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Anand Giridharadas: A letter to all who have lost in this era
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Summer, 2016: amid populist revolts, clashing resentments and fear, writer Anand Giridharadas doesn't give a talk but reads a letter. It's from those who have won in this era of change, to those who have, or feel, lost. It confesses to ignoring pain until it became anger. It chides an idealistic yet remote elite for its behind-closed-doors world-saving and airy, self-serving futurism — for at times worrying more about sending people to Mars than helping them on Earth. And it rejects the exclusionary dogmas to which we cling, calling us instead to "dare to commit to the dream of each other."
Anand Giridharadas - Writer
Anand Giridharadas writes about people and cultures caught amid the great forces of our time. Full bio
Anand Giridharadas writes about people and cultures caught amid the great forces of our time. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
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June 29, 2016.
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My dear fellow citizen:
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I write to you today,
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to you who have lost in this era.
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At this moment in our common life,
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when the world is full of breaking
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and spite
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and fear,
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I address this letter
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simply to you,
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even though we both know
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there are many of you behind this "you,"
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and many of me behind this "I."
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I write to you because at present,
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this quaking world we share scares me.
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I gather it scares you, too.
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Some of what we fear, I suspect,
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we fear in common.
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But much of what we fear
seems to be each other.
seems to be each other.
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You fear the world I want to live in,
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and I fear your visions in turn.
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Do you know that feeling you get
when you know it's going to storm
when you know it's going to storm
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before it storms?
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Do you also feel that now,
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fellow citizen?
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That malaise and worry
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that some who know
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feel reminds them of the 1930s?
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Perhaps you don't,
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because our fears of each other
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are not in sync.
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In this round, I sense
that your fears of me,
that your fears of me,
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of the world that I have insisted
is right for us both,
is right for us both,
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has gathered over a generation.
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It took time for your fears
to trigger my fears,
to trigger my fears,
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not least because at first,
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I never thought I needed to fear you.
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I heard you
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but did not listen,
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all these years when you said
that this amazing new world
that this amazing new world
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wasn't amazing for you,
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for many of you,
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across the industrialized world;
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that the open, liquid world I relished,
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of people and goods
and technologies flowing freely,
and technologies flowing freely,
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going where they pleased, globally,
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was not, for you, an emancipation.
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I have walked through your towns
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and, while looking, failed to see.
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I did notice in Stephenville, Texas,
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that the town square was dominated
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by one lawyer's office after another,
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because of all the people
rotating in and out of the prison.
rotating in and out of the prison.
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I did notice the barren shops
in Wagner, South Dakota,
in Wagner, South Dakota,
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and the VFW gathering hall
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that stood in mockery
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of a community's dream to endure.
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I did notice
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at the Lancaster, Pennsylvania Wal-Mart,
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that far too many people
in their 20s and 30s
in their 20s and 30s
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looked a decade or two from death,
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with patchy, flared-up skin
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and thinning, stringy hair
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and browning, ground-down teeth
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and a lostness in their eyes.
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I did notice that the young people
I encountered in Paris,
I encountered in Paris,
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in Florence, in Barcelona,
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had degrees but no place to take them,
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living on internships well into their 30s,
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their lives prevented from launching,
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because of an economy
that creates wealth --
that creates wealth --
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just not jobs.
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I did notice the news about those parts
of London becoming ghost quarters,
of London becoming ghost quarters,
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where the global super-rich
turn fishy money into empty apartments
turn fishy money into empty apartments
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and price lifelong residents of a city,
young couples starting out,
young couples starting out,
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out of their own home.
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And I heard that the fabric of your life
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was tearing.
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You used to be able to count on work,
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and now you couldn't.
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You used to be able
to nourish your children,
to nourish your children,
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and guarantee that they would climb
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a little bit further in life than you had,
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and now you couldn't.
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You used to be made to feel dignity
in your work, and now you didn't.
in your work, and now you didn't.
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It used to be normal
for people like you to own a home,
for people like you to own a home,
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and now it wasn't.
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I cannot say
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I didn't know these things,
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but I was distracted
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creating a future in which
we could live on Mars,
we could live on Mars,
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even as you struggled down here on Earth.
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I was distracted
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innovating immortality,
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even as many of you began to live
shorter lives than your parents had.
shorter lives than your parents had.
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I heard all of these things,
but I didn't listen.
but I didn't listen.
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I looked
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but didn't see.
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I read, didn't understand.
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I paid attention
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only when you began to vote and shout,
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and when your voting and shouting,
when the substance of it,
when the substance of it,
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began to threaten me.
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I listened only when you moved
toward shattering continental unions
toward shattering continental unions
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and electing vulgar demagogues.
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Only then did your pain become of interest
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to me.
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I know that feeling hurt
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is often prologue to dealing hurt.
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I wonder now
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if you would be less eager to deal it
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if I had stood with you
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when you merely felt it.
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I ask myself
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why I didn't stand with you then.
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One reason is that I became entranced
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by the gurus of change,
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became a worshiper of the religion
of the new for novelty's sake,
of the new for novelty's sake,
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and of globalization and open borders
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and kaleidoscopic diversity.
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Once change became my totalizing faith,
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I could be blind.
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I could fail to see change's consequences.
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I could overlook the importance
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of roots, traditions,
rituals, stability --
rituals, stability --
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and belonging.
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And the more fundamentalist I became
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in my worship of change and openness,
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the more I drove you
towards the other polarity,
towards the other polarity,
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to cling,
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to freeze,
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to close,
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to belong.
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I now see as I didn't before
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that not having
the right skin or right organ
the right skin or right organ
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is not the only varietal of disadvantage.
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There is a subtler, quieter disadvantage
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in having those privileged traits
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and yet feeling history to be
moving away from you;
moving away from you;
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that while the past was hospitable
to people like you,
to people like you,
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the future will be more hospitable
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to others;
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that the world is growing less familiar,
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less yours day by day.
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I will not concede for a moment
that old privileges should not dwindle.
that old privileges should not dwindle.
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They cannot dwindle fast enough.
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It is for you to learn to live
in a new century in which
in a new century in which
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there are no bonuses for showing up
with the right skin and right organs.
with the right skin and right organs.
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If and when your anger turns to hate,
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please know that there is no space
for that in our shared home.
for that in our shared home.
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But I will admit, fellow citizen,
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that I have discounted the burden
of coping with the loss of status.
of coping with the loss of status.
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I have forgotten
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that what is socially necessary
can also be personally gruelling.
can also be personally gruelling.
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A similar thing happened
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with the economy that you and I share.
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Just as I cannot and don't wish
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to turn back to the clock
on equality and diversity,
on equality and diversity,
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and yet must understand
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the sense of loss they can inspire,
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so, too, I refuse
and could not if I wished
and could not if I wished
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turn back the clock on an ever more
closely knit, interdependent world,
closely knit, interdependent world,
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and on inventions
that won't stop being invented.
that won't stop being invented.
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And yet I must understand
your experience of these things.
your experience of these things.
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You have for years been telling me
that your experience of these things
that your experience of these things
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is not as good as my theories forecast.
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Yet before you could finish
a complaining sentence
a complaining sentence
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about the difficulty of living
with erratic hours, volatile pay,
with erratic hours, volatile pay,
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vanishing opportunities,
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about the pain of dropping
your children off at 24-hour day care
your children off at 24-hour day care
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to make your 3am shift,
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I shot back at you -- before you
could finish your sentence --
could finish your sentence --
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my dogma,
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about how what you are actually
experiencing was flexibility
experiencing was flexibility
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and freedom.
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Language is one of the only things
that we truly share,
that we truly share,
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and I sometimes used
this joint inheritance
this joint inheritance
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to obfuscate
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and deflect
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and justify myself;
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to re-brand what was good for me
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as something appearing good for us both,
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when I threw around terms
like "the sharing economy,"
like "the sharing economy,"
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and "disruption"
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and "global resourcing."
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I see now that what I was really doing,
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at times,
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was buying your pain on the cheap,
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sprucing it up
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and trying to sell it back to you
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as freedom.
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I have wanted to believe
and wanted you to believe
and wanted you to believe
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that the system that has been good to me,
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that has made my life ever more seamless,
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is also the best system for you.
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I have condescended to you
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with the idea that you are voting
against your economic interests --
against your economic interests --
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voting against your interests,
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as if I know your interests.
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That is just my dogmatic
economism talking.
economism talking.
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I have a weakness
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for treating people's economic interests
as their only interest,
as their only interest,
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ignoring things like belonging and pride
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and the desire to send a message
to those who ignore you.
to those who ignore you.
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So here we are,
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in a scary but not inexplicable moment
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of demagoguery, fracture,
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xenophobia, resentment and fear.
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And I worry for us both
if we continue down this road,
if we continue down this road,
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me not listening,
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you feeling unheard,
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you shouting to get me to listen.
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I worry when each of us is seduced
by visions of the future
by visions of the future
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that have no place for the other.
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If this goes on,
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if this goes on,
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there may be blood.
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There are already hints of this blood
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in newspapers every day.
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There may be roundups, raids,
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deportations, camps, secessions.
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And no, I do not think that I exaggerate.
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There may be even talk of war
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in places that were certain
they were done with it.
they were done with it.
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There is always the hope of redemption.
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But it will not be a cheap,
shallow redemption
shallow redemption
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that comes through blather
about us all being in it together.
about us all being in it together.
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This will take more.
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It will take accepting that we both
made choices to be here.
made choices to be here.
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We create our "others."
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As parents, as neighbors, as citizens,
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we witness and sometimes ignore each other
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into being.
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You were not born vengeful.
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I have some role
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in whatever thirst
you now feel for revenge,
you now feel for revenge,
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and that thirst now tempts me
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to plot ever more elaborate escapes
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from our common life,
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from the schools and neighborhoods
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and airports and amusement parks
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that we used to share.
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We face, then,
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a problem not of these large,
impersonal forces.
impersonal forces.
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We face a problem
of your and my relations.
of your and my relations.
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We chose ways of relating to each other
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that got us here.
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We can choose ways of relating
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that get us out.
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But there are things
we might have to let go of,
we might have to let go of,
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fellow citizen,
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starting with our own cherished
versions of reality.
versions of reality.
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Imagine if you let go of fantasies
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of a society purged
of these or those people.
of these or those people.
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Imagine if I let go of my habit
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of saving the world behind your back,
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of deliberating on the future
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of your work,
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your food,
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your schools,
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in places where you couldn't
get past security.
get past security.
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We can do this only if we first accept
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that we have neglected each other.
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If there is hope to summon
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in this ominous hour,
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it is this.
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We have, for too long,
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chased various shimmering dreams
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at the cost of attention
to the foundational dream of each other,
to the foundational dream of each other,
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the dream of tending to each other,
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of unleashing each other's wonders,
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of moving through history together.
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We could dare to commit
to the dream of each other
to the dream of each other
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as the thing that matters
before every neon thing.
before every neon thing.
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Let us dare.
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Sincerely yours,
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a fellow citizen.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Anand Giridharadas - WriterAnand Giridharadas writes about people and cultures caught amid the great forces of our time.
Why you should listen
Anand Giridharadas is a writer. He is a New York Times columnist, writing the biweekly "Letter from America." He is the author, most recently, of The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas, about a Muslim immigrant’s campaign to spare from Death Row the white supremacist who tried to kill him. In 2011 he published India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking, about returning to the India his parents left.
Giridharadas's datelines include Italy, India, China, Dubai, Norway, Japan, Haiti, Brazil, Colombia, Nigeria, Uruguay and the United States. He is an on-air contributor for NBC News and appears regularly on "Morning Joe." He has given talks on the main stage of TED and at Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Yale, Princeton, the University of Michigan, the Aspen Institute, Summit at Sea, the Sydney Opera House, the United Nations, the Asia Society, PopTech and Google. He is a Henry Crown fellow of the Aspen Institute.
Giridharadas lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Priya Parker, and their son, Orion.
Anand Giridharadas | Speaker | TED.com