Our basic purpose | Richard Layard | TEDxOxford

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. What should be our basic purpose in life? What kind of society should we live in? Prof. Layard argues that the objective for our society should not be to become richer and richer. Wealth, he claims, is related to happiness only up to a point - and where the two diverge, we should not forget that the promised happiness was the only reason we attempted to become richer in the first place.
RICHARD LAYARD is best known for his contributions to happiness economics. You are likely to know him as the author of “Happiness: Lessons from a New Science” (2005) - a book which redefined the simplistic economic link between income and happiness. He is also the
co-founder of the Action for Happiness movement, now counting over 30,000 members. In both 2012 and 2013 Professor Layard co-edited the World Happiness Reports. Professor Layard’s studies have over the years considered unemployment and inequality. Moreover his recent work on the importance of non-income variables contributing to aggregate happiness has focused on mental health.
About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[@Syncopator]

"Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so." -- Robert Green Ingersoll

[@mingg.5546]

As a society, we should probably give "happiness" more credit. This talk's title should've included this very word :) His definition of Happiness (how good/bad do you feel about your life) is very close to "fulfilment" or "purpose", which imao is very good. Most of the time, the "puritans" are scared of this word because they think (wrongly) it is the synonym of indulgence/debauchery/excess/earthly pleasure, which couldn't be further from the truth. So, let's strive for our collective happiness, and be unabashed about it!

[@davidsmith-oi3zg]

Hello Ming how are you doing today?

[@markwalsh5671]

We are an ego driven society so I feel like I almost need to listen to something like this every day. It sinks in temporarily, but it's easy to get sucked back into the chaos of a competing, comparing world. It seems in the Western culture that we are programmed from a very young age to equate success and happiness with having or being more. It's interesting that with all the studies showing that it doesn't create more happiness, we still crave it. When I read accounts of death bed regrets it puts a lot of this into perspective. Thanks for the message Richard!

[@normastafford9716]

😢For me happiness is relative . Now in my old age , at 78 , the most important is maintaining my health , having enough savings for retirement , and a good relationships with families ,so we have a stress free and peaceful way of living ... stress free life will make one happy and at peace in life :::

[@numissmatic7911]

I believe that the decline in levels of trust coincide with the increase in narcissistic tendencies (which started SEVERAL decades ago), and lack of the knowledge of how to thoroughly communicate.

[@jon3nt]

I completely agree with this message. However mass change will not happen until the government, school system, and corporations actually start to care about our happiness. One step at a time though..

[@josephwipper4032]

Well said.

[@happinessyogateacher]

Obviously 🙄 excellent if one really listens to this extraordinarily intelligent and humble gentleman.

[@candiceberg5232]

"Your search for happiness has produced no results. -I think we all can do better than that"

[@nizzes2223]

Power and reflective message 👍

[@GnosisMan50]

What is our basic purpose? The very first one would be realizing that we are not yet self realized i.e. that we are presently stuck in a *STATE* of awareness that hinders our capacity to discover the next *STAGE* of awareness that many spiritual masters from all the wisdom traditions realized. This awareness is not privy to the rational mind. We spend too much time talking *ABOUT* what we must do at the altars of TED, but no one knows how to get the masses off their asses and rise up as they did during the civil rights movement. The reason why we are so dis-empowered is because we carry within us all manner of psychological diseases. The causes are many and here is just one small sample on how we deceive ourselves.... _Our conscious motivations, ideas, and beliefs are a blend of false information, biases, irrational passions, rationalizations, prejudices, in which morsels of truth swim around and give the reassurance, albeit false, that the whole mixture is real and true. The thinking process attempts to organize this whole cesspool of illusions according to the laws of logic and plausibility. This level of consciousness is supposed to reflect reality; it is the map we use for organizing our life. This false map is not repressed. What is repressed is _*_the knowledge of reality, the knowledge of what is true_*_. If we ask, then: What is unconscious? the answer must be: Aside from irrational passions, almost the whole of knowledge of reality. _*_The unconscious is basically determined by society, which produces irrational passions and provides its members with various kinds of fiction and thus forces the truth to become the prisoner of the alleged rationality_* Fromm, Erich. To Have or To Be? Erich Fromm's books, The Sane Society, Escape From Freedom, To Have or To Be?, and the Art Of Being, are the most profound books ever written. He deals not only on aspects of our being that impair our emotional and psychological creative potential, but he also deals with the socio economic forces that are dehumanizing, unjust, dangerous, insane, and therefore an affront to the evolution of humanity. You can talk all you want about purpose but no amount of it will make a difference as long as we conveniently leave out the present existential social economic realities that affect us directly. Capitalism, as we know it, is akin to a cult in which we are its members who follow blindly without question hence without knowing it's a cult. Nor are we aware of the depth of its humanizing forces. With all due respect to Richard and many motivational speaker like Tony and Mel Robbins, they have this proclivity, which upsets me to no end, to put the onus on the person and leave out the harsh realities facing so many people like those JD Vance mentions in his book "Hillbilly Elegy: a memoir of a family in crisis. Another book is by renowned sociologist Dr. Arlie Hochschild "Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right". No amount of lectures on "purpose" is going to help them!! Here is purpose for you: get mad *AS HELL* and tell all those in office that if they don't deal with the real concerns affecting American people, there will be hell to pay!! The Tea Partiers and those who follow Trump and despite their underlying racism and ignorance, what drives them are the existential economic crisis they are facing and the loss of MEANINGFUL fucking jobs!!! They want to live a dignified life but those in power don't give a rat's ass and the corporate state is the worse offender. And where is TED on this? The urgency is dire. Just as a deadly contagious virus kills the body, so too does ignorance and stupidity kills the mind with all manner of violence, greed, hatred, and apathy. If there is going to be any purpose, it's waking up!! Hence realizing we are being royally fucked by the machinations of the corporate state and our disgraceful politicians whose ignorance and utter stupidity is at the height of madness. Government is not the problem, it's those *IN* government that are making a mess of things and it's from both sides of the fucking aisle. What part of this is it that we don't understand?

[@mementomori29231]

excellent message, thanks

[@mrhorsepower29]

Happiness....walk in the steps you have in the way you want the world to be

[@LearningDevgarg]

Loved it!!!

[@harrietsadleir5807]

thanks!!!! :)

[@c.fischer6076]

wundervoll

[@Sbannmarie]

Oh thought this was RICHARD LEIDER

[@summondadrummin2868]

Like many if not most Doctors who know very little about nutrition , Economists say next to nothing about Money -what it is and where it originates. Since nutrition is the basis for good health and money is the basis for modern economics this amounts to a giant social blind spot. The functioning of these basic factors are foundational to the whole of human health and yet the so called experts do not discuss, do not mention, they avoid and ignore. This is the equivalent of placing blinders on a horse to get it to go a prescribed course -it's effective in limiting distractions in an artificial construct the race track- but place this horse in the wild and its narrowed perception will be an increasing liability. We all live in the wild universe- these theoretical constructs that are shaping the course of human history must be designed and conceived of to take in all the relevant ongoing information. As it stands currently these theories at the basis of medicine and economics are deeply flawed hence the completely perverse behavior of the dominant institutions.

[@tmalonso]

Show me where to sign :)

[@XThexXTank]

Happiness, nothing else masters.

[@milespq5561]

I though I was the only one interested in this stuff.

[@Martapura-vn1bi]

SYS DATA COM HOME + DATA = COMMONECATION + ACTIVITAS = ok SYS DATA COM MASTER PERSONAL COMPUTER ACCOUNTING

[@pambennett8967]

Mental health problems come from lousy patterns taught in childhood

[@spiderlime]

i'm certain that as an economist, this speaker will be able to determine the connection between the search for artificial happiness and the economy. this search is a collection of short-term solutions that 1: cost money. 2: in the case of medication, create an artificial docility in the population of medication-users. the end result is people who are more self-centered and dependent on the continuation of a mindset that excludes others and their concerns from the lives of those with such a dependency. this is a narcocracy, or the rule of drugs. in the same sense that the suicide of drug users means little to the ruling classes of such a society, so does the eventual suicide of the happiness-seekers. make of that what you will.

[@pambennett8967]

I've had zero help in thereaoy

[@I_have_solved_AGI]

One of the rare examples of a intelligent but humble white guys, but still not a hundred percent right about everything

[@pambennett8967]

DID

[@davidwilkie9551]

Be

[@theowlknowseverything2124]

LOVE silly man.

[@VibratorySix8]

WoW

[@Tex200950]

Being productive is far more important than anything else. Being productive makes me happy !!

[@bxbank]

How can he say the ll sectors have become more wealthy? Look at how much poverty and inequality there still is!? Of course, money doesn't by happiness. Current economics strives on fear. Competition will not change while we use usury currency. If he is really serious, he would look at new currency types that strive for what he wants. No empowered environmental, political, or social change will happen until economic reforms are made, and that won't happen until we leave usury commodity currencies behind and move to qualitative exchange mechanisms with no cost that incentives status to create sustainably. This means a no-cost, non-commodity exchange model that doesn't need fractional reserve lending or usury to run it. Search BUXB on Facebook and P2P wiki to find out more.