TED Community » David Gorniak

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Philosophy, Society, Politics, Ideas, Rousseau, Nietzsche, Drama, Writing, Poetry.

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• TEDCred score: +3.20 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

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  A reply on Conversation: Are there questions that we're too afraid to ask?

  Jul 19 2012: But do some questions not require a degree of honesty? An honesty to admit that there are things we don't know or don't want to know?
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: Are there questions that we're too afraid to ask?

  Jul 19 2012: I like to work hard in order to succeed but when i think of success, i try to seperate it from the capitalist imgae of success. So for me the success of my hard work is a reward that i have set i.e. i work hard for my own image of success and not for the image of success of others.

• A comment on Conversation: Instead of war, If we become friends won't it be of more benefit for either parties.

  Jul 18 2012: I wander if such an idea is possible with so many boundaries, like, with so many countries, cultures and governments the idea that we can all be friends, which would be based on us all having the same interests which we clearly don't, seems a little hopeless and naive. But that's not to say that it is impossible. It's just that while while seperate governments and countries exist people will only do what's in the interest of their own nation and that undoubtedly will clash with the interest of others. So maybe what we need for peace is a break down in barriers ans borders, and end to everything that makes an us and a them. But then if that is possible is it worth it?

• A reply on Conversation: Imagine you were sent decades into the future with the task of selling your decade as the golden age to visit. How would you argue the case?

  Jul 18 2012: Sorry to hear that Pat and that was pretty rude of me. I guess i thought that what you were saying weren't really answering my question that i had in mind but thats probably to do with my question being unclear. I understood what you were saying and have to agree with what you were saying though i just found it irrelevent to what i was trying to ask. Again sorry if i came across as being disrespectful.

• A comment on Conversation: Does prison work?

  Jul 18 2012: i don't think it works. Not at all. But it's the closest thing we have to a solution and until such a time when a better method of rehabilitating someone comes around it is all we have.
  Second it depends on what we think a prisons soul function should be; is it to punish or to rehabilitate. By this i mean that of course prisoners need to be punished and that is actually part of rehabilitation but i am talking about the end game here, the soul purpose. It is no good punishing someone without hope of rehabilitation.
  Also as far as substance abuse goes and the thought that prison might be good way of cleaning someone up is a myth and i think the majority of people know this. I learnt this from my ex girlfriends Dad who was a criminal defence lawyer. All of his clients who suffered from drug abuse all claimed that it was easier for them to get their gear when they were inside compared to on the street.
  Again it's not working but its all we have for now and it might just well be the only thing that is the closest to a solution that we might have to live with.
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  A reply on Conversation: Strange questions that humans have not yet found an answer for!

  Jul 18 2012: By assumed shared understanding would i be right in thinking of that as being a common truth so far as its the closest thing to the truth that we are all willing to live with? If it is then I like it a lot. I like this idea of accepting the possibilty of never finding the absolute truth but then all agreeing and living with the nearest thing to the truth. This has certainly made me think anew about what it was Nietzsche might have been saying.
  It's a challenging read, but am enjoying too :)

• A reply on Conversation: Imagine you were sent decades into the future with the task of selling your decade as the golden age to visit. How would you argue the case?

  Jul 18 2012: : Pat,
  I think there's been a massive mis-understanding and i'm sorry for jumping to conclusions. I'll trust what you say about it not being at my expense. After all I never wanted to have a fall out and i am genuinely sorry if at any time i have sounded arrogant or the like.
  I hope there's no hard feelings
  All the best and again thanks for the contribution

• A reply on Conversation: Be honest with yourself; Do you ever agree with whatever it is you are quoting or is your admiration for whomever you are quoting a bias?

  Jul 18 2012: I hope that would be the case for the majority of people but I'm very dubious of that. But maybe i should give people the benefit of the doubt. Still it is a question that people should ask themselves more often, not just specifically to my example but to life in general; to believe in something because you feel it is right and not simply because it comes from someone you simply admire.
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  A reply on Conversation: Strange questions that humans have not yet found an answer for!

  Jul 18 2012: Hi Debra,
  I really appreciate your heart-felt and passionate reply. It is rare to come across it and i find it original and refreshing.
  i feel that i have taken on a bigger task than i understand. The danger is is that maybe I do not quite understand what it was that Nietzsche was saying. But i don't think trust has anything to do with it. Can we not trust without necessarily knowing the truth? Maybe its meant to mean that there can't be a truth to everything or that the pursuit of it is impossible and that too accept this would be beneficial.
  Also i would say that "untruth" is not the same as lying. It is not to know the truth then to distort it or to "un"do it.

• A comment on Conversation: How will you spend your time and/or make a living between ages 60 and 100?

  Jul 18 2012: At that age i would hope to have stopped working for "the man".