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TED Talks Daily

The lies our culture tells us about what matters -- and a better way to live | David Brooks

Our society is in the midst of a social crisis, says op-ed columnist and author David Brooks: we're trapped in a valley of isolation and fragmentation. How do we find our way out? Based on his travels across the United States -- and his meetings with a range of exceptional people known as "weavers" -- Brooks lays out his vision for a cultural revolution…

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Notes

  1. What Is a Form of Loneliness

    at 1:21 · Transcript

    For David Brooks, loneliness unexpectedly came to him in the form of fear, of a burning in his stomach. It felt like drunkenness and a lack of solidity. Full answer

  2. What Is Are Some Lies That Our Culture Tells Us

    at 1:45 · Transcript

    David Brooks admits that he has fallen for these cultural lies. The first lie is that career success is fulfilling. Full answer

  3. What Actually Makes People Happy

    at 2:21 · Transcript

    The deep relationships of life and the losing of self-sufficiency. Full answer

  4. How Do You Get Out of a Valley

    at 4:29 · Transcript

    You can't climb out. Someone has to reach in and pull you out. From the dark period, David states you have to have a few realizations. Full answer

  5. What Does David Brooks Say Is Both an Art and a Fortunate Accident?

    at 6:03 · Transcript

    On TED Talks Daily, David Brooks quotes an old man in Louis de Bernières's novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin, speaking to his daughter about a late wife. Full answer

  6. What Are Weavers Doing in Life

    at 10:13 · Transcript

    They reach down and grab people out of the valley. They live a relationalist life, not an individualistic life. Full answer

  7. What Is Joy

    at 12:55 · Transcript

    Joy is a better thing to aim for than happiness. Joy is not the expansion of the self, it’s the dissolving of the self. Full answer

  8. Why Are We in a National Valley

    at 14:11 · Transcript

    We need a lot of environmental and economic change. It’s because we don’t have the mindset to balance it. Full answer

  9. What Is the Theory of Social Change

    at 14:41 · Transcript

    According to David, his theory of social change is that society changes when a small group of people find a better way to live and the rest of us copy them. Full answer

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