TED Community » Levi LCL

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• TEDCred score: +10.60 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +2

  A comment on Talk: Markham Nolan: How to separate fact and fiction online

  Dec 28 2012: He sounds less like a reporter and more like he should be working for an intelligence agency. Not really sure if those industries should be mixing.
• +3

  A comment on Talk: Jeff Smith: Lessons in business … from prison

  Dec 28 2012: It's not a bad idea, a lot of organized crime is very similar to business practices.
• +3

  A comment on Talk: Lemon Andersen performs "Please don't take my Air Jordans"

  Dec 28 2012: I thought to myself 'oh great another suburban white kid who thinks he's gangster'. But he takes it to a respectable level of poetry and puts in a good effort into rapping.

• A comment on Talk: Bobby Ghosh: Why global jihad is losing

  Dec 28 2012: There's a big difference between religious Islam and political Islam. Jihad in religious Islam is about the internal struggle to become a better person, and political Islam is attacking the infidel or foreign interests or basically anyone who you disagree with (it's for the private interests of a few people twisting the faith).
  
  I've been telling people this for years, I'm glad there's finally a video to this point - now I can rub it in their faces, ha.

• A comment on Talk: Maz Jobrani: A Saudi, an Indian and an Iranian walk into a Qatari bar …

  Dec 28 2012: Not that funny. But I'm glad that comedy is really booming in the Middle East these days - it's doing a lot of good.

• A comment on Talk: Ben Saunders: Why bother leaving the house?

  Dec 28 2012: It's great to hear there's explorers still. Although I get the impression Saunders is rather anti-social, that has no bearing on his contribution, and even inspiration.
• +3

  A comment on Talk: Marcus Byrne: The dance of the dung beetle

  Dec 28 2012: I really didn't think this would be that informative or interesting - I'm happy to say I was wrong.
• +1

  A comment on Talk: Adam Davidson: What we learned from teetering on the fiscal cliff

  Dec 28 2012: Reasonable people shall inherit the earth!
• +2

  A comment on Talk: Israel and Iran: A love story?

  Dec 28 2012: People are people. This kind of event is great because it reminds us of this basic truth.

• A reply on Conversation: Is Nationalism a 21st Century Ethic - Isn't Nationalism more like Racism or Sexism than Patriotism?

  Oct 2 2012: I agree this is an over-simplification also.
  
  Nationalism is not a movement based on self-determination. That is the least of its function, most of American and Eastern European history does not occur within the short moments of their independence, but in the running of the country. Was Bosnia engaging in self-determination when they engaged in ethnic cleansing (as this was publicly stated), was America engaged in self-determination in Vietnam, Korea, the bombing of Japan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Cold War, Cuba and countless South American coups? History doesn't end with the declaration of independence, it continues and those justifications for its existence become increasingly twisted.
  
  Self-determination was the justification of the Nazi Party in sparking World War 2, (before they went on about Jews), that German speaking peoples of the Rhine and other countries were repressed and mistreated and needed to be liberated and brought under a strong independent Germany, that cast off the economic, political, and military restrictions and hardships put on them by Europe and the United States. To challenge foreign powers, and lead their own destiny, and people liked it. But as we know German people under one nation wasn't the end of it.
  
  We shouldn't forget about the negative aspects of history, because they don't suit our political beliefs. That's the point of learning history in the first place, to make better judgements. Nations states and self-determination aren't the ideas expressed by European scholars in fancy libraries, they have become dirty with blood, war, and genocide, and cannot be assumed to be merely positive social forces.
  
  A better alternative is to realize the need for self-determination, a working fair government that doesn't marginalize a people, and further realize this does not come from separation from government but a new style of governance and concept of citizenship. Making your own country doesn't guarantee better governance, as South Sudan now know