Where has being reasonable ever gotten us, anyway?

I was recently contacted by  Donna Morton, an indigenous peoples activist and CEO of the green tech company First Power. (She was commenting on my use of the word “savage” to refer to ill-mannered behavior. You can read about that here. Short version: We had an interesting email exchange and I edited the content.)

Donna sent me a link to her TEDx Talk. Here’s a little bit about her from the introduction:

“Donna Morton, First Power, Serial Social Entrepreneur; CEO, co-founder of First Power, with a mission to put clean energy, jobs and equity in the hands of first nations and native communities globally. Recently, Donna was elected an Unreasonable Institute fellow for building one of the worlds most “unreasonable” start ups. First Power is profitable and highly impactful. She is also an Ashoka fellow for her work with the Centre for Integral Economics (CIE), both BC based. CIE promotes market-based solutions to social and environmental sustainability and put tax shifting and carbon taxes on the map across Canada.”

I love the whole idea of the Unreasonable Institute. I mean, where has being reasonable ever gotten us? Being reasonable equates to stifling our misgivings about business as usual, putting up and shutting up. And, as Donna Morton explains in her TEDx talk, that’s only led us to ecological and cultural crisis — a world “on fire.”

Watch Donna Morton’s TEDx talk.

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