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A word about Big Ideas and Themes — The architecture of Big Think

Big ideas are lenses for envisioning the future. Every article and video on bigthink.com and on our learning platforms is based on an emerging “big idea” that is significant, widely relevant, and actionable. We’re sifting the noise for the questions and insights that have the power to change all of our lives, for decades to come. For example, reverse-engineering is a big idea in that the concept is increasingly useful across multiple disciplines, from education to nanotechnology.

Themes are the seven broad umbrellas under which we organize the hundreds of big ideas that populate Big Think. They include New World Order, Earth and Beyond, 21st Century Living, Going Mental, Extreme Biology, Power and Influence, and Inventing the Future.

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Transcript

Question: How is socialism defined in Sweden today?

Pagrotsky: To me it means almost nothing. The word has lost its content because it has been used so much for so different purposes in so many different countries. I never used it and in my country it is almost out of use. In France, it’s the name of the Social Democratic or the party of the Left, the party that could be called the Democratic Party of France. Whereas in my country, it has been used by Communist parties, and in the Soviet Union, it was used by the Communist Party. If you use the word, a person who listens to me would not understand what I’m talking about, so I don’t use it. And in my country, it is not part of the normal vocabulary anymore. I call myself a Social Democrat. That’s very good for me and that’s what I use.