a huge problem and a huge obstacle to change,
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because it means that some of the most passionate and informed voices
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are completely silenced, especially during election time.
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Which leads us to the last one, which is: our elections.
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As you may have noticed,
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our elections in Canada are a complete joke.
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We use out-of-date systems
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that are unfair and create random results.
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Canada's currently led by a party
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that most Canadians didn't actually want.
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How can we honestly and genuinely encourage more people to vote
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when votes don't count in Canada?
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You add all this up together, and of course people are apathetic.
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It's like trying to run into a brick wall.
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Now, I'm not trying to be negative by throwing all these obstacles out
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and explaining what's in our way.
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Quite the opposite --
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I actually think people are amazing and smart and that they do care,
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but that, as I said, we live in this environment
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where all these obstacles are being put in our way.
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As long as we believe that people, our own neighbors,
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are selfish, stupid or lazy,
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then there's no hope.
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But we can change all those things I mentioned.
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We can open up city hall.
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We can reform our electoral systems.
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We can democratize our public spaces.
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My main message is:
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if we can redefine apathy,
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not as some kind of internal syndrome,
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but as a complex web of cultural barriers that reinforces disengagement,
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and if we can clearly define, clearly identify what those obstacles are,
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and then if we can work together collectively to dismantle those obstacles,
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then anything is possible.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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