In my opinion, TED is not elitist. Actually, to clarify, I don’t think that the TED talks themselves are elitist. They actually are very enlightening and democratic. They explore a wide range of topics and address issues that affect all of us. The speakers do not seem to be dumbing anything down or becoming performers as Nassim Taleb seems to think. To me, they just seem like really down-to-Earth people who are excited to share their discoveries in their respective fields.
The talks are also democratic in the sense that there are hundreds of them posted online for anyone to watch for free. It’s all about spreading information to the general public. It’s awesome to know that I can go on their website and learn about practically any subject at any time.
From all the critics of TED that I read about on the class page, several of them seemed to share one thing in common: TED decided not to post their respective talks. This is probably why they feel bitter toward the organization. I perfectly understand that, but I also realize that TED has to choose between hundreds of different talks to post on their website. At some point, they have to exclude some people and their talks. I think half of their criticism comes from a resulting bitterness over not making the cut.
However, even though TED’s intellectual mission seems honest, I think that the cost of attendance and the prestige associated with being a speaker are a little bit elitist. Prior to reading that page, I had no idea that it was so expensive to actually attend one of the talks. Although this does seem to be elitist to my intuition, I also understand that TED is a business that needs to make a profit to keep running. If people are still buying tickets at $6,000 a piece, then I absolutely think TED is justified in charging that much. So, even this does not seem as elitist as it appeared at first.
Overall, I think TED is a really good resource for anyone, not just students, to learn about something that interests them in a manner that is truly engaging.