You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.
– Yuval Noah Harari
What is it that’s special about Homo Sapiens? What allowed us to climb to the top of the ecological ladder and dominate the planet so ruthlessly until the very future of our planet is in doubt at the beginning of the 21st Century? Many reasons are given, such as our intelligence due to possessing brains larger and more powerful than those of any other species in history, learning to control and use fire, our ability to use our hands to hold and manipulate objects, the ability to devise tools and, of course, the power of having languages.
But is there one thing that we can say propelled us from mid-level creatures on the food chain to its supreme rulers, fending off and controlling animals bigger and more powerful than us, while successfully moving into every possible niche on this planet?
‘Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind’ by Yuval Noah Harari is a book from 2011 that addresses this and other big questions about us as a species and provides startling answers. It includes previously unknown (to laymen such as myself) ideas and theories which turn several of the ‘certainties’ we’ve been taught in school or have accepted over the years about ourselves, on it’s very head. Sapiens discusses how we got here and where we are likely going to as a species. That’s a convenient summary but along the way, the book provides many insights that left me experiencing a series of paradigm shifts, one after the other : from how our ancestors choosing to stand on two feet instead of remaining on fours affected everything from our brain development to childbirth; how the Agricultural Revolution did not necessarily lead to better lives, how Homo Sapiens climb up the ecological ladder leading it to displace the animals on top was achieved in such a blink that there wasn’t sufficient time for either nature or us to adapt sufficiently; that although we reached the pinnacle, we took along our doubts and fears and how this probably contributed to the kind of history we have created over the past several hundreds of years – a history of wars, genocides, one filled with acts of violence and many fear-driven tragedies; that instead of a linear progression from the oldest, most primitive human species to us here today, it is more likely that several species of Homo – such as Neanderthals in Europe; Soloensis, who lived on Java; Erectus, the first upright human and Homo Sapiens, the self-styled ‘Wise Man’ – all lived concurrently at different locations on the planet. Such postulations inhabit many pages of the book and are a fascinating challenge to what we know of as our history.
But listen to this. Harari suggests that the possible reason for Homo Sapiens spectacular leap to the top, displacing not just other animals but it’s own tougher and varied siblings, of the genus Homo, was its ability to communicate in stories. Merely developing the ability to communicate what is happening – for example, there is a lion at the river – wouldn’t have been enough or unique by itself. Other animals and human species did this too – through vocalisations. What made Homo Sapiens special was their ability to tell stories. To talk of things which did not exist. To say that, not only that there is a lion at the river, but that the lion represented the spirit that guarded the tribe. What made Sapiens so successful in such a short time, according to Harari, is our ability to invent concepts (stuff that does not exist), to share and collectively believe it, and to live our lives in response to these stories.
Stories such as what, you may ask? Religion for one. Concepts of government and business are another. Ideas that were shared and came to influence our behaviour, bypassing the slow-train of evolution by genetics that had previously determined the rate of progress of Homo Sapiens, our sibling Humans and all other species on this planet since the first organisms appeared.
A striking example he gives, is how the Roman Catholic Church’s highest office bearers are men who choose to be celibate. These men select a head – the Pope – who leads them and all those who profess to the faith worldwide. Consciously selecting celibate males seems a sure-fire method to disperse power and ultimately lose it entirely in any species. It seems to go against natural selection. And yet, generation after generation, the Pope leads his elders who in turn lead their respective churches in many countries and the Church has flourished for hundreds and hundreds of years. How does it work? Based on the ideas that form the foundation of the Church : Jesus, the Holy Trinity, Original Sin, the Cross, the existence of an afterlife. Stories. This promise of an afterlife, or a workplace bonus in return for required behaviour in the present, only works with Sapiens. It would not work with monkeys and bananas.
Take any other religion instead. Or any ethnic group and it’s practices, what’s termed as ‘culture’. The supporters of a Football Club. Vegetarians. Animal-lovers. Take any idea that can bind those who believe in it together, to behave in a certain way. Only Homo Sapiens, according to Harari, have demonstrated the ability to do this. This ability in turn has allowed Sapiens to work together, influencing ever larger groups over which mastery of language alone would not have sufficed. This, the ability to tell, share and believe in common stories and concepts, influencing behaviour faster and on a larger scale with even strangers, was a crucial ability in humankind’s rise to the pinnacle.
Images, ideas and beliefs. Stories. Seeds sown since we were born and that we’d gathered along the way until arriving at this very place where we sit and ponder about this. How we think, our cultures, codes of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour as citizens of a country, as members of a faith or a club, a family, a particular geographical region, an ethic group, a member of the political right or left, as individuals and members of our neighbourhood, ethnic groups, religious denominations, our rules of money and diplomacy, and other such fabrications- everything that makes us think we are who we think we are, everything that we believe and respond to – are stories that have been told to and by us. This enables us, with varying degrees of success, to live, thrive and survive here in the societies cobbled together by Sapiens. These have created the realities – and consequences – that we live with today.
Can we choose – as thinking Sapiens – to deliberately step outside and see our stories for what they are and choose those that bring the greatest benefit to ourselves and our world?
Understanding this, here are the questions we need to ask ourselves as a species: Do we realise that we are where we are, due to the stories we have told ourselves and had told to us by our respective societies? Do we realise that we can choose to step outside of these stories that we have been handed and which have been controlling us? That we can choose to not listen to those stories that lead to more of the same violence and instead, take another road, adopt another story?
Can we choose – as thinking Sapiens – to deliberately step outside and see our stories for what they are and choose those that bring the greatest benefit to ourselves and our world instead of allowing those stories that breed violence and fear which in turn breeds further hatred and every other destructive tendency that has haunted us since we moved up the food chain all those tens of thousands of years ago?
Harari’s book warns that Sapiens have become the scourge of the planet and his later book Homo Deus discusses the future of Sapiens. Today as we look at the world and how it is, we see that the stories we’ve told ourselves and each other, are leading to apocalyptic scenarios – rampant consumerism and pollution, global warming, mass migration due to drought, war and political unrest, the rise of all forms of thuggery – from full-fledged authoritarian regimes to blushing nation-states that cloak themselves in a thin veneer of democracy and proceed to brutally undermine anyone and anything that does not serve their own, fear-driven interests. Corporations and consumers on opposite ends of the spectrum, haggling over the price of our privacy instead of our souls, the ever-widening chasm between the haves and have-nots and depending on where you live, we see the rights of gays, minorities, migrants and women being stripped back at the same time as there are brave efforts to take them forward.
Today it is so obvious, more than ever, how the stories we Sapiens tell ourselves and others are having a massive impact on our very existence and threatening the wellbeing of this planet. It is more important than ever that we consciously choose our stories. Because what made us special as a species could end up destroying us and the place we call home.
There are no gods, no nations, no money and no human rights, except in our collective imagination.
-Yuval Noah Harari
Footnote:
+ Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, 2011. On 29 July 2018, The Guardian listed it as one of the Best ‘brainy’ books of this decade. This book has gradually gone up the best seller lists and has a large following. The Guardian article says the book “succeeds through its eclectic scope, its readability, and its author’s willingness to offer ethical judgements.” Other books by Harari are Homo Deus – A Brief History of Tomorrow (2015) & 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018).
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