I've just gone through the recently published Harari's book, 21 lessons for the 21st Century. This was the full read that made me like Harari for his insightful and thought-provoking ideas. Though much has been written about the book, I would like to summarise some basic points which I have found valueable.
First of all, Harari has truly depicted the human beings as one civilization rather than divided into the borders of colour, creed, race or even religion. This argument seems very true in as many ways as we observe in our daily routine: we may quarrel with one another over trivial things like Nationalism, Religious heresy or Races but we have same methods for the construction of our houses, improving technology and cooking food.
Secondly, Harari has put before us the very valueable lesson regarding education in the tewenty first century. He emphasises the fact that we should be more careful in teaching our kids: what should we teach them so as they can stand by the test of the time? The answer lies in building four Cs: Critical thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, Communication. And the most important of all these is Critical thinking which enhances the realm of a child's mind and he begins to understand the phemonena around him in a broader sense. And because Artifical Intelligence will dominate our planet, children are supposed to be taught the use of technology.
Thirdly, as the time passes, the necessities of life change, values change and above all the 'assets' change. We often study that the important asset in the ancient times used to be 'land'. In the modern era, it turns toward 'machines' and they are considered to be the valueable asset. But in the tewent first Century 'data' replace machines and lands and political struggle will be to control the flow of data. In this way, those who dominate the data will dominate us.
Fourthly, Harari takes Terrorism in a very different but logical way. He argues Terrorism is nothing but a hype created mostky by the incumbent government to safe its position nad extending its rulling tenure. For example, there are much more deaths caused by road accidents, various diseases and food posioning, but noone pays attention to these factors. Terrorists cause only a minor damage as compared to aforementioned factors but they use this damage throught the year. So, there is need to diamantle this narrative.
Fifthly, it is probable that we may be ruled by machines and most of our decision will be made by them. What we surf the web, watch the Youtube, use Social Media for feeds, all is recorded and organised. Doing so, they know more about us than we know ourselves. Therefore, we may ask Google to suggest a suitable girlfriend/ boyfriend in connection with the stored data. This will revolutionise the life.
Sixthly, advertisement play a vitol role in provoking our emotions, arousing desires or having some food among friends. For example, Coca Cola is displayed in the hands of the energetic youth, even though it doesn't make us healthy. So, boys and girls will like to have Coca Cola when they are gathered at a place for fun, irrespective of the un-diaplayed condition of the patients suffering from diabetes etc owing to these cold drinks. Capitalist will earn Capital at the cost of human life.
Cutting long story short, there are many other points he has discussed in his book but these lessons were in accordance with the prevailing narratives and can be taken as antidote to them.
-Muhammad Abrar
05 August, 2020
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