Critic argues TED is more about feel-good evangelism than actually working to solve the world's problems.
I like this, because it explains what I wasn't observant enough to realize was the reason I dislike TED. It's all about change but it never enacts it, and I think, at least partially, it's for the reasons he describes of people clinging onto an old system that is the source of many problems. I also really enjoyed his commentary on institutions in general, and his criticism of how communism and capitalism seem to fail us in modern times. I'm not sure if he was hinting at Technocratic economic theory, but his insistence that we need to use technology more towards the idea of reshaping these institutional structures, rather than just being applied on top of them, really resonated with ideas that I've become more supportive of.
I always thought it was a bit easy for a bunch of CEOs, rolling in cash and with their arses in the marmalade, to pay a small fortune to hear some inspirational talks and then go home and do nothing different. They are the wrong audience (they are the establishment) and TED is the wrong medium (they are comforting). If we want to solve the world's problems, I don't think the solutions can come from the establishment because they are the problem, and I don't think the solutions will be gentle because revolutions rarely are. But then I'm a little bit too fond of the Dadaists. If I ever gave a TED talk, I'd make it my goal to get booed off the stage and pelted with rotting fruit.