Picture a perfect society. What does it look like? - Joseph Lacey

Dig into political philosopher John Rawls’ classic thought experiment about what principles we need to design a fair society.
--
A group of strangers have gathered to design a just society. To ensure none of them rig the system, they’ve been placed under a veil of ignorance. Under this veil, they’re blind to information about age, sex, profession, wealth, religion, and so on. Can they build a fair society where everyone has the resources they need? Joseph Lacey details John Rawls' classic thought experiment.
Lesson by Joseph Lacey, directed by Eoin Duffy.
Support Our Non-Profit Mission
----------------------------------------------
Support us on Patreon: bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon
Check out our merch: bit.ly/TEDEDShop
----------------------------------------------
Connect With Us
----------------------------------------------
Sign up for our newsletter: bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter
Follow us on Facebook: bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook
Find us on Twitter: bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter
Peep us on Instagram: bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram
----------------------------------------------
Keep Learning
----------------------------------------------
View full lesson: ed.ted.com/lessons/3-easy-ste...
Dig deeper with additional resources: ed.ted.com/lessons/3-easy-ste...
Animator's website: eoinduffy.me
----------------------------------------------
Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Katie McDowell, Allen, Mahina Knuckles, Charmaine Hanson, Thawsitt, Jezabel, Abdullah Abdulaziz, Xiao Yu, Melissa Suarez, Brian A. Dunn, Francisco Amaya, Daisuke Goto, Matt Switzler, Peng, Tzu-Hsiang, Bethany Connor, Jeremy Shimanek, Mark Byers, Avinash Amarnath, Xuebicoco, Rayo, Po Foon Kwong, Boffin, Jesse Jurman, Scott Markley, Elija Peterson, Ovidiu Mrd, paul g mohney, Steven Razey, Nathan Giusti, Helen Lee, Anthony Benedict, Karthik Balsubramanian, Annastasshia Ames, Amy Lopez, Vinh-Thuy Nguyen, Liz Candee, Ugur Doga Sezgin, Karmi Nguyen, John C. Vesey, Yelena Baykova, Nick Johnson, Carlos H. Costa, Jennifer Kurkoski, Ryan B Harvey, Akinola Emmanuel, Jose Arcadio Valdes Franco, Sebastiaan Vleugels, Karl Laius, JY Kang and Abhishek Goel.

[@TEDEd]

Healthy democracies rely on informed citizens. Unpack more democratic principles and jumpstart your own engagement at ed.ted.com/democracy-lab

[@johnbraithwaite863]

Name one.

[@boxhunter9742]

too good to be true I don't buy it

[@Plusimurfriend]

a naive manchild made this video

[@civilengineer3349]

Wrong. Healthy democracy should rely on giving people choice. Forced education is not choice

[@dsoul1305]

"Healthy nations" is an oxymoron. Only the top classes thinks it can exist such thing. They are nonetheless unable to target the reasons of why classes exist in the first place.

[@pingidjit]

I definitely agree on a limit of campaign spending and donations. I also think there should not be a minimum wage but a maximum wage. That maximum wage being % based on the wages of all employees within the company. If a CEO wants themselves and upper management to earn more, than all their employees have to earn more. It would encourage a stronger work environment, decrease stress, and promote innovation. Politicians would not be able to earn more than the average wage of all the people they govern. Encouraging them to make policies that benefit their citizens health, education, capabilities, etc in order to be higher wage earners. This would also make it more likely that people that want to help others would be politicans rather than the power and money hungry folks.

[@elvis1745]

and ban lobbying

[@foy5051]

Maximum wage is a new one for me, but it somewhat makes sense if we also include managing certain fringe/side benefits, like shares in a company

[@RespectLoveUnityPeace]

I’ve been arguing for a maximum wage since the 80s when trickle-down economics began increasing the wealth gap to the worst in history. No single person should own $100 billion…

[@BicBoi1984]

You don't understand how the economy works lol

[@pingidjit]

@@BicBoi1984 The 'economy' as the term is used today is a made up system by humans. It doesn't exist. The reality is that people are the economy. The workforce makes up the economy. Ever notice that when people have less money and less employment that is when the economy tanks? People are the economy. Give them stability in work and money and they will keep the economy strong and stable in return. Its truly that simple. If you think otherwise you are likely misled by those who wanted to keep their slaves whose 'teachings' have infested into capitalist doctrine.

[@michealwestfall8544]

Building from the ground up is easy but changing existing structures is hard. People don't want to be told that they're not special, and the 10 years they spent growing 1 million dollars to 2 million dollars wasn't hard and most people could do it if they started with 1 million dollars and it wasn't hard work that got them there.

[@Sunflowersarepretty]

Free education or at least good quality and cheaper education along with cheaper medical care would be my version of Utopia in this world. I know places in the west have it but its not everywhere. Either the quality of education and health care is sub par or they're expensive.

[@ThrashRats]

The problem with free services is they allow pathways to corruption, as an example here in South America, we've got the free services, but they are perfect excuses for money to disappear into whilst our schools are falling apart. Without proper ways to fight corruption you end up with a bloated system that burns through millions each year to still give the bare minimum help, just like here where if you look to use the free medical system you'll be on a waitlist for at least a month.

[@SandyTaylor-tv6fc]

Without free education a society always becomes a plutocracy (ruled by the rich) because the rich have unaccountable power over the education system because it's run for profit

[@civilengineer3349]

A good student can learn in a bad school. A bad student can't learn in a good school

[@dsoul1305]

South America's corruption problems are majorly attached to foreigner interests in continuying the corruption to hinder development. There are countless historical examples of countries trying to fix their issues and receiving outside intervention. A just society allows for true competition, in inside and outside markets.

[@ThrashRats]

@dsoul1305 As a South American. Peruvian, to be precise. I completely disagree. The closest thing to direct outsider intervention have been two cases. Operacion Condor that tried to counterract the international plan of multiple communist parties on overtalinf their countries goverments. And how the ONU have constantly tried to safeguard members of Sendero Luminoso and the MRTA. Terrorist groups that were horrible in this country.

[@EoinDuffyAnimation]

🎉🙌 So proud to have worked on this! Glad to have to out there :)

[@Gordy-io8sb]

Yeah, uh did you know they made a video directly contradicting this one? They denounced the idea of a utopia in "How to recognize a dystopia". You're working with a bunch of hypocrites.

[@ThrashRats]

@@Gordy-io8sb its funny, because if you cared to even watch the video rather than read the titles you'd know the Dystopia video is about literally dystopias and their presence in books affected the past, whilst this one talks on an author's theory on a better government system. That's without saying that Ted-Ed is more of a video-based forum article. Of course there's a checking, but each writer decides the focus of their own work. That's what the names by the side of the titles are for. I don't always agree with their videos, but they are good content.

[@tf5pZ9H5vcAdBp]

Thanks for making an animation so attention grabbing that I had to turn it off the second time through so I could focus on the words.

[@Astro_Rohan]

How does one into animating for Ted-Ed?

[@maths_nerd]

​@@Gordy-io8sbSo what? They are simply conveying the idea of the author. Are you trying to say that a teacher should not teach his students about Communism because he taught Capitalism last week?

[@anthonycroisier80]

Apart from the quality content, we often praise the relentless creativity of TEDed's illustrations, but let's all appreciate for a moment how well thought is the sound design of these videos! The attention for such details shows how the creators are dedicated to their work! Thank you, TEDed Team, for your awesome work!🙌

[@RadhakrishnanSrinathan]

For every like I'll study for 1 hour

[@Bonk...3]

20 hours

[@sineadpurcell3134]

Ya won’t be studying for long!

[@AngelicNoodlee]

Haha

[@Lets_Get_Creating]

53 hours

[@renzcruzmabalatan2225]

PLEASE DO NOT PRESSURE YOURSELF. DO NOT GET MOTIVATED BY THIS. STUDY AS IF IT IS YOU BREATHING NATURALLY. STUDYING ARROGANTLY WILL GET OUR BRAINS TO NOWHERE AND ENJOY EVERY PLANCK OF IT.

[@Pontius_Pilate1]

I’m waiting on the ‘how to build a dystopia’ sequel

[@leeqimin]

They did a dystopia video a few years ago!

[@Pontius_Pilate1]

I’m looking for more a tutorial, you know?

[@DREMajed]

​@@leeqiminlink?

[@vageeshdevanathan]

Read Heidegger

[@nettsm]

Just read history

[@kishanpandya5919]

I had to watch it twice. Second time just to focus on the audio. The graphics are simply phenomenal!

[@shanynidam8943]

I'm aiming for 3, this kind of debates make me want to think about more and more "what ifs" and that is also fun. Maybe 4🤓

[@marc_frank]

i found them useless pretty, but useless

[@hetzarrow6957]

Always...

[@TheAlgeriano9]

Prophet Muhammad's rule created the perfect society in early Islam era.

[@fishtrick1_]

Um no it didn’t

[@ChalkyMuffin969]

That utopia relies on heavy state control while also being a democracy while also still being capitalist, basically it believes that a utopia can be done today without changing anything of our material conditions and hoping it works by ideas alone and the famously "infinite benevolence of our rulers" this is truly just a thought experiment, and a very unimaginative one at that.

[@jayl5032]

I wouldn't call it unimaginative. Rawls dove pretty heavily into many aspects of this utopia. It's a fun and interesting thought process. It would never work, people are just too greedy, but it's neat to think about nonetheless.

[@ChalkyMuffin969]

@@jayl5032 Yes he dove into many aspects, but what I meant with "unimaginative" is how he is unable to imagine a world, even a utopia, outside of capitalism and its logic, it truly is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism

[@xinfinity4756]

@@ChalkyMuffin969 To his credit its not as though a better option with better real world results exists to be drawn on. Outside of options with real world results it obviously would just be a purely hypothetical thought experiment with no grounding in reality

[@wolfVFV]

Well universal basic income works in some states. Wealth inequality will happen automaticly. And stuff like taxes may allow poorer people too live better lifes. Limit on campaign spending is easy.

[@onebear6504]

The more vague (fuzzy and convoluted) it is, the harder to argue against it. Anyways, wonder if this originates the whole woke thing, where "victim" groups become "bully" groups while those in power stays in power.

[@danvikkilmire6075]

Hmm, pretty vague

[@funkydiscogod]

That's the point: the vaguer it is, the more difficult it is to argue against it.

[@JuanRodrigez-vq9kv]

I mean to me it's just social democracy, nothing really new in his theory

[@antoniomonaco4582]

Its a five minutes video. Are you really complaining that it is vague? Go read the book then

[@danvikkilmire6075]

@@antoniomonaco4582 k

[@EcomCarl]

the vision for a just society under the veil of ignorance is a compelling reminder of the importance of fairness in our foundational structures. It challenges us to consider how policies might be shaped if we prioritized the well-being of the least advantaged from the start. 👍

[@SciMinute]

It’s artistic in one sense and philosophical in another!

[@rajeshkumar-ws7bx]

And dead end in the sense of reality

[@Puppeteer_in_the_Void]

I like the unique artstyle. I admire the brilliance it takes to give those shapes the meanings they have

[@XRaym]

The creativity behind these animations is outstanding!!

[@wolfVFV]

My main problem with this thought experiment are the architects If you do not know anything about yourself what opinions do you have? Arent your opinions you make based on your past experiences? F.e. sexism/racism towards you And if you remove the past experiences then what is left? What opinion can someone have with no past?

[@higztv1166]

cool shapes

[@auliarachma1476]

I really love the simplicity of this animation

[@Draghoul03]

Real story, I actually heard about John Rawl's work through a mobile gacha game called Girl's Frontline. Near the end of the first act of the story the game just throughs a quote on screen: "The only thing that permits us to acquiesce in an erroneous theory is the lack of a better one; analogously, an injustice is tolerable only when it is necessary to avoid an even greater injustice. Being first virtues of human activities, truth and justice are uncompromising." While the characters discuss how to move forward to try and save as many lives as they can while still accomplishing their larger goal of ending the current war. This is (one of the reasons) why video games are art, even mobile games

[@MaekarManastorm]

No one cares

[@Draghoul03]

@@MaekarManastorm Then why did you care enough to reply?

[@okiahmadzulkifli2213]

Every fiction narrative, either in games, novels, movies, comics, etc. portrays certain values that could change our worldview. That's why some called it the contestation of ideas. It is up to us to filter out certain values that might not align with reality.

[@Draghoul03]

@@okiahmadzulkifli2213 I don’t think “filtering out” disagreeable ideas is practical. We should at least acknowledge they exist so we can address them and explain to ourselves and others why they’re wrong

[@EEE-1409]

I love these videos so much. The illustrations make it so easy to understand and fascinating topics are always explored! Well done!!

[@rajeshkumar-ws7bx]

The illustrations is just color shapes floating around the screen....what's so understanding in that

[@EEE-1409]

@@rajeshkumar-ws7bx I'm a visual person. It does help. And the shapes are supposed to represent all the different types of people in the world

[@Puppeteer_in_the_Void]

This in combination with my world history class made me think of something interesting. We might be as far from the peak of idealogical progress as we are from the peak of scientific proogress

[@john_hunter_]

He's trying to merge 2 opposing concepts. He wants individual will, but at the same time he wants everyone to agree to the same system. This can be done but it requires a system where you raise the next generation to conform to the same system. So their individual will is in agreement with everyone else's.

[@mashupotato_]

Yea, that's why Nozick comes into the picture and says: The welfare state cannot dictate what I want to do with my life -- it cannot tax me for the sake of the poor.

[@john_hunter_]

​@@mashupotato_ People like Nozick are the ones raised with narcissistic & self serving desires. Their actions hurt communities. The most successful communities are the ones that cooperate to survive. If Nozick was raised with good moral values, he would willingly help the poor without being forced to.

[@Squalidarity]

What’s striking about Rawls’ proposal is the unspoken assumption that social inequality and injustice, rather than resulting from and being maintained by political systems, are instead natural and inevitable. For instance, he proposes that the architects would provide generous welfare and unemployment benefits to keep anyone from falling through the cracks. But those programs are only necessary because our society ties the ability to get the necessities of life to employment, and uses that as a means to coerce people into doing menial, exhausting, or even dangerous labor. Would a just society recreate such exploitation? Evidently, for Rawls, the answer is yes, despite the fact that this directly contradicts the goal of granting everyone the bare minimum needed to live and pursue their own goals. It’s like he _wants_ to say “society should be organized on the understanding that everyone will try to provide for others in whatever way they can to the best of their ability, and will be provided for in turn, even if they may need more or less than someone else” but then chickens out cause he doesn’t want to say the C word lol.

[@Rikri]

While I would agree, I think the issue with that last idea is that it's a bit unrealistic to strive for in the current state of society.

[@Squalidarity]

@@Rikri I would counter that if you allow your political horizons and practice to be defined by the ruling ontology, by what is “realistic” within the current system, you’ll never succeed at changing anything.

[@Rikri]

@@Squalidarity I mean yes, if you had full control over the political system then I'd be on board with that; but that's only really going to happen if a revolution happens I think

[@mashupotato_]

One critique of Rawlsian Justice is also found in American political theorist Iris Marion Young's "Justice and the Politics of Difference." For Young, there is a need to displace Rawls's distributive account of justice because it blurs the overarching social institutions that help perpetuate injustices.

[@bandiharshith2678]

The Animation is outstanding! But I don't get how is it related to the subject.

[@BachmaiNguyen-INTJ19]

The shapes supposedly represent people, changing positions as the topic changes. For example, when they explain the struggle of a disabled individual - you see three circles easily rolling foward and a blue/grey square going on slower (= represents the 'disadvantaged' individual). Hope this helps!

[@bandiharshith2678]

@@BachmaiNguyen-INTJ19 Gotcha!

[@freshavocadew]

4:40 excellent animation

[@Agnal_the_writer_and_poet]

It would be great if you make a video on the little prince

[@jayl5032]

Limits on governemental power and corporate power. That's all, really. The democratic market system can do pretty good if it's not bogged down by a million arbitrary gov/company rules and their simultaneous strangle hold on the economy.

[@JPBVideo]

Rawls dismissed certain solutions as being based on unrealistic expectations but then sets up an entire thought experiment based on the unrealistic expectations of people not knowing their own history or background.

[@Rikri]

To be fair, some of the ideals are easier to strive towards than those proposed by something like Marxism, which I would imagine was what he meant.

[@marcusmoonstein242]

I think Rawls was aware that our own self-interests heavily skews what we see as "just" or fair, and his entire theory was meant to make us conscious of this often unconscious bias. We are meant to imagine what we would believe if we weren't aware of our individual circumstances, and justify those beliefs with rational arguments based on the premise of our ignorance.

[@VerticalFries]

Great video, and the animation is also remarkable

[@randomobserver8168]

I would not, and would actively resist any attempt to try. Every utopia is someone's dystopia, and frankly any utopia that would appeal to any large number of people would alienate as many. Worse, sooner or later even the designer figures out that his own vision of perfection is alienating even to him, should he live long enough. Plus, and given that usually somewhat balanced reality between proponents and opponents of any utopian vision, it raises the stakes so unspeakably high as to both necessitate and justify all out war to advance or resist the cause. The liberal democratic model of endless incremental dispute, occasional changes of direction, and sometimes change of something long established, including the dreams of the past generation, is better. Forever. Pity its on its last legs.

[@leopalmer3908]

Maybe just watch the video?

[@owain_rj]

Why does it need to be framed as the natural solution theoretically unbiased people would come to? It’s just his opinion on how he thinks society should be organised. Making assumptions about the behaviour of “unbiased people” is impossible as any real person is thinking from a biased perspective.

[@mrkartoffel7418]

Well I think the point is he’s trying to look at it if he had no bias.

[@user-er6tw5xr6w]

Is the whole video just an experiment to check if people can focus when there are colored shapes on the screen?

[@ShadowOfThePit]

lmao

[@OutlawMaxV]

His proposition solves nothing as it stills relies on government as we know it to be benevolent, but we all know far to well what happens when power accumulates in one entity

[@lynnboartsdye1943]

I think not being able to draw from your experiences to at least a small degree would feel a bit impossible for me to comprehend if I’m working with a group of strangers. On the one hand I also don’t want the system created to tip more power into one or more parties hands. I think regardless of how you set up this thought experiment there are things that our current system denies us that should be considered human rights. For example my utopia would include: Universal human rights/anti discrimination policy Free healthcare Accessibility for physically and mentally disabled Free Education both basic and higher Non negotiable free housing, food and water Walkable cities People should come over profit period, you’re not a bad person for wanting more than your basic needs. assuming you’re not wanting to commit murder or hurt other people for what you want.

[@clementlettuce]

beautiful art

[@tf5pZ9H5vcAdBp]

2:40 so ultimately there are still offices and the majority is still the rule even if it's wrong. That's how your utopia ends.

[@entangledatoms7153]

It’d be great if something at least close to this could happen, but that’s not gonna happen. We at least start though, in which I’ll say: why don’t we decrease some of those profoundly high and needless budgets, and also let’s make our country look as good as Europe’s countries so we can look at beautiful things when we go outside. (I won’t lie, that’s actually a big leap for today’s U.S, so perhaps something a bit easier to change, like better political leaders)

[@rishikakrishna]

EXACTLY

[@SATS600]

Thing is, if just the mere thought of doing something better than others drives someone then inequality and many other problems will prevail, we may make food available to everyone but if things like taste matter then someone will have to be marginalized. I think inequality is bad only if the next generation gets severely unprivileged as sometimes it is these hardships that make us learn new things and with time those who were rich earlier, will find their coming generation not prevail. So the society kinda becomes a pendulum between different sets of people.

[@RidireOiche]

Here me out... we make a fleet of the ship from Wall-E, enough for everybody and live there. Perfectly equal society. Or and this is probably more realistic, we end the practice of trickle down economics, apply rubber banding to wealth, close all tax loopholes, and end the normalising of workarounds with insanely high fines that divide wealth of the fraudsters to a high fraction if they try to cheat the system.

[@kibitz2327]

Democracy devolves into majority rule, need a centralized authority to protect any of these rules/rights.

[@marcusmoonstein242]

Probably the best theory of social fairness I've heard. I would argue for a welfare system that meets basic human needs at the bottom, but with no cap on income at the top. I would justify this with a progressive income tax system that taxed higher income people more and then used that tax revenue to finance the welfare system. According to Rawls increased wealth at the top is justifiable only if it benefits those at the bottom in some way, and that's exactly what a progressive income tax does.

[@aliengeo]

I think the veil of ignorance is a nice idea for a thought experiment, but I don't think it accounts for the entire situation. For example, most of what people guess about my disabilities is wrong. The things they think would be helpful, what they imagine my experience to be like, etc. So why, under the veil of ignorance, would they be any better at it? It isn't as if they'd have more information, just ignorance of their own body state.

[@HIFLY01]

Mono culture and way of living is the only way honestly. When everyone is the same with the same goals, no one will oppose it and try to change and cause problems. You cant mix people who want to do X their way with people who want to do Y the completely opposite way and expect there to not be conflict

[@OneWayTicketToTheMoon]

We are all different and I wouldn't want to be the same as the next person. It would be a very boring world. Where no one could have ideas or use their imagination. A Stepford world.

[@HIFLY01]

@@OneWayTicketToTheMoon thats what it takes to have a utopia tho

[@quangminh9873]

*Hmm yes, perfect video to watch during dinner*

[@user-js5nv4pw4r]

Yeah this sounds good in theory, but what about in practice

[@funkydiscogod]

Hundreds of millions have died in pursuit of utopia.

[@oscarcorona3857]

I would highly recommend picking up Theory of justice. Rawls goes into a lot more detail about pragmatic aspects of his theory. His theory came out of his experiences in WW2 in japan so I think he takes into account human nature a lot more than most other political philosophers

[@steelcladCompliant]

It practice it deviates from standard capitalism just enough, that the CIA orchestrates a coup in the offending nation

[@matttt60]

@@oscarcorona3857 I dont believe in anything as "human nature" humans behave badly in our society because we live in a terrible system that made them act like that. In most isolate societies, collaboration and empathy are the standard

[@guncolony]

This is my critique of the idea: There is a drastic intrinsic inequality in human competence when it comes to elite fields like science. Giving the best people disproportionate resources seems to work! That's how we got to the moon. But because no private entity is allowed to be very rich under this society, only the government would be able to fund science. So we may still have a moon landing, but companies like TSMC and SpaceX simply would not exist in this world. Then you can insert any of the valid critiques of government-managed science (such as voters being short-sighted) and you end up with a system that is not maximally conducive to long-term innovation. And here's the kicker: due to exponential economic growth, at a long enough timespan innovation is realistically the only thing that matters for prosperity, since it far outstrips other factors like inequality. (This is unless growth plateaus, but we're centuries from that.) So it's likely that this government system will fall behind the living standards of some other system which allows private innovation, for everyone in the society, within a few hundred years. I can only think of two ways around this issue. The first is that you solve the issues with government-managed science. This would require you to make a government that is not fully democratic, in order to prioritize long-term science over other spending even if most voters are against it. The second is that you change how corporations work so that you allow them to get very wealthy - enough to fund scientific endeavors - but somehow disallow the wealth to be spent on individualistic pursuits. This is basically reinventing capitalism and requires a very high standard on transparency which is probably only possible with futuristic technology that, with one wrong turn, could be used to spy on everyone. Both of these fixes don't seem very realistic or ideal.

[@Father_Omar]

Humans are too complex and the issue of how many resources do we have and multiple societies emerging and combating each other still exist, a society like the one theorized here is fundamentally and ridiculously implausible

[@FiveChannelW]

It's an interesting thought, but because of our politicians and some people who really control our democracies, I think it's very difficult for us to come close to this ideology one day. 😢

[@Dude-xb3xh]

I mean utopia is impossible even the etymology of the very word says that but if it existed it needs a balance of altruism and independence

[@markadams7046]

I don't think a fair society could ever be achieved. One can only get closer to fairness by attempting to be fair, but the gravity of reality will always weigh us down.

[@beyond-the-equation]

Wow, this video really got me thinking about what a utopian society would be like! I love exploring thought-provoking topics like this on my channel too. Maybe I should make a video sharing my vision of a perfect world and invite my viewers to join the discussion!

[@JoeyP946]

I imagine myself as the only human left. Perfect society

[@modas2664]

Is this animation done with Adobe after effect?

[@Cybernaut551]

Brilliant storytelling.

[@toonwachi600]

Please make the video "The rise and fall of the British Empire" please. 🇬🇧

[@citrushypothesis]

The visuals are really cool, but quite distracting. I imagine the designer intended to use basic shapes and colors to abstractly tell the story, but this video could have benefitted from a more literal approach in some instances such as definitions of key points and illustrations of concepts to better visualize the information.

[@user-wz5ep2zp4x]

Good😊

[@Friendship1nmillion]

Change DOESN'T come JUST only from talking But from ACTION as well . ♑️✍️🇳🇴🇦🇺

[@Ali-cya]

There is no perfect society as it is not a static thing in a static environment, therefore the perfect society would be one where it can reshape to be 'better' from its perspective and every part and individual in it holds weight in that reshaping.

[@user-xo4rz4tz6n]

Great thanks for these contents❤ But I've a question why am I not catching the deep meanig surely I have fascination for the videos of ted ed

[@jessicanolanbowers1]

Amazing!

[@cru3her608]

there's only 1 possible way to make a perfect society, the people need to be moral! without morality it's impossible to have a good society.

[@estelasantos8184]

the problem is that there is no material way to implement histoughts, it is idealism

[@JuanRodrigez-vq9kv]

Absolutely, he didn't want to account our different personal interest in his vision of a just society he didn't want an unbiased view of justice instead he didn't want to acknowledge his own

[@rajeshkumar-ws7bx]

A colony which gave up on past color, creed, boundary, existing hierarchy, to plunge into void to spread this colony

[@deutschesmaedchen2851]

This type of thought experiment was in a way shown in novels like 1984.

[@Andy_Hendrix_9842]

What a coincidence! I was just thinking about this...

[@10thMorales]

“Here I am laying as a foundation in Zion a tested stone, \ the precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. \ No one exercising faith will panic. \ And I will make justice the measuring line \ and righteousness the leveling tool. \ The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, \ and the waters will flood out the hiding place.” (Isaiah 28:16, 17)

[@Elizabeth_the_Loaf]

Great video! The simplistic shape artstyle with the light sound effects makes this very entertaining to watch.

[@Sigma_Male_Anti_Female]

You only had 4 minutes to watch this.

[@rajeshkumar-ws7bx]

With people dozing off on colours and shapes ... people sell fiction and get away with it

[@Sigma_Male_Anti_Female]

@@rajeshkumar-ws7bx Huh?

[@Elizabeth_the_Loaf]

@My_pfp_beats_all_dog_breeds. I had to stop watching a third of the way in and come back, but I could see the artstyle and hear the sound immediately.

[@antisocialbred]

if this utopia depends on government regulation, how are we to expect that government officials will appropriately distribute wealth and opportunity? and how will we evaluate worthiness of wealth?

[@abhishekmangaraj]

Pareto distribution is the reason for the inequalities, if we omit hoarding wealth by corruption. And who would decide what's good for the "people with the least advantage"?? We are explorers and we try to understand nature and the universe better everyday. There will require resource investment which doesn't directly benefit the "people with least advantage". And if someone is making a profit based on their merit, they should be incentivized. Let's AGI find out the best way for the wealth distribution.

[@wesleydeng71]

Better to allow the society to evolve on its own. If you try to "design" a society, disasters are bound to happen.

[@Dantick09]

The perfect society is where I am at the top and command absolute power through fear

[@michalpicker6934]

Gee, I just hope people would do this thing. And if they do, then, little by little, we'll have an actual utopian world.

[@johnschmidt1262]

All designed societies have the same problem, we aren't smart enough to design something so complicated. It is similar to AI, we can't explicitly code what AI does, instead we rely on training the AI with data, think massive scale trial and error. The "free market" and social tradition are simple expressions of trial and error learning. Successful companies grow, bad ones shrink. Worse, people naturally look to exploit any system. Focus on simple rules that avoid the worse abuses and allows everyone to understand the rules being followed.

[@kanishkachowdary4246]

That is not Martha Nussbaum. It is Amartya Sen. Martha Nussbaum carried Sen’s idea frwrd to include gender justice.

[@quotes612]

I love the animation

[@icecreamtruckog3667]

I have to ask what is fair about a society where one can have a private airport and plane (John Travolta) and others can not afford to eat.

[@joshuabautch8936]

The politicians and business men: we don’t do that here

[@jl9088]

Though, raw's philosophy isn't perfect as it's not considering other factors that needs to be thought of, like the limitations of resources. It's certainly a good philosophical thought as a means of progressive society... I could be wrong but it's philosophy nothing is simple. Just like there are many different colors but there is still one source of such things and one main goal, which is to make people see and understand. (regardless of it being less or more types being seen, there's always more than one types that helps us understand the world.)

[@opwave79]

Just hold a giant cookout once a week and everyone will come together, nosh on darn good food, have a couple laughs, and leave full and happy.

[@Nuhemio]

Pioneering thought-experiment.

[@Lemon-ej4pn]

God i love love love the animation!

[@flickeringtorch]

Hey TED-ED, I thought you might like to know that whenever the narrator says "watch THIS video", the video card doesn't show up on the screen the way it used to. Why is that?

[@cru3her608]

"Rely on government regulation to ensure a just distribution of property and wealth" this completely destroyes any possibility of this working!

[@steelcladCompliant]

Yeah because relying on the market to do that has been working wonders so far. Just vote a non-shite government that governs for the people instead of for corporations

[@cru3her608]

@@steelcladCompliant it actually has worked perfectly. corporations are beholdent to you cuz they only have power as long as you give them your money, so you are the one whos really in power. the government is not beholdent to anyone. relying on the benevolence of a government is foolish. just look at any place in the world that has a big goverment.

[@KuK137]

Imagine being so indoctrinated by ultra rich (aka people who want to steal from everyone else so hate any kind of just system) that you turned your brain off and spouted flat earth grade nonsense. Bravo...

[@steelcladCompliant]

@@cru3her608 Bro was born yesterday 😂

[@cru3her608]

@@steelcladCompliant tipycal all you can do is insult, cant actually give a logical answer

[@imperialpatriot6693]

This just seems like Social Democracy with extra steps.

[@FantasticOtto]

Or rather, Social Democracy done the way it's supposed to be done. But corruption.. ah.. finds a way.

[@ryanandpeople9401]

Does this have any applications? I sure think so but not one size fits all

[@evanneal4936]

This video is 100% wrong when it says any form of good society still involves wealth gaps and gaps in wealth distribution. The best way to handle this is to divide ALL money EQUALLY among EVERYONE before ANYONE can go for seconds, if your nation doesn't have enough to do this, either print more money since it has no real value anyway or give everyone even less so everyone always gets the same amount all the time regardless of their occupation. There should be no such thing as someone making more than someone else under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. (But we all know Ted Ed is biased because their funders are big businesses and pro capitalism advocates) You have enough incentive and motivation from the fact that 99.9% of inventions and innovations came from either warfare or pure laziness, both of which humanity will never run out of. Money is not the end all be all of society. Its unfair distribution is the root cause of 99.9% of crimes and all negative problems... share money equally, and all problems go away. Limit how much a single person can have and make sure the more someone has, the more they pay in taxes or public works and/or the less they receive in benefits. Do these things, and all problems go away far better than in this scenario and video.

[@albertcamus886]

And the argument against marxism was literally hUmAn NaTuRe 1:32

[@yt_astrral]

let's say we have a taxi driver and a doctor. The taxi driver takes about a month to master driving, and about 3 months to familiarize themselves with routes and highways. Meanwhile, the doctor has to graduate from college with their pre-med (4 years), go to med school (4 years), and finally finish their residency which can take about 3-6 years. Assume that both taxi drivers and doctors would be paid equally, what incentive is there to be a doctor that works and studies for a century of their life, over a taxi driver that can be done by anyone?

[@SpaceMonke300]

A place where you don't know the people's age and gender seems like a disaster. How many elementary schools should we build? How many colleges? How many nursing homes? How do people reproduce if they don't know their parners age and gender XD? From an economic perspective this theory is pure insanity.

[@anuragsharma4159]

In notification the title of this video was "3 easy steps to build a real utopia" what are those 3 steps?

[@damie9412]

Nice

[@jorgschaper4911]

(Profound statement)

[@Random9_]

Although the visuals are superb, it's really not good for this video This might as well have been a podcast

[@Ignorance-is-a-tool]

Ted is always so captivating with its animations and explainations, loved the vid!

[@cirecrux]

what shape are we

[@vincemarenger7122]

This philosophy is idealistic. In the real world, we all know who we are. That's why industry tycoons and politicians will use their power to keep the status quo, because they know exactly what benefits them. "But what if they didn't even know their own religious beliefs?!?!??1" bla bla bla, you're lost in the world of thoughts and ideas.

[@neerajpeddu6017]

I don't know what I heard, but all I saw were shapes dancing around the entire screen

[@kacperswiercz557]

Yeah, the graphics are cool and fun to watch, but in my opinion they are disctracting the viewer from the narrative. It would be better video if the graphics helped the viewer understand and visualize discussed topic instead of making it more difficult. I saw the comment saying "I had to watch it twice. [...]" like it was a good thing. I am happy that this person found it so entertaining, but it proves my point that graphics are the opposite of helpful here.

[@captainbrainius6273]

I'd say these visuals are appropriate, as they are as vague and undefined as Rawl's "totally not communist" utopia.

[@rajeshkumar-ws7bx]

We r divided by street, state, country, colour, gender, greed....wtf is going to change .....