YUVAL  NOAH  HARARI

21 Lessons for the 21st Century  by Yuval Noah Harari ; Published by Penguin; Pages 352 ; Price: Rs 799/-

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Yuval Noah  Harari is a historian from the University of Oxford and  is presently a Professor in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is the author of  two books, “Sapiens” and “Homo Deus”   which have been sold in  millions and also translated into dozens of languages. In the book under review  “21 Lessons for the 21st Century,” Harari creates a useful framework for confronting  fears that haunt mankind. There are chapters on work, war, nationalism, religion, immigration, education and 15 other weighty matters.

 Harari is increasingly touted as not only a man with interesting stories to tell, but rather as an essential thinker of our age, the writer who may come closest to envisioning and possibly solving our collective problems.

He is  one of the most popular non-fiction writers in the world today .The sum total of the arguments that he presents in the new book is that we are living in times when the new norm is "unpredictability" .

  Barack Obama  wrote about the book “Sapiens” that it gave him perspective on “the core things that have allowed us to build this extraordinary civilisation that we take for granted”.

 The book  covers everything from war –  to meditation.The collection of pieces aims to take stock of where humanity has reached, and where it might be going. Ultra-topical concerns such as “fake news” and the rise of authoritarians such as Donald Trump are set in the context of centuries of our biological and social evolution.

All the classic Harari themes are here. There is the  main question, which is here spelled out in a chapter heading. “How do you live in an age of bewilderment, when the old stories have collapsed, and no new story has yet emerged to replace them?” Harari  asserts  that collective myths, such as money and laws, have allowed us to build huge, complicated societies far beyond what our biological limitations might suggest is possible. But in the secular west, religion is fading from public life. And in our globalised world, the idea of a coherent nation-state is threatened. What do we have left to believe in?

How can we protect ourselves from nuclear war and technological disruptions? What are today’s greatest challenges and choices? What should we pay attention to? Are we still capable of understanding the world we have created? What should we teach our children?

The book  makes a compelling reading. Harari’s wide knowledge and deep intellect are evident in his strong claims. It offers interesting insights and ideas to provoke further thinking and find answers.

 Harari sets out to answer some basic questions in the book. In fact, as he himself notes, most parts of the book have been composed in response to questions that readers, journalists and colleagues put to the author.

 Harari weaves a common theme of the need to maintain "our collective and individual focus in the face of constant and disorienting change".

The  book is divided into 21 chapters over 5 Sections and discusses  issues such as religion, nationalism, environment, Artificial Intelligence, social media, data privacy and liberty, among others, that have been subjected to constant changes in the light of recent upheavals. Harari holds that religion can have adverse impact on its followers, but like nationalism, which is threat to globalisation, it too has its uses.

"Does a return to nationalism offer real solutions to the unprecedented problems of our global world, or is it an escapist indulgence that may doom humankind and the entire biosphere to disaster?" he asks, before debunking the challenges of nuclear war, ecological damage, and the technological problems that may surface, or are already surfacing, as a result of rising nationalism.

Harari suggests that religious fundamentalists and bigots too have an agenda at play. Whether it is the Islamic State, North Korean tyrants or Mexican drug lords, all bow before the all-powerful dollar.

Even if one disagrees with Harari's assertions or solutions, the merit of the book lies in opening up the issues in their totality, thereby allowing the reader to pause and contemplate on where we, humanity as a whole, are headed and if we can improve the prospects of our future by altering our actions in the present.

 Harari provides a fascinating insight on war. “Military power cannot go far in the twenty-first century, and that waging a war successful war means waging a limited war,” Harari writes, moving on to talk about countries like Russia, Iran and Israel, which have adopted this strategy successfully.

 Although you will find a few concrete lessons scattered throughout, Harari mostly resists handy prescriptions. He’s more interested in defining the terms of the discussion and giving you historical and philosophical perspective.

The point is that today’s competition among nations — whether on an athletic field or the trading floor — “actually represents an astonishing global agreement.” And that global agreement makes it easier to cooperate as well as compete.

Here’s another worry that Harari deals with: In an increasingly complex world, how can any of us have enough information to make educated decisions? It’s tempting to turn to experts, but how do you know they’re not just following the herd? “The problem of groupthink and individual ignorance besets not just ordinary voters and customers,” he writes, “but also presidents and C.E.O.s.”

What does Harari think we should do about all this? Sprinkled throughout is some practical advice, including a three-prong strategy for fighting terrorism and a few tips for dealing with fake news. But his big idea boils down to this: Meditate. Of course he isn’t suggesting that the world’s problems will vanish if enough of us start sitting in the lotus position and chanting OM. But he does insist that life in the 21st century demands mindfulness — getting to know ourselves better and seeing how we contribute to suffering in our own lives.

Bill Gates writes presciently---“As much as I admire Harari and enjoyed “21 Lessons,” I didn’t agree with everything in the book. I was glad to see the chapter on inequality, but I’m sceptical about his prediction that in the 21st century “data will eclipse both land and machinery as the most important asset” separating rich people from everyone else. Land will always be hugely important, especially as the global population nears 10 billion. Meanwhile, data on key human endeavours — how to grow food or produce energy, for example — will become even more widely available. Simply having information won’t offer a competitive edge; knowing what to do with it will.”

 Harari’s  three  books wrestle with some version of the same question: What will give our lives meaning in the decades and centuries ahead? So far, human history has been driven by a desire to live longer, healthier, happier lives. If science is eventually able to give that dream to most people, and large numbers of people no longer need to work in order to feed and clothe everyone, what reason will we have to get up in the morning?.

An unusual book worth reading carefully.

P.P.Ramachandran

28/04/2019.