This TED Talk features Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, recorded live at TED 2017.

These are the times, said Thomas Paine, the tri-men's souls.

And they're trying ours now. This is a fateful moment in the history of the West. We've seen divisive elections

and divided societies. We've seen a growth of extremism in politics and religion. All of it

fueled by anxiety, uncertainty and fear of a world that's changing almost faster than we can bear

and the sure knowledge that it's going to change faster still.

I have a friend in Washington, I asked him,

what was it like being in America during the recent presidential election.

He said to me, well, it was like the man sitting on the deck of the Titanic with a glass of whiskey in his hand, and he's saying, I know I asked for ice.

Thank you. saying, I know I asked for ice. But this is ridiculous.

So is there something we can do, each of us,

to be able to face the future without fear.

I think there is.

And one way into it is to see that perhaps the most simple way into a culture and into an age

is to ask what do people worship?

People have worshipped so many different things, The sun, the stars, the storm.

Some people worship many gods, some one, some none.

In the 19th and 20th centuries,

people worshipped the nation, the Aryan race, the communist state.

What do we worship?

I think future anthropologists will take a look at the books we read on self-help, self-realization, self-esteem.

They look at the way we talk about morality as being true to oneself, the way we talk about politics as a matter of individual rights, and they'll look at this wonderful new religious ritual we have created.

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