TED Community » Morton Bast

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Creating community, learning new words, downtime, walking as a means of transportation, diversity, toothbrushing, family.

Talk to me about

religion, adolescence, chick lit

People don't know that I'm good at

geography, untying knots, rhyming

Comments

• TEDCred score: +336.60 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A reply on Talk: Lisa Bu: How books can open your mind

  2 days ago: I agree that books are not the only way to read a culture, but I do think they're a particularly in-depth way. Nothing is ever a complete picture, of course, but a book does generally contain a lot more information than some of the other means we use today to interpret the world.
• +1

  A reply on Talk: Andrew Solomon: Love, no matter what

  2 days ago: I believe he was simply stating a fact, that these blood tests now exist, rather than endorsing them or saying they're morally right. In fact, I think he was pointing to them as extremely morally difficult, especially given society's progress toward social acceptance.
  
  I think he's pointing to the irony that just as we're becoming more tolerant toward difference and disability, it's becoming possible to eliminate some kinds of difference and disability. I'm quite sure he's not saying eliminating them is right -- I think he's actually asking the very same questions that you are.

• A reply on Talk: Andrew Solomon: Love, no matter what

  2 days ago: Hi Cymcha,
  
  I don't believe that's the message he intended to send at all, and I'm so sorry that you perceived it that way. I think he's making the point that several conditions are at the same time coming to a point where society is more accepting of them and also coming to a point where science is able to cure or eliminate them -- creating an ironic and morally complicated juxtaposition.
  
  And I don't think he used "Down's" except for quoting the article, where he was specifically showing how intolerant and unjust prevailing attitudes used to be.
  
  I hope this helps you to see his statements in a different light!
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  A reply on Talk: Andrew Solomon: Love, no matter what

  Jun 3 2013: Hi Herman -- Talks are translated through our Open Translation Project. This one should be available for translation soon. If you're interested in translating or in reviewing a translation, see http://www.ted.com/pages/becoming_a_ted_translator
  
  Thanks!
• +1

  A reply on Talk: Andrew Solomon: Love, no matter what

  Jun 3 2013: Hi Kathleen -- Captions are in progress! Thanks for your patience.

• A reply on Talk: Jackson Katz: Violence against women—it's a men's issue

  May 31 2013: Does this account for the fact that women are also responsible for the majority of child care?

• A reply on Talk: Jackson Katz: Violence against women—it's a men's issue

  May 31 2013: With all due respect, the plumber should also perhaps try being a secretary. It's not exactly easy.

• A reply on Talk: Jackson Katz: Violence against women—it's a men's issue

  May 31 2013: We associate gender with these crimes because they are, in fact, gender-related. Far more murders are committed by men than by women (90%, according to the US Justice Dept.) but the social construct of "gender" is just far more linked to domestic violence than it is to murder on the whole (although there is, of course, overlap between the two). No matter what the gender of the abuser is, domestic abuse usually has a LOT to do with gender.
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  A reply on Conversation: Is it possible to alleviate the cultures of chauvinism and sexism within college fraternities? If so, how, and what will come of it?

  May 31 2013: I'll certainly never argue with the fact that it ultimately comes down to personal responsibility. In the end, every member of the system can control his own behavior and his own behavior alone.
  
  But the point I hoped to make by explaining the two coexisting fraternity cultures on one campus was that these are similar boys (who are often even friends with one another) going in, but that by the time they've been a part of a very specific organization for four years, the system has quite an effect.
  
  The agency may ultimately lie with individuals, but to ignore the harmful practices condoned by (most of) these organizations is to ignore a pretty big part of the problem, in my opinion. That said, I think the fact that not ALL of them have sexist, elitist cultures means that there's hope for those that currently do.

• A reply on Conversation: Is it possible to alleviate the cultures of chauvinism and sexism within college fraternities? If so, how, and what will come of it?

  May 31 2013: You're right that Alexander has labeled these organizations as sexist without presenting evidence here -- the evidence for American college fraternities (and sororities) being sexist and chauvinistic is so incredibly prevalent that he chose to simply start with that fact as his premise, and focus as his question on whether it can be changed.
  
  But for those less steeped in the horror stories: There are fraternities where entire pledge classes are told to sleep with the same girl (who has not volunteered for the honor), there are fraternities where they train their members to keep giving alcohol to girls who are clearly already too drunk, there are fraternities where members publicly rank girls' attractiveness in meetings, there are fraternities where the formal events are deliberately so expensive and lavish that girls will feel guilty for being invited and not sleeping with their dates. In short, at their worst, they take existing misogynistic, sexually coercive tendencies and institutionalize them.
  
  I'm personally of the belief that that's not the whole story. I'm generally a fan of the Greek system, and believe that fraternities (and sororities, which have their own set of problems) can be forces for good when they're doing it right. I just hope that clears up the question of whether the ONLY evidence that they're sexist organizations is that they're single-sex.