TED Talks Dr. Seligman Dr. Seligman opens his TED Talk with a story about an interview he was asked to do with CNN. He had to prepare a sound bite that first was composed of just one word in regard to the state of psychology. He simply said "good." Then he was not to use two words and he said "not good." Finally he was asked to use three words and he

Amy Cuddy's "Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are" TED talk is fascinating because it is so simple. The speaker begins by showing how body language is widely recognized and proven as being important factors in social situations. We judge people, consciously or not, on their body language. What Cuddy wanted to know is whether our own body language affects the way we think and feel about ourselves, to the

Glenn Greenwald notes in his TED Talk on why privacy matters, the Internet is a great tool both for sharing and for spying and surveillance. Greenwald makes an important point about not viewing the world as made up of good people and bad people (as though only bad people have a reason to want privacy -- so that they can hide what they are doing from those who want

Finally, it should be noted that anxiety and language can hamper communication between people of the identical culture if the context is not mutually understood. Anecdotally, this author once requested a copy of a Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess from an elderly man behind a counter in a small-town used bookstore who appeared to be the husband of the full-time owner, who was away. The kindly man squirmed a bit,

Golden Rule: The main argument that is evident in Hayek's book on The Constitution of Liberty basically revolves around freedom and its value to a person, the society, and overall civilization. The possibility of progress in each of these areas is seemingly impossible because of lack of freedom of action in particular. Hayek uses liberty or freedom interchangeably to state that contemporary civilization is in crisis since the Western nations

Religion is too often used as a justification to do harm to others, thereby negating the core function of religion in providing psychological salve, ethical frameworks for resolving conflicts, and for stimulating social cohesion. All religions from the traditional African religions Mbon (1994) outlines to the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all refer in some way to the Golden Rule: that treating others the way one wishes to