When you say publicly that all religions are a myth in the same breath that you denounce agriculture as a fraud (history’s biggest fraud) and that all corporations are imaginary haven’t you just about kicked every sacred cow in the book? According to Yuval Noah Harari, in his bestseller, “Sapiens, a Brief History of Humankind”, there are many more of these lies we have told ourselves throughout history in order to grow from our insignificant beginnings as homo sapien hunter-gatherers in northern Africa into the technological god-like homo sapiens that now run corporate board rooms and scientific research laboratories enabling us to rule the planet. He never concludes why it matters that we’ve deluded ourselves in order to collectively communicate--just that we have done so--and must now keep on keepin’ on if we want to hang around for the next stage of human evolution.
Let’s make something clear, this book is a best seller for a reason. It is extremely well written and full of insight. Harari has taken about 125 years of National Geographic Magazine and condensed it into 400 easy to read pages. If you were wondering about the status of any anthropological research as of 2014, if you read this book, you are up to date. The book would have sold alone for this history professor’s “Story of Us’ retelling. But he goes further. He poses the important questions in life and answers them with a remarkable call out to the capitalist form of mythology that now envelops and strives to assimilate the global economy. This theory alone, is fascinating, since we have all been a major part of it over the last 50 years...at least been witness to it. But had he brought his other theories to a conclusion, and I believe he could have, I would hold this book on the same high plateau as I hold books such as, “The Origin of the Conscious in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind”, by Julian Jaynes and “The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics” by Eric Beinhocker. Both books ask critically important questions about human behavior and fearlessly take a stand on the answers. Harari, perhaps to be ultra politically correct, does not seem to want to offend, as many college professor’s are loath to do these days. Thus the book suffers in the end. He leaves us with questions about our future, the past, perhaps helping us know that we’ve got no other choice. We are not, boats beating against the current, being drawn ceaselessly into the past, rather we are vessels, ready to be rewritten, to spring forward, and to reshape the future. This is what we have been able to do, in a few scant hundred or so years versus the millennia of very little human progress, yet some how based on these myths that he defines as uniquely human. A grey wolf does not, for instance, worship at the altar of Adele (my analogy not his).
I think, perhaps, after writing this book, he convinced himself, that his belief in the myth of it all, became less myth and more hard cold reality. For instance, the myth forges the ability for two people who don’t know each other to know each other, since they don’t actually know each other. But that’s simply not true. They do have a sense of common meaning and purpose such as obtaining tickets to the Adele tour in the US next year. And when they see each other at the concert for the first time, as strangers, they will not be strangers. They do know each other. I’ve read his book. Everyone who is reading this book, or reading this book review, doesn’t have to believe in the myth that is Harari’s theories on history for us to communicate. We are doing so. And it’s not mythical for me to pay Amazon electronically to have purchased the book. I transferred something to them...and they returned value to me. Unless I paid them with a fraudulent account which would be a lie, these are not mythical things. They are simple constructs that are reality based. In their complexity, perhaps, they have taken on a mythical dimension, perhaps, but at their core, they are still reality. The credit bubble he spoke of, is however, a different story. Which is why, in reality, we fear those bubbles. We know they are not real...that doesn’t mean our entire system of commerce is a sham. Perhaps, the word myth was lost in translation (He wrote the book in Hebrew) But I’m at a lost to find another word...because when it’s applied to religion, which many believe simply to be untrue, you can’t say myth there, and then cry myth about a corporation, and not mean the same thing.
This book had 5 star potential. well written, highly informative, and thought provoking. I’ll deduct 1 star for not coming to the fearless conclusions (right or wrong) regarding the theory he laid out early on. I’ll deduct a 2nd star for not hammering us as a species for making this planet our bitch. Which so clearly we have done and so clearly not been rebuked for, by God, or by anything else (Who else is there?). The rebuke is coming though. Freeman Dyson, in his book, Disturbing the Universe, believes technology will save us when that rebuke becomes reality. Harari seems to echo that theme. I used to believe it...I have my doubts.
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