The dream we haven't dared to dream
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0:02 - 0:04When I think about dreams,
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0:04 - 0:06like many of you,
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0:06 - 0:08I think about this picture.
-
0:09 - 0:13I was eight when I watched Neil Armstrong
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0:13 - 0:16step off the Lunar Module
onto the surface of the Moon. -
0:17 - 0:21I had never seen anything like it before,
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0:21 - 0:23and I've never seen
anything like it since. -
0:24 - 0:29We got to the Moon for one simple reason:
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0:29 - 0:32John Kennedy committed us to a deadline.
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0:33 - 0:35And in the absence of that deadline,
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0:35 - 0:38we would still be dreaming about it.
-
0:39 - 0:44Leonard Bernstein said two things
are necessary for great achievement: -
0:44 - 0:47a plan and not quite enough time.
-
0:47 - 0:51(Laughter)
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0:52 - 0:56Deadlines and commitments
-
0:56 - 1:01are the great and fading
lessons of Apollo. -
1:03 - 1:07And they are what give the word
"moonshot" its meaning. -
1:07 - 1:12And our world is in desperate need
of political leaders -
1:12 - 1:16willing to set bold deadlines
-
1:16 - 1:20for the achievement of daring dreams
on the scale of Apollo again. -
1:22 - 1:24When I think about dreams,
-
1:24 - 1:28I think about the drag queens
of LA and Stonewall -
1:28 - 1:30and millions of other people
risking everything -
1:30 - 1:34to come out when that
was really dangerous, -
1:34 - 1:37and of this picture of the White House
lit up in rainbow colors, -
1:37 - 1:39yes --
-
1:39 - 1:44(Applause) --
-
1:44 - 1:48celebrating America's gay and lesbian
citizens' right to marry. -
1:48 - 1:52It is a picture that in my wildest dreams
I could never have imagined -
1:52 - 1:55when I was 18
-
1:55 - 1:58and figuring out that I was gay
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1:58 - 2:02and feeling estranged from my country
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2:02 - 2:04and my dreams because of it.
-
2:06 - 2:09I think about this picture of my family
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2:09 - 2:13that I never dreamed I could ever have --
-
2:13 - 2:19(Applause) --
-
2:19 - 2:22and of our children holding this headline
-
2:22 - 2:27I never dreamed could ever be printed
about the Supreme Court ruling. -
2:29 - 2:34We need more of the courage
of drag queens and astronauts. -
2:34 - 2:37(Laughter)
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2:37 - 2:39(Applause)
-
2:39 - 2:43But I want to talk
about the need for us to dream -
2:43 - 2:45in more than one dimension,
-
2:45 - 2:50because there was something about Apollo
that I didn't know when I was 8, -
2:50 - 2:55and something about organizing
that the rainbow colors over. -
2:56 - 3:01Of the 30 astronauts in the original
Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, -
3:01 - 3:04only seven marriages survived.
-
3:06 - 3:09Those iconic images of the astronauts
bouncing on the Moon -
3:09 - 3:14obscure the alcoholism
and depression on Earth. -
3:15 - 3:18Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk,
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3:18 - 3:20asked during the time of Apollo,
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3:20 - 3:24"What can we gain by sailing to the moon
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3:24 - 3:30if we are not able to cross the abyss
that separates us from ourselves?" -
3:32 - 3:34And what can we gain by the right to marry
-
3:34 - 3:38if we are not able to cross the acrimony
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3:38 - 3:42and emotional distance
that so often separates us from our love? -
3:43 - 3:45And not just in marriage.
-
3:45 - 3:51I have seen the most hurtful, destructive,
-
3:52 - 3:56tragic infighting in LGBT and AIDS
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3:56 - 4:00and breast cancer and non-profit activism,
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4:00 - 4:01all in the name of love.
-
4:03 - 4:08Thomas Merton also wrote
about wars among saints -
4:08 - 4:14and that "there is a pervasive form
of contemporary violence -
4:14 - 4:18to which the idealist
most easily succumbs: -
4:18 - 4:21activism and overwork.
-
4:21 - 4:26The frenzy of our activism
neutralizes our work for peace. -
4:26 - 4:31It destroys our own
inner capacity for peace." -
4:32 - 4:38Too often our dreams become
these compartmentalized fixations -
4:38 - 4:39on some future
-
4:39 - 4:44that destroy our ability to be present
for our lives right now. -
4:45 - 4:49Our dreams of a better life
for some future humanity -
4:49 - 4:51or some other humanity in another country
-
4:51 - 4:55alienate us from the beautiful
human beings sitting next to us -
4:55 - 4:57at this very moment.
-
4:58 - 5:02Well, that's just the price
of progress, we say. -
5:02 - 5:03You can go to the Moon
-
5:03 - 5:07or you can have stability
in your family life. -
5:08 - 5:12And we can't conceive of dreaming
in both dimensions at the same time. -
5:12 - 5:16And we don't set the bar
much higher than stability -
5:16 - 5:19when it comes to our emotional life.
-
5:19 - 5:22Which is why our technology
for talking to one another -
5:22 - 5:24has gone vertical,
-
5:24 - 5:28our ability to listen
and understand one another -
5:28 - 5:29has gone nowhere.
-
5:31 - 5:34Our access to information
is through the roof, -
5:36 - 5:39our access to joy, grounded.
-
5:41 - 5:47But this idea, that our present
and our future are mutually exclusive, -
5:47 - 5:51that to fulfill our potential for doing
we have to surrender -
5:51 - 5:55our profound potential for being,
-
5:55 - 5:58that the number of transistors
on a circuit can be doubled and doubled, -
5:58 - 6:03but our capacity for compassion
and humanity and serenity and love -
6:03 - 6:05is somehow limited
-
6:05 - 6:08is a false and suffocating choice.
-
6:10 - 6:12Now, I'm not suggesting
-
6:12 - 6:18simply the uninspiring idea
of more work-life balance. -
6:20 - 6:22What good is it for me to spend
more time with my kids at home -
6:22 - 6:25if my mind is always somewhere else
while I'm doing it? -
6:27 - 6:29I'm not even talking about mindfulness.
-
6:29 - 6:33Mindfulness is all of a sudden becoming
a tool for improving productivity. -
6:34 - 6:36(Laughter)
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6:36 - 6:37Right?
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6:37 - 6:40I'm talking about dreaming
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6:40 - 6:45as boldly in the dimension of our being
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6:45 - 6:48as we do about industry and technology.
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6:48 - 6:52I'm talking about
an audacious authenticity -
6:53 - 6:56that allows us to cry with one another,
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6:56 - 7:02a heroic humility that allows us
to remove our masks and be real. -
7:02 - 7:04It is our inability
to be with one another, -
7:04 - 7:09our fear of crying with one another,
that gives rise to so many -
7:09 - 7:12of the problems we are frantically
trying to solve in the first place, -
7:12 - 7:15from Congressional gridlock
to economic inhumanity. -
7:16 - 7:19(Applause)
-
7:19 - 7:23I'm talking about what Jonas Salk
called an Epoch B, -
7:23 - 7:29a new epoch in which we become
as excited about and curious about -
7:29 - 7:33and scientific about
the development of our humanity -
7:33 - 7:36as we are about the development
of our technology. -
7:37 - 7:40We should not shrink from this opportunity
-
7:40 - 7:43simply because
we don't really understand it. -
7:43 - 7:46There was a time
when we didn't understand space. -
7:47 - 7:50Or because we're more used
to technology and activism. -
7:50 - 7:53That is the very definition
of being stuck in a comfort zone. -
7:53 - 7:59We are now very comfortable imagining
unimaginable technological achievement. -
8:00 - 8:04In 2016, it is the dimension
of our being itself -
8:04 - 8:09that cries out for its fair share
of our imagination. -
8:12 - 8:14Now, we're all here to dream,
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8:14 - 8:16but maybe if we're honest about it,
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8:16 - 8:19each of us chasing our own dream.
-
8:19 - 8:22You know, looking at the name tags
to see who can help me with my dream, -
8:22 - 8:25sometimes looking right through
one another's humanity. -
8:25 - 8:29I can't be bothered with you right now.
I have an idea for saving the world. -
8:30 - 8:31Right?
-
8:31 - 8:34(Laughter)
-
8:34 - 8:38Years ago, once upon a time,
I had this beautiful company -
8:38 - 8:42that created these long journeys
for heroic civic engagement. -
8:43 - 8:45And we had this mantra:
-
8:45 - 8:49"Human. Kind. Be Both."
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8:49 - 8:55And we encouraged people to experiment
outrageously with kindness. -
8:56 - 8:58Like, "Go help everybody
set up their tents." -
8:59 - 9:02And there were a lot of tents.
-
9:02 - 9:03(Laughter)
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9:04 - 9:06"Go buy everybody Popsicles."
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9:06 - 9:08"Go help people fix their flat tires
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9:08 - 9:11even though you know
the dinner line is going to get longer." -
9:11 - 9:13And people really took us up on this,
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9:13 - 9:16so much so that if you got
a flat tire on the AIDS ride, -
9:16 - 9:19you had trouble fixing it, because there
were so many people there asking you -
9:19 - 9:20if you needed help.
-
9:21 - 9:25For a few days,
for tens of thousands of people, -
9:25 - 9:27we created these worlds
-
9:27 - 9:32that everybody said were the way
they wish the world could always be. -
9:34 - 9:39What if we experimented
with creating that kind of world -
9:39 - 9:40these next few days?
-
9:42 - 9:46And instead of going up to someone
and asking them, "What do you do?" -
9:47 - 9:49ask them, "So what are your dreams?"
-
9:50 - 9:52or "What are your broken dreams?"
-
9:53 - 9:58You know, "TED."
Tend to Each other's Dreams. -
9:59 - 10:04(Applause)
-
10:04 - 10:06Maybe it's "I want to stay sober"
-
10:06 - 10:09or "I want to build
a tree house with my kid." -
10:10 - 10:13You know, instead of going up
to the person everybody wants to meet, -
10:13 - 10:14go up to the person who is all alone
-
10:15 - 10:17and ask them if they want
to grab a cup of coffee. -
10:19 - 10:21I think what we fear most
-
10:21 - 10:25is that we will be denied the opportunity
to fulfill our true potential, -
10:25 - 10:28that we are born to dream
-
10:28 - 10:32and we might die
without ever having the chance. -
10:34 - 10:35Imagine living in a world
-
10:35 - 10:41where we simply recognize
that deep, existential fear in one another -
10:42 - 10:45and love one another boldly
because we know -
10:45 - 10:48that to be human
is to live with that fear. -
10:50 - 10:55It's time for us to dream
in multiple dimensions simultaneously, -
10:56 - 11:00and somewhere that transcends
all of the wondrous things -
11:00 - 11:04we can and will and must do
-
11:05 - 11:10lies the domain of all
the unbelievable things we could be. -
11:12 - 11:15It's time we set foot into that dimension
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11:15 - 11:19and came out about the fact
that we have dreams there, too. -
11:21 - 11:24If the Moon could dream,
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11:26 - 11:30I think that would be its dream for us.
-
11:32 - 11:33It's an honor to be with you.
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11:33 - 11:35Thank you very much.
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11:35 - 11:42(Applause)
- Title:
- The dream we haven't dared to dream
- Speaker:
- Dan Pallotta
- Description:
-
What are your dreams? Better yet, what are your broken dreams? Dan Pallotta dreams of a time when we are as excited, curious and scientific about the development of our humanity as we are about the development of our technology. "What we fear most is that we will be denied the opportunity to fulfill our true potential," Pallotta says. "Imagine living in a world where we simply recognize that deep, existential fear in one another -- and love one another boldly because we know that to be human is to live with that fear."
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 11:56
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The dream we haven't dared to dream | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The dream we haven't dared to dream | ||
Krystian Aparta approved English subtitles for The dream we haven't dared to dream | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The dream we haven't dared to dream | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The dream we haven't dared to dream | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The dream we haven't dared to dream | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The dream we haven't dared to dream | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The dream we haven't dared to dream |