My essay was about a change in war theory because of the cold war. Because this is a little dry, I’m going to veer off of that and speak more to the effects of the cold war. So for my TED Talk I’m thinking of speaking about the changes in civic life because of the threat of nuclear war. I’ll talk about the real threat back in the cold war and how much it influenced the ads that played on TV, and the way people were trained to avoid nuclear attack repercussions. I might even be able to show a short clip; some of those ads were haunting! Also, I can get more cynical with the talk and put a little bit of attitude into it by noting the fact that how come all those changes in civic life don’t exist now? How come if this nuclear science has advanced even more that the threat is not even more apparent now?
I will mostly be discussing how bomb shelters and such were built. Also, I can talk a lot about the social effect on education. I can explain why “STEM” even became a thing. How really it was to fuel an arms race, but now it is such a positive force/motivation in education.
2 thoughts on “TED Talk Ideas”
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I don’t think you need to worry about why there isn’t as much worry now. With the amount and strength of nuclear weapons in the world, I think most countries know it would be almost the end of the world if there was a nuclear war. There’s no threat now because people know it’d be suicide.
I agree that choosing a different time frame, one including today, might make the talk less dry. However, if you are going to talk about the socioeconomic effects of cold war, and compare them to life today, I think it is essential to also compare the states of conflict. That is, simultaneously compare the nature and effects of Cold war to modern politics and conflict and the effects of this status, all in respect to the US. This is very similar to what you said, but i just want to make sure that you include the bit about the current political state.