Watch this parody of a TED talk. It’s very funny, and true, but also suggests a more serious point.
Many TED talks are, of course, quite good and we’ve highlighted more than a few here in the past. But in a sense, when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. There’s a kind of stereotyped routine or patter to them that is startlingly invariant from Talk to Talk.
The homogenized gestures and way of speaking suggest homogenized thought, and this too is largely borne out. Whether in TED talks or biology departments, it’s remarkable how people, including smart ones, fall into patterns of stereotyped thinking without ever suspecting this of themselves. By the same token, they take offense at others’ not falling into line, especially if those others are among those who are supposed to “get it,” because they are part of some wider shared community.
Intelligent design is a protest movement against homogenized thinking in the sciences — especially in biology. The reason thought enforcers are so bothered by us is precisely because ID scientists make arguments based on genuine science, not religion, a betrayal (so it’s perceived) of the shared community of science.
For the thought homogenizers, that’s an unforgiveable offense.