I have attended a TEDxAmsterdam event a couple of months ago. It was very professional and very well organized. Now the time has come when the TEDxAmsterdam event takes place. I am not going. Neither have I made any effort to procure myself a ticket. My main reason for doing so is that I really dislike this “aspirational exclusivity” they use to market the whole thing.
I really cannot get behind the idea of bringing the (supposedly) most brilliant local intellectuals to a stage, make the event invite only and then promote it ad infinitum with tactics that are more suitable to market Prada bags than an event that attempts to bring social change.
I see these tactics as a very good reason for the raise of populist politicians. The more social liberal intellectuals organize events that cater to their elite kind while the masses, the working class, the activists on the field who do not have access to a network that would get them an invitation can view a “live stream” of the event at home.
Their slogan this season has been “Ideas worth Doing”. “Worth doing” by whom? By the same crowd of middle class urbanites that populate every Amsterdam creative event? I have seen enough of that. Call me when they have an event of the same quality and level of speakers in De Bijlmer and for the Bijlmer (or any other similar neighborhood). In the meantime, I know which ideas are considered “worth doing”.
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