For the last day, I've chosen the shortest document in the Core Canon. If you've been by my office, you've seen it posted to my buletin board, It seems a logical followup to Locke on Toleration and Winthrop's A Model of Chrfistian Charity.
On the left, you'll see the Charter for Compassion, read by a diverse group of people, perhaps as diverse as any you're like to see in a video this short. Watch it a couple of times, and then, before you drop your marked up copy into your dropbox, write a comment about the strategy behing the presentation. Is it a good strategy? What do you think? The Website for the Charter is here.
Some of you may have heard of TED. "TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world."
Our Mission: Spread ideas
TED is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world. We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world. On TED.com, we're building a clearinghouse of free knowledge from the world's most inspired thinkers — and a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other, both online and at TED and TEDx events around the world, all year long.
"As she accepts her 2008 TED Prize, author and scholar Karen Armstrong talks about how the Abrahamic religions -- Islam, Judaism, Christianity -- have been diverted from the moral purpose they share to foster compassion." But Armstrong has seen a yearning to change this fact. People want to be religious, she says; we should act to help make religion a force for harmony. She asks the TED community to help her build a Charter for Compassion -- to help restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine". Karen Armstrong won the prize in 2008, and the Charter was issued next year.
"The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating.
The paths are not to be found, but made.
And the activity of making them changes both the maker and their destination."
