 For me, this is really one of the biggest tasks right now as intellectuals is realizing In our own life. There are so many things. We're not proud of and we're trying to hide from people and sometimes that provokes a little bit of aggression and rather ugly behavior And we behave in a way. We're not proud of at all and then we get even less proud of ourselves and then that cycle gets even worse It's very good to remember every single person you're meeting is also in the same situation and Rather than simply reacting to how obnoxious they are and how much you hate them at that moment Recognize they're just hiding some ridiculous horrible thing from you And are really uncomfortable and for me the big task now Is to realize the space between you and the person you imagine yourself as Which is sometimes quite fast Most days. We're really not the person we imagine ourselves as Or we would like to imagine ourselves as And nor are the people we're meeting and I think our task now is To meet each other in such a way That each gives the other permission to become the person they wanted to be not to be judged by what they're doing now Because what they're doing now is a mistake and they know that but to create a creative space a Space where nobody loses face and Everybody has a chance to start again from a better place and do something More helpful human beings need that space and we don't give it to ourselves and we don't give it to each other That we don't even give it to ourselves is incredible as the great Muslim Philosopher Agazali says when you really think of it it breaks your heart But of course it doesn't break your heart because your heart is so hard that you don't even have a soft heart towards yourself Let alone to other people go ahead. Let your heart break. I think right now. We're in a period Where people are so frightened they won't even let the heart break Because of course The situation in Syria the situation in so many places it just breaks your heart And if your heart is not broken by that something's wrong With your heart and meanwhile once you break your heart and let your heart break It changes how you respond if I may just go to the heart of What I think we're trying to get at in the history of art is the history of art is about one primary primary primary primary primary primary understanding Which is what would it be like to be that other person? theater was invented So you start to think oh, that's what it would be like to be that person Literature was invented. So you would think oh, that's what it would be like to be that person Music was invented So you think that's what it would be like to be that person and guess what that person is me and if there had been an artist in certain rooms No one would have ever green-lighted Torture in the green zone and it will gripe and the drone strikes in was Eristan and all these things Where somebody couldn't imagine What that would be like if that was your daughter or your son so I would just emphasize that in fact the ability to imagine what it's like for another person to go through something is not a Luxury item It's actually the only possible way to be alive is To recognize what the person you're talking to is thinking instead of what you think you're saying to them Because what you think you're saying to them is not what they're hearing if you haven't noticed They're really hearing something else And if all you can think of is what you're saying you have a problem This act of imagination Is not just a survival skill It's crucial to moving economic political or any other type of policy forward Again, if it's your grandmother who lost her home and you're running these banks and these mortgages For goodness sakes, but that somebody can simply say oh, this is what the law is the real discipline is is Getting out of our habits of oppositional thinking Because if you are still thinking oppositionally you are so Badly dated and you're so damn useless Because any project that doesn't include your enemy is not gonna work Period so first of all you have to figure out how to cross the bridge into their neighborhood You have to figure out how to be the friend of someone who you really dislike You have to figure out how to have a real conversation with someone instead of just yell at them You have to suddenly get way better at listening and you have to go to that place where you say okay These two opposing schools of thought Where could they meet? What little point would give us a? Piece of shared ground that would let us have a conversation with integrity and Would say okay We can both live in the same neighborhood even though we deeply disagree But we share this point this point and that point which is an intellectual discipline And we don't get ourselves into this all-or-nothing mentality And we don't buy into the nightmare of white supremacy or any kind of supremacy The people you don't like have a reason to be here the people you oppose deeply Have an equal reason to be here Now until we figure that out We are just as benighted as the people we think are benighted and that is a giant intellectual and spiritual project is to find light and possibility everywhere and Again to create the conditions where people are engaging in monstrous things have a chance to do something else and to put it a very Direct way the person you think is the problem Or the country you think is the problem or the neighborhood you think is the problem Even in your own family that person who's the problem is the only solution and There will be no solution until that person is the solution