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Farrukh Yakubov

Student, Purdue University

TEDCRED 50+
TED TranslatorAssociate

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Do you think that misunderstanding is the greatest issue of all?

There are lots of great issues in our world, but for me it seems that greatest of them is misunderstanding. I also think that majority of existing issues exist mainly because of misunderstanding between people, societies, cultures, etc.

Do you think that misunderstanding is the greatest issue?

Do you think it is solvable? If yes, how?

Can you imagine a world without this issue, where everyone understands true meaning of every bit of information they receive? How would it be like?

Topics: Understanding communication humanity people world
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    Tim blackburn 30+

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    Jun 21 2011: missunderstanding, or good ol assumption.
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    Maxime Touzel

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    Jun 21 2011: Misunderstanding isn't much of an issue as much as ignorance is and even more when it's chosen. It is not based on misunderstanding but on Fear.

    Fear is the greatest issue of all, Fear of the unknown or Fear of the known is the same.
    However, as for misunderstanding, it can always be easily solved, but it always requires the will to want to solve the matter.

    Some people are addicted to money and power and they know that Fear is a great tool to use when they want to force the people to choose ignorance.

    Love is the Only Solution.
    Love vs Fear = Love > Fear
    Empathy vs Hatred = Empathy > Hatred
    Acceptance vs Refusal = Acceptance > Refusal

    Love turns to Empathy turns to Acceptance breeds more Love
    Fear turns to Hatred turns to Refusal breeds more Fear


    This whole world live in Fear, nobody else can changes it but ourselves.
    Whatever your religions are or beliefs or disbelief are you experience the same stuff, the same emotions or feelings.
    You control yourself and your feelings, you choose with your Freewill what to do.

    Do what is right, you know what is right and what is wrong from your feelings.


    Choose Love because Love is Greater than Fear. Love is misunderstood but that's not an issue, Fear is understood and it is a serious issue.

  • Steve Bruno

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    Jun 20 2011: I have noticed from my own life experiences that misunderstandings can lead to many problems as have been noted, such as: fear, bitterness, rage, etc. I don't think misunderstanding is at the root though. There are other factors at play. I'm sure you have met people that seem to take almost everything the wrong way, while other people take comments, criticism and life in general in stride, and from a higher perspective. There are underlying reasons for these very different responses.
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    Dain Brammage

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    Jun 20 2011: Let me start with a haiku I wrote about three months ago.

    Achieving World Peace
    Begins with empathy and
    Ends with acceptance

    This is very ideological and practically impossible to achieve, but that does not diminish the importance of the idea. I based it on the premise that empathy begets understanding, and understanding begets acceptance. I think what we should being trying to achieve is acceptance, not just understanding.

    It is easier to achieve this on a person to person basis than it is when you have a group or government involved. After all, you can only affect change for yourself, not someone else. Groups/governments usually want something and create rhetoric to get it, not really caring much about the opposition’s reasons or if their own statements are true or not. Say something enough times and it becomes true, and there are always enough people to pile on and believe/repeat the rhetoric.

    So, I think it is an important idea to strive for, but ultimately unachievable on the scale of elimination.
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    Joe Delsen 20+

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    Jun 20 2011: Farrukh, we have the power to transform our world and misundertstanding is indeed one of the key issue we need to transcend. http://bit.ly/SimpleIdeas

  • Sean King

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    Jun 19 2011: I do believe misunderstanding is at the core of MANY issues, and tied closely with many others. Misunderstanding leads to fear and hate. I don't think misunderstanding can be solved. The more we enlighten ourselves, the less misunderstandings we will have, but to eliminate all misunderstandings would mean we were omniscient, which doesn't seem very plausible. While we cannot eliminate misunderstanding completely, I believe we can teach ourselves and others how to live peacefully without fully understanding each other. It requires a degree of selflessness. If people stop thinking in terms of "I vs. world" or "U.S.A. vs. world," and start thinking in terms of "we the world vs. problems," then discussions will replace battles.

    But back to how to solve misunderstanding---I think the general trend of society is to become more enlightened which gradually diminishes misunderstanding, so I think time is one answer, but obviously we should be looking for more practical answers. Unfortunately I do not know the answer...

  • Javier Luna

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    Jun 19 2011: I don't know whether or not I'd consider it the greatest issue, but I think misunderstanding very divisive. As humans, we all are essentially the same. We are born the same into a messed up world and we all take very different paths, but we all have struggles, we all deal with sin, we all feel emotion, etc. It can be hard to accept people who hold very different viewpoints, or live a very different life, but at the core, we all have things in common, and I think it would be awesome to set our differences aside and be more like friends than enemies.

    However, is it solvable? I strongly believe it is not humanly possible to resolve the matter. That would take an act of God (another debatable topic, I know). Humanity is just too messed up, we are too set in our ways, and while there may be people who are willing to change, as a whole, the world will never change.
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