21 Lessons for the 21st Century

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How do computers and robots change the meaning of being human? How do we deal with the epidemic of fake news? Are nations and religions still relevant? What should we teach our children? 

Yuval Noah Harari’s 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a probing and visionary investigation into today’s most urgent issues as we move into the uncharted territory of the future. As technology advances faster than our understanding of it, hacking becomes a tactic of war, and the world feels more polarized than ever, Harari addresses the challenge of navigating life in the face of constant and disorienting change and raises the important questions we need to ask ourselves in order to survive.

In twenty-one accessible chapters that are both provocative and profound, Harari builds on the ideas explored in his previous books, untangling political, technological, social, and existential issues and offering advice on how to prepare for a very different future from the world we now live in: How can we retain freedom of choice when Big Data is watching us? What will the future workforce look like, and how should we ready ourselves for it? How should we deal with the threat of terrorism? Why is liberal democracy in crisis?

Harari’s unique ability to make sense of where we have come from and where we are going has captured the imaginations of millions of readers. Here he invites us to consider values, meaning, and personal engagement in a world full of noise and uncertainty. When we are deluged with irrelevant information, clarity is power. Presenting complex contemporary challenges clearly and accessibly, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is essential reading.

Prof. Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher and the bestselling author. Born in Haifa, Israel, in 1976, Harari received his PhD from the University of Oxford in 2002, and is currently a lecturer at the Department of History, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Prof. Harari lectures around the world on the topics explored in his books and articles, and has written for publications such as The Guardian, Financial Times, The New York Times, The Times, The Economist and Nature magazine. He also offers his knowledge and time to various organizations and audiences on a voluntary basis

The first two books written by Yuval Noah Harari which became bestsellers caught my attention but I never read them. However, recently my mind has been more focused on the big changes taking place in the world and I was eager to learn what this exciting new thinker on the scene had to say. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century did not disappoint.

I had already come to the same conclusion that Harari states in his Introduction. The world order that developed soon after WWII has delivered much progress during the past seventy years. But it now seems inadequate for the challenges of the present time.

At the close of the twentieth century it appeared that the great ideological battles between fascism, communism, and liberalism had resulted in the overwhelming victory of liberalism. Democratic politics, human rights, and free-market capitalism seemed destined to conquer the entire world. But as usual, history took an unexpected turn, and after fascism and communism collapsed, now liberalism is in trouble.

I think that Harari’s statement introducing Part l his book is one of the most important and under-reported trends in the world today, a trend that I was slow to pick up on.

Humankind is losing faith in the liberal story that dominated global politics in recent decades… But liberalism has no obvious answers to the biggest problems we face… perhaps the time has come to make a clean break with the past and craft a completely new story.

Until the last few years, I thought incremental progress within the established framework was the best path forward. Now for the first time in my life I see the need for a new way but I have no idea what that might be. I am not confident that something positive will emerge during the remainder of my life, but I hope that I am wrong.

In Chapter two, Harari uses a phrase I have never heard before, a haunting phrase that I cannot get out of my head.

Some believe that within a mere decade or two, billions of people will become economically redundant.

...we might nevertheless witness the rise of a new useless class… no remaining human job will ever be safe from the threat of future automation… it is far from clear that billions of people would be able to repeatedly reinvent themselves without losing their mental balance… People will feel that the system is rigged against them...

I am very grateful that I was born in 1951 and that I entered the workforce at a time of great optimism for a better future for most people. There was no talk of a useless class then. I do remember the talk of a “leisure society” and my disappointment when it did not materialize.

I have little disagreement with most of what Harai writes in this book, but I disagree with him on the matter of free will. The consequences of my disagreement are significant but outside of the scope of this report. In defense of Harari, there is no consensus amongst experts on the question of free will.

Along with Harari, many people have a feeling that something is seriously wrong with the world today.

...how do you regulate the ownership of data? This may well be the most important political question of our era. If we cannot answer this question soon, our sociopolitical system might collapse. People are already sensing the coming cataclysm.

Perhaps Harari puts too much emphasis on the impact of Big Data. But if a mighty contest between Big Corporations and Big Government develops over Big Data, it seems unlikely to me that ordinary people will understand the issues, or care. Personally, it does irritate me that Google, Facebook and others harvest my data for profit.

...as of 2018 we are still Stone Age animals. In order to flourish we still need to ground ourselves in intimate communities… if we don’t belong to any intimate community, we humans feel lonely and alienated ...it is extremely difficult to know each other as “whole” people.

I am part of a wonderful community of expats living in Mexico. But even so, I do not feel part of an intimate community of like-minded people. I have made a start at developing such a group here.

Though humankind is very far from constituting a harmonious community, we are all members of a single rowdy global civilization.

This is an interesting contrast with the “clash of civilizations” idea.

It was extremely difficult to construct the internationalist regime that prevented nuclear war and safeguarded global peace… abandoning this regime altogether and reverting to nationalist power politics would be an irresponsible gamble.

Nationalist isolationism is probably even more dangerous in the context of climate change than nuclear war.

The idea that we are first citizens of the world before we are citizens of countries has long resonated with me. Societal issues can be local, regional, continental or global. Ideally, governance would be structured to align with the geography of issues. In my opinion, the idea of a global governance authority to deal with global issues makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, discussion of world government occurs mostly in the realm of conspiracy theories.

The global issues of immigration are discussed everywhere, mostly in a polarized setting with heated emotions. Harari provides an excellent framework for positive dialogue. Chapter 9 should be required reading for every politician.

And every politician should heed the words at the start of Part lll:

Though the challenges are unprecedented, and though the disagreements are intense, humankind can rise to the occasion if we keep our fears under control and be a bit more humble about our views.

One potential remedy for human stupidity is a dose of humility… How can we make nations, religions, and cultures a bit more realistic and modest about their true place in the world?

To acknowledge the great mysteries, to face uncertainties and the limits of our individual and collective knowledge, this is the path to humility.

I personally never cease to wonder about the mystery of existence.

But then Harari’s humility leaves him and he makes a rather arrogant claim.

Secularism can provide us with all the values we need.

Every religion, ideology, and creed has its shadow, and no matter which creed you follow you should acknowledge your shadow…

From a good friend at Lakeside, I have gained some appreciation for the idea of our individual and collective shadows. I now realize that our retirement years are our last opportunity to dance with our shadow. I wonder what the collective shadows of a secular culture are.

The unexpected ascension of Trump and the Brexit decision did confuse me for a while and I take some comfort in the wise words of Yuval Noah Harari.

If you feel overwhelmed and confused by the global predicament, you are on the right track. Global processes have become too complicated for any single person to understand.

In the coming decades, the world will become even more complex than it is today… the best we can do under such conditions is to acknowledge our own individual ignorance.

When I was much younger I thought I knew all the important truths because God had revealed them to people who taught them to me. Only in recent years have I realized how very incomplete my knowledge, and everyone’s, is. I still love to learn but I am at peace with my ignorance, at least most of the time.

In Chapter 17, Harari equates religion with fake news and he knows he will offend many. The fiction of religion was once my primary guide. But I am not in the camp of those who believe religion is always harmful and cannot possibly be a useful fiction.

He also mentions the fictions created by corporations and uses Coca-Cola as an example. I live in Mexico where many people believe that drinking lots of Coke is not harmful. Consequently, there is an epidemic of obesity here and a high death rate from diabetes.

...our belief in the modern mythology of capitalism is underpinned by the artistic creations of Hollywood and the pop industry.

In recent years, I have learned that many Millenials, unlike most Baby Boomers, do not believe the myth of capitalism.  

I easily understand my life as a story, a story to be told.

In almost all cases, when people ask about the meaning of life, they expect to be told a story. Homo sapiens is a storytelling animal that thinks in stories… All stories are incomplete. Yet in order to construct a viable identity for myself and give meaning to my life, I don’t really need a complete story devoid of blind spots and internal contradictions. To give meaning to my life, a story needs to satisfy just two conditions. First, it must give me some role to play… Second, whereas a good story need not extend to infinity, it must extend beyond my horizons.

The last chapter of 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Meditation,  is controversial. Some find it trite and some find it profound. But no one knows the life of Yuval Noah Harari better than Yuval Noah Harari.

Since that first course in 2000, I began meditating for two hours every day, and each year I take a long meditation retreat of a month or two. It is not an escape from reality. It is getting in touch with reality…Without the focus and clarity provided by this practice, I could not have written Sapiens or Homo Deus.

Harari ends his book once again focused on mystery.

Many people, including many scientists, tend to confuse the mind with the brain, but they are really very different things… The mind is a flow of subjective experiences, such as pain, pleasure, anger, and love… so far we have absolutely no explanation for how the mind emerges from the brain.

...consciousness is the greatest mystery in the universe…