Given the recent passing of Nelson Mandela, this talk was timely but its message is even more fundamentally important. It talks of the concept of "ubuntu" which is not only a flavor of Linux, but literally means "I am, because of you". It refers to the interrelatedness of everything and everyone. The simplest and purest form of this was disclosed to Adam and Eve when they discovered what joy was because of the existence of sadness. Joy in and of itself doesn't mean anything unless we use it in contrast to sadness. There must needs be opposites in all things so as to comprehend them and be able to choose between them. Someone speaking to an empty room has much less impact than would speaking to an audience. The speaker and their message have value because someone else heard it. We cannot become so selfish and conceited in thinking only of ourselves and our own needs without alienating ourselves and becoming even more lonely. We need each other and should start acting like it.
http://www.ted.com/talks/boyd_varty_what_i_learned_from_nelson_mandela.html
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