hello so synergy is when two more people
or organizations combine their efforts
to produce an outcome that’s worth more
than they would achieve separately now
by this definition social hierarchies
are the enemy
of synergy but we humans we love to
organize ourselves into social
hierarchies ever since we stopped being
hunter-gatherers we’ve lived in
societies where you have an elite at the
top and masses at the bottom and this
elites have always found ways they’ve
always developed different belief
systems to justify their position
whether it be the caste system in India
or trickle-down economics where they
tell you that the rich can get richer
and those at the bottom will benefit as
a result or religious doctrines such as
the predestination of Protestant
Calvinism which tells you that when
you’re born in this world God has really
decided whether you’re going to heaven
or hell when you die and these sorts of
belief systems have justified slavery
and all other types of exploitation and
I think it’s holding us back as a
species but and I think the greatest
symbol visual metaphor of social
hierarchies is this the Egyptian
pyramids
you’ve got the apex at the top and then
you’ve got the broad base at the bottom
now I have a love-hate relationship with
pyramids I mean on the one hand I think
they’re incredible it’s you know they’re
5,000 years old the smallest bricks at
the top weigh 20 tons the ones at the
bottom weigh 80 tons people put this
together whether they’re skilled
laborers or slaves we don’t know but
they put this together without the help
of machinery and I find that utterly
incredible it represents what’s so great
about the human species its ingenuity
coordination ambition hard work but at
the same time you think well thousands
of people worked on these structures
without being paid most a lot of them
would have died and what for just to
bury one man or one woman you know it’s
it’s a disgrace and yet somehow we
forget about the context in which these
buildings these structures are made and
we flock there in our millions to marvel
at them like I can imagine if you tried
doing that today in this day and age can
you imagine a leader such as Donald
Trump saying okay you know demanding
that you know working-class Americans
build a monument for him you know it
would be a skyscraper in this day and
age made out of gold no to happen and
you know we wouldn’t accept that we
would find it completely outrageous but
you know what even if he managed to pull
it off within a century people would
have forgotten about the injustice of it
all and they would just be flocking to
enjoy the fruits of someone’s
megalomania now we should ask ourselves
why
what is it that made these people builds
these structures in the first place it’s
weird cuz when you think when you ask a
poor person in this day and age or in
ancient times what do you want when you
die they say I want to go to I want
paradise I want to go to heaven
it’s funny how all these leaders these
pharaohs these kings these Emperor’s
they always seem to be on the defensive
you know they want possessions and or
sacrificed human beings to come with
them in these tombs to protect them in
the afterlife and you know that tells
you something about their mindset you
know they know that being at the top of
the social hierarchy isn’t right that
they have enjoyed life at the expense of
other people and history’s taught us
time and time again that if you organize
the society in that way it eventually
collapses and so but yet somehow we
forget about this and we repeat that
mistake again and again and even in the
last 50 years I can give you several
examples of societies where people were
riding high and then it all collapsed
and you know perfect example is
apartheid South Africa back in 2003
I am I stayed with an Afrikaner farmer
in the Western Cape he was a wine farmer
and someone in his position fifty years
earlier was have it made you know they
have all these basically slave workers
he would pay a little bit of money that
often pay them in wine and the whole
community would become turned into
alcoholics they were dysfunctional that
as long as they produce the why and then
everything was fine but you cut to 2003
and basically he was reaping what he
sowed but in a completely different way
he was really struggling with its
workers he was still paying them in wine
every now and then but when they got
drunk they weren’t some of them would
get violent of him and so he was
constantly battling with his workers and
he would smash them over the head with
empty wine bottles and he would say you
know it’s the only language they
understand if he fired them they would
retaliate by defecating on his premises
and so he would then spend half a day in
the employment tribunal suing them and
that was his life and his wife I do feel
sorry for him here his wife was murdered
when their son was just six years old
and his whole community terrified of
like leaving their houses on foot they
go by car everywhere and you think oh
you know he’s just a wine father he’s
not a millionaire you know like his
ancestors fought to create the social
hierarchy and look what’s coming in and
the problem is you see this not just on
a national scale but within families as
well you have these hierarchies which
are really problematic
you know paternalism the sort of
paternalistic society does not work
obviously as human beings we are
insecure you know we like the feeling of
having people beneath us and gives us a
sense of security but actually if we’re
small we should recognize that everyone
around us has talents and has something
of a contributes to society
and it just amazes me that in this day
and age you can have men in certain
parts of the world who you know want
wives who are illiterate and uneducated
or undereducated why would you want the
mother of your children to basically
have no power in the world and no
ability to teach your kids the skills
that they need to survive in the 21st
century you know it was fine back in the
day you know a thousand years ago you
could give birth to a child at the age
of 14 you could teach them the things
they needed to survive and everything’s
fine it was just a bit of farming
fishing making clothes you know not much
but now life is changing so much you
know every 15 years the world feels
unrecognizable and allow your children
whether it’s your daughter’s all your
sons as well to grow up in this world
without the tools to survive and to
thrive in this world I think is you know
it’s not just an act of dereliction but
it’s it’s self sabotaging and there are
also other consequences of this we just
had a terror terrorist attack in London
the other day and every time you have a
terrorist attack
you’ll hear politicians and journalists
talking about you know the community and
what the community can do to stop these
are these boys been being radicalized
but the problem is you know a lot of
these boys not even necessarily the
terrorists themselves were the ones who
could potentially become terrorists they
come from these very paternalistic
families and social structures where the
mothers have no power over them the
mothers are taught that their male
offspring are above them in the
hierarchy
so how can you know how can these women
exert any influence on these men they
can’t and they’re not and we’re seeing
the consequences of that so I think it’s
you know extremely important but
everyone in the world maximizes their
potential we should be prospecting for
geniuses the way that we prospect for
you know oil and minerals you know and
that’s really not happening and so going
back to that these pyramids you look at
this structure and you think my god you
know it is amazing I mean there is some
synergy involved in in the construction
of these things but it’s the wrong kind
of synergy it’s people coming together
people being compelled to put their
energy towards a project that really has
no value other than aesthetic and his
you know historical they’re really you
know what we want is that same kind of
collaboration but in a completely
different way and this is the thing I
struggle to understand is why when you
think of all the major achievements I
should say that in inverted commas
whether it’s putting the man on the moon
whether it’s building the Terracotta
Warriors in China all of these things
they’re always motivated by either
militaristic aims or in the case of the
moon landings competing with Russia in
the Cold War it just seems to me that as
human beings we can do almost anything
we want but it always seems to be
motivated by the wrong things
and we have to find a way to motivate
ourselves in a way that isn’t
militaristic well isn’t to do with the
vanity of one demagogue and we tried
different means we’ve tried religion as
a way of compelling groups of people
together to achieve a positive aim but
that doesn’t work you end up with
hierarchies within religion and then
religion gets corrupted and you have
schisms and etc etc and we’ve also tried
it with a profit motive as well which
has gone some way towards achieving that
but you know I don’t need to tell you
but you know it is largely failed
there’s only one there is only one thing
that can motivate all human beings to
work together for a common earner and
that is a sense of self-preservation you
know we really need to understand that
keeping that bound shot and down
ultimately hurts us it hurts everyone at
the top as well and so we need to
maximize everyone’s potential so that
every child that you see can contribute
something to this world things are
becoming more complex we’ve got climate
change environmental degradation
changing demographic structure aging
populations and you know the possibility
of superbugs and you know we’re getting
lead becomes complacent as a society as
a planet and when you think about it the
last flu epidemic was in 1918 I mean
that was less than a century ago you
know there’s no reason why really major
super bug won’t hits us and decimate our
population you know we need people who
can help we don’t want just some elites
and that we rely on while everyone else
is just sitting back and waiting for
them to do something you know you
imagine a world where you know everyone
can contribute where everyone is literal
and that no one is left behind you know
that’s the kind of world that we want in
order to do that we have to value
everyone we have to get rid of these
social hierarchies and you know the
attitude has to be that we all get all
hands on deck and work together
or organizations combine their efforts
to produce an outcome that’s worth more
than they would achieve separately now
by this definition social hierarchies
are the enemy
of synergy but we humans we love to
organize ourselves into social
hierarchies ever since we stopped being
hunter-gatherers we’ve lived in
societies where you have an elite at the
top and masses at the bottom and this
elites have always found ways they’ve
always developed different belief
systems to justify their position
whether it be the caste system in India
or trickle-down economics where they
tell you that the rich can get richer
and those at the bottom will benefit as
a result or religious doctrines such as
the predestination of Protestant
Calvinism which tells you that when
you’re born in this world God has really
decided whether you’re going to heaven
or hell when you die and these sorts of
belief systems have justified slavery
and all other types of exploitation and
I think it’s holding us back as a
species but and I think the greatest
symbol visual metaphor of social
hierarchies is this the Egyptian
pyramids
you’ve got the apex at the top and then
you’ve got the broad base at the bottom
now I have a love-hate relationship with
pyramids I mean on the one hand I think
they’re incredible it’s you know they’re
5,000 years old the smallest bricks at
the top weigh 20 tons the ones at the
bottom weigh 80 tons people put this
together whether they’re skilled
laborers or slaves we don’t know but
they put this together without the help
of machinery and I find that utterly
incredible it represents what’s so great
about the human species its ingenuity
coordination ambition hard work but at
the same time you think well thousands
of people worked on these structures
without being paid most a lot of them
would have died and what for just to
bury one man or one woman you know it’s
it’s a disgrace and yet somehow we
forget about the context in which these
buildings these structures are made and
we flock there in our millions to marvel
at them like I can imagine if you tried
doing that today in this day and age can
you imagine a leader such as Donald
Trump saying okay you know demanding
that you know working-class Americans
build a monument for him you know it
would be a skyscraper in this day and
age made out of gold no to happen and
you know we wouldn’t accept that we
would find it completely outrageous but
you know what even if he managed to pull
it off within a century people would
have forgotten about the injustice of it
all and they would just be flocking to
enjoy the fruits of someone’s
megalomania now we should ask ourselves
why
what is it that made these people builds
these structures in the first place it’s
weird cuz when you think when you ask a
poor person in this day and age or in
ancient times what do you want when you
die they say I want to go to I want
paradise I want to go to heaven
it’s funny how all these leaders these
pharaohs these kings these Emperor’s
they always seem to be on the defensive
you know they want possessions and or
sacrificed human beings to come with
them in these tombs to protect them in
the afterlife and you know that tells
you something about their mindset you
know they know that being at the top of
the social hierarchy isn’t right that
they have enjoyed life at the expense of
other people and history’s taught us
time and time again that if you organize
the society in that way it eventually
collapses and so but yet somehow we
forget about this and we repeat that
mistake again and again and even in the
last 50 years I can give you several
examples of societies where people were
riding high and then it all collapsed
and you know perfect example is
apartheid South Africa back in 2003
I am I stayed with an Afrikaner farmer
in the Western Cape he was a wine farmer
and someone in his position fifty years
earlier was have it made you know they
have all these basically slave workers
he would pay a little bit of money that
often pay them in wine and the whole
community would become turned into
alcoholics they were dysfunctional that
as long as they produce the why and then
everything was fine but you cut to 2003
and basically he was reaping what he
sowed but in a completely different way
he was really struggling with its
workers he was still paying them in wine
every now and then but when they got
drunk they weren’t some of them would
get violent of him and so he was
constantly battling with his workers and
he would smash them over the head with
empty wine bottles and he would say you
know it’s the only language they
understand if he fired them they would
retaliate by defecating on his premises
and so he would then spend half a day in
the employment tribunal suing them and
that was his life and his wife I do feel
sorry for him here his wife was murdered
when their son was just six years old
and his whole community terrified of
like leaving their houses on foot they
go by car everywhere and you think oh
you know he’s just a wine father he’s
not a millionaire you know like his
ancestors fought to create the social
hierarchy and look what’s coming in and
the problem is you see this not just on
a national scale but within families as
well you have these hierarchies which
are really problematic
you know paternalism the sort of
paternalistic society does not work
obviously as human beings we are
insecure you know we like the feeling of
having people beneath us and gives us a
sense of security but actually if we’re
small we should recognize that everyone
around us has talents and has something
of a contributes to society
and it just amazes me that in this day
and age you can have men in certain
parts of the world who you know want
wives who are illiterate and uneducated
or undereducated why would you want the
mother of your children to basically
have no power in the world and no
ability to teach your kids the skills
that they need to survive in the 21st
century you know it was fine back in the
day you know a thousand years ago you
could give birth to a child at the age
of 14 you could teach them the things
they needed to survive and everything’s
fine it was just a bit of farming
fishing making clothes you know not much
but now life is changing so much you
know every 15 years the world feels
unrecognizable and allow your children
whether it’s your daughter’s all your
sons as well to grow up in this world
without the tools to survive and to
thrive in this world I think is you know
it’s not just an act of dereliction but
it’s it’s self sabotaging and there are
also other consequences of this we just
had a terror terrorist attack in London
the other day and every time you have a
terrorist attack
you’ll hear politicians and journalists
talking about you know the community and
what the community can do to stop these
are these boys been being radicalized
but the problem is you know a lot of
these boys not even necessarily the
terrorists themselves were the ones who
could potentially become terrorists they
come from these very paternalistic
families and social structures where the
mothers have no power over them the
mothers are taught that their male
offspring are above them in the
hierarchy
so how can you know how can these women
exert any influence on these men they
can’t and they’re not and we’re seeing
the consequences of that so I think it’s
you know extremely important but
everyone in the world maximizes their
potential we should be prospecting for
geniuses the way that we prospect for
you know oil and minerals you know and
that’s really not happening and so going
back to that these pyramids you look at
this structure and you think my god you
know it is amazing I mean there is some
synergy involved in in the construction
of these things but it’s the wrong kind
of synergy it’s people coming together
people being compelled to put their
energy towards a project that really has
no value other than aesthetic and his
you know historical they’re really you
know what we want is that same kind of
collaboration but in a completely
different way and this is the thing I
struggle to understand is why when you
think of all the major achievements I
should say that in inverted commas
whether it’s putting the man on the moon
whether it’s building the Terracotta
Warriors in China all of these things
they’re always motivated by either
militaristic aims or in the case of the
moon landings competing with Russia in
the Cold War it just seems to me that as
human beings we can do almost anything
we want but it always seems to be
motivated by the wrong things
and we have to find a way to motivate
ourselves in a way that isn’t
militaristic well isn’t to do with the
vanity of one demagogue and we tried
different means we’ve tried religion as
a way of compelling groups of people
together to achieve a positive aim but
that doesn’t work you end up with
hierarchies within religion and then
religion gets corrupted and you have
schisms and etc etc and we’ve also tried
it with a profit motive as well which
has gone some way towards achieving that
but you know I don’t need to tell you
but you know it is largely failed
there’s only one there is only one thing
that can motivate all human beings to
work together for a common earner and
that is a sense of self-preservation you
know we really need to understand that
keeping that bound shot and down
ultimately hurts us it hurts everyone at
the top as well and so we need to
maximize everyone’s potential so that
every child that you see can contribute
something to this world things are
becoming more complex we’ve got climate
change environmental degradation
changing demographic structure aging
populations and you know the possibility
of superbugs and you know we’re getting
lead becomes complacent as a society as
a planet and when you think about it the
last flu epidemic was in 1918 I mean
that was less than a century ago you
know there’s no reason why really major
super bug won’t hits us and decimate our
population you know we need people who
can help we don’t want just some elites
and that we rely on while everyone else
is just sitting back and waiting for
them to do something you know you
imagine a world where you know everyone
can contribute where everyone is literal
and that no one is left behind you know
that’s the kind of world that we want in
order to do that we have to value
everyone we have to get rid of these
social hierarchies and you know the
attitude has to be that we all get all
hands on deck and work together
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