Peres is here, surrounded by slightly more television cameras than is feasible. As one, the bloggers rise to greet him with their digicams.
Peres thinks people around the world are depressed by how much of a mess it's in. He disagrees- it's pregnant with a new age. “The stone age is over, not because there is no more stones, but no more age. Finished. You people of the internet are trying to give birth to this new age. You are the midwife.”
And he certainly thinks that information technology can change things: “Why should we waste our intellectual energy remembering things? Google can do it for us.”
The sort of comment only an old man can make, perhaps.
He went on to make an interesting assertion about the future of world politics: “States, countries, borders and governments are no longer so important,” said Peres. “They were important when we were making our living from the land.”
This lead to setting of boundaries, and wars for land. That time is gone. “You cannot put borders on science. It is nonsense. You cannot have armies defending wisdom.”
And there are some inherent problems with current politics. All ministers want to be popular, in his experience. “And if you want to be popular, you lose freedom of action.”
In the old age: wealth was a matter of accumulation. Today, what you accumulate doesn't stand the test of time. It devalues all the time, It is not what you have accumulated, but what you have “penetrated”. It's not square miles, its the number of patents.
And it isn't the state that will change things. Governments are conservative, companies have the culture of risk taking, said Peres.
Governments no longer control democracy. The moment a company becomes rich, people get lazy, they stop producing children and there are no workers.“ Hence: immigration.
He's certainly a fan of technology. Can nanotechnology defeat terrorism?
He's also fascinated by the evolution of China, and making comparisons between it and a kibbutz he once spent time on. China has free speech, but not free air…
Democracy is the right to be different. Even to make mistakes. The obligation to correct them.”
“The new world is arriving in Africa. It is arriving in the Middle East, but it may take time. When I say pregnant, I don't mean it will take nine months…”
Fascinating. I don't agree with everything he said. But I did enjoy it.
Oh, and from the questions, this lovely reply: “Optimists and pessimists die the same. They just live differently.”
Shane Richmond of The Telegraph's take on Peres is interesting.
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December 12, 2006 9:30 AM | Reply
I enjoyed it to even if a part of the discussion is out of this conference subject
December 12, 2006 9:42 AM | Reply
"Optimists and pessimists die the same. They just live differently."
Thatz...thatz...a wonderful quote...
May 21, 2007 12:47 PM | Reply
Be very careful when you consider Shimon Peres's thoughts. Remember he gave us Olso and his book on the New Middle East.
Somehow I don't believe that it turned out the way described it in his book!