1989 very different to 2019 right? In 1989 there was no RU-vid, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, NetFlix, Amazon, Google - if you wanted to learn you actually had to get off your arse and read, and learn that way, sadly in 2019 young people have it all in front of them in their laptops, but they would rather watch Game of Thrones than read online about history, satire, politics etc.
This brings back memories... used to enjoy this series on BBC Scotland. A stark reminder that programmes aimed at young adults used to assume they had an attention span of more than 10 seconds, and weren't perforated by background music or daft shaky camerawork.
Whats great about this interview is there's a confident and honest man taking questions from children who basically have no agenda. It's fast, rapid fire, and quick, as well as less than slow.
I love the way he takes every question seriously, and answers on their merits; he seems incapable of being patronising. The loveliest guy in the world? Maybe!
@PaulFace im not even British and i would move to England if i though there was a chance i could vote for Stephen Fry if he had gone into politics . i dont know the UK rules for foreigners gaining citizenship and possibly voting or if their policies on that are similar to the USA or not but i would certainly try lol. thats how much i love , admire and respect Stephen Fry. i would leave my country just to try to vote for him if i though he was going to run for some form of office .
It isn't contradictory. If there was freedom of speech people can say what they want but not be punished for it (which isn't what we have in the UK) but others can still use their speech to criticise and condemn that speech based on its effects and content, such as refering to it as homophobic or racist.
I disagree that we are unaffected by what we watch on TV. Of course very few people are conscious of it, but advertisers know it better than anyone. They don't spend millions on 30 second clips because they enjoy pissing money up the wall. We ARE influenced and possibly far more by say, a 90 minute film that glorifies violence than a meek 30 seconds of advert getting us to associate a car with getting laid.
@Capriquillo They aren't really teenagers. Krishnan Guru Murthy is 19 here, for instance. Most intelligent people are already quite intelligent at this stage.
I'm not sure if I agree with Stephen's statement that it's "a very delicate constitution" - whatever its other many faults, the constitution has both an essential hardiness which has allowed for a remarkable durability over several centuries, and a flexibility which seems to allow changes to be made with the times. Though certainly the MP expenses scandal illuminated some glaring weaknesses. Is this accurate?
@guv859 - Well, I believe I interpreted the original statement (and it has been a year since I replied to it, I would point out) as saying that there is no left wing or right wing, just traps to further the cause of media-supported socialist utopianism. I may have read the comment wrongly. But it looked to me like the OP was denying the existence of political 'wings' while at the same time voicing a deeply Right-Libertarian attitude.
he gives a great answer (superb debating skills) but THERE IS a mass of pulpy soft viewers who are easily influenced... its the core of behaviourist psychology: some people are just more readily influenced than others.
@wobbygongman Not really. If you can see the children have already been taught the non aggressive behavior, so saw nothing new to act out and then played normally, but non-aggressively . Then when they saw the aggressive behavior they copied exactly what they did. Thus if you learn from a TV, then at first would copy it out straight and then after time you then would create your own version of the aggressive behavior. So you don't copy the generosity, as you more than likely already nice.
Dodgy past or not I'd vote for him. He'd make decisions based on things like facts and the idea of equality and the idea that those who have been lucky enough to be rich and privileged in this world should pay to support the society they're standing on instead of continuing to to widen the gap between rich and poor. I didn't even want to rant! it's that im still pissed off about the reshuffle. A climate sceptic being environment minister. . .
If a man reads a book for example catcher in the rye then kills another man should the book be censored? No it shouldn't and neither should tv shows. Art is open to peoples interpretation
@SubRosaSpear its funny that one that can see such a valid point is dismissing it on small grounds perhaps we (or one depending on your phraseology) should look beyond the surface of the literary word and concentrate on the hard basis fry himself said in his book that no one is as stupid as we would like to believe
Answering to the why do people not copy generosity. Study by Bandura of children aggressive behavior found out that they were more likely to copy aggressive behavior than non aggressive, with one of the reason being that the children saw the non aggressive behavior all the time and hadn't seen the aggressive behavior so would imitate. Relating to TV, if you saw violence on the all the time then you may see it as a norm and potentially act out the same way.
Never really liked Krishna Gurumurthy (don't dislike him .. the man is pretty funny but I thought he was a flake) .. But I like him now =D Asking someone like Lord Fry an intelligent question and following that up with an intelligent remark must be hard when you're a teenager!
@twopinplugvision I do think that some things are wrong with education but it has been proven that people are far more capable of troubling solving these days, I would say that the problem is that these days they would be shouting for attention more and try to be smart with one liners. It has more to do with the pace and character of media I think
And that what makes younger kids stupid in an unknowing sense. You believe you're maybe clever for your age or smart, simply because of silly educational things which might only even be just the simplicity of remembering them. I agree kids being stupid is a little stereotyped and misjudged. In my own opinion, "kids" are not stupid, they are merely less experienced in life and know little about how people think and work. In a metaphorical sense of course.
@Capriquillo i could say the same about adults personaly ive met more young people able to debate than adults adults can be just as unducated, and those who arnt are often biggoted from my expereince we are all as bad as each other its not a case of todays childen, nor todays adult its a case of all humans are stupid in some areas, you dont know about the x factor they would deem you stupid for that it is all perspective
why do they keep raising their hands while he is still talking!? I would never do that in class and I'm not even being filmed there! (also, articulate people all, but this is like the most boring topic ever. prob because I don't even know that country's politics and it's very outdated. spose I'm learning at least. Stephen Fry would not like to see thinking like this condemned as boring I figure, but I'm not as good as he is.)
