21 Lessons
for the 21st
Century By
Yuval Noah
Harari
Ignorance
Chapter: 15
Subject:
Modern Prose
Submitted To:
Mam Khishar Sadaf
Group No: 15
Group Members:
Ayesha
Nadeem(14007)
Minahal Fatima
(13313)
Part IV: Truth
You know less than you think
The last few centuries, liberal thought developed immense trust in the
rational individual. It depicted individual humans as independent rational
agents, and has made these mythical creatures the basis of modern society.
Behavioural economists and evolutionary psychologists have demonstrated
that most human decisions are based on emotional reactions rather than on
rational analysis and that while our emotions and heuristics were perhaps
suitable for dealing with life in the Stone Age, they are woefully inadequate in
the Silicon Age.
Humans rarely think for themselves. Rather, we think in groups. Just as it
takes a tribe to raise a child, it also takes a tribe to invent a tool, solve a
conflict, or cure a disease. No individual knows everything it takes to build a
cathedral, an atom bomb, or an aircraft. What gave Homo sapiens an edge
over all other animals and turned us into the masters of the planet was not our
individual rationality, but our unparalleled ability to think together in large
groups.
We think we know far more today, but as individuals, we actually know far
less. We rely on the expertise of others for almost all our needs. In one
humbling experiment, people were asked to evaluate how well they
understood the workings of an ordinary zip. Most people confidently replied
that they understood them very well – after all, they use zips all the time. They
were then asked to describe in as much detail as possible all the steps involved
in the zip’s operation. Most had no idea. This is what Steven Sloman and Philip
Fernbach have termed ‘the knowledge illusion’. We think we know a lot, even
though individually we know very little, because we treat knowledge in the
minds of others as if it were our own.
Our reliance on groupthink has made us masters of the world, and the
knowledge illusion enables us to go through life without being caught in an
impossible effort to understand everything ourselves.
The world is becoming ever more complex, and people fail to realize just
how ignorant they are of what’s going on. Consequently some who know next
to nothing about meteorology or biology nevertheless propose policies
regarding climate change and genetically modified crops, while others hold
extremely strong views about what should be done in Iraq or Ukraine without
being able to locate these countries on a map. People rarely appreciate their
ignorance, because they lock themselves inside an echo chamber of like-
minded friends and self-confirming newsfeeds, where their beliefs are
constantly reinforced and rarely challenged.
Scientists hope to dispel wrong views by better science education, and
pundits hope to sway public opinion on issues such as Obamacare or global
warming by presenting the public with accurate facts and expert reports.
Pundits:
An expert in a particular subject or field who is frequently called upon to
give their opinions to the public.
Obamacare:
The Affordable Care Act, formally known as the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S.
federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into
law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010.
Bombarding people with facts and exposing their individual ignorance is
likely to backfire. Most people don’t like too many facts, and they certainly
don’t like to feel stupid. Monty Python’s Life of Brian, a huge crowd of starry-
eyed followers mistakes Brian for the Messiah.
Starry-eyed followers:
If someone is starry-eyed, it mean that people have such a positive or
hopeful view of a situation that they do not see what it is really like.
Brian tells his disciples that ‘You don’t need to follow me; you don’t need to
follow anybody! You’ve got to think for yourselves! You’re all individuals!
You’re all different!’ The enthusiastic crowd then chants in unison ‘Yes! We’re
all individuals! Yes, we are all different!’ Monty Python were parodying the
counterculture orthodoxy of the 1960s.
The 1960’s Orthodoxy:
The young person of the 60’s started questioning the values and norms of
the dominant culture. Groups like African-Americans, women, gays and lesbians
started demanding their rights and wanted to create an inclusive society. One of
the most important events of the counterculture or the moment when
counterculture really took off was the assassination of John F. Kennedy in
November of 1963. He campaigned for civil rights and against discrimination
which made him popular among younger people. Many younger citizens saw him
as the last straw and with his death a lot of young people saw their political as
lost.
The black hole of power
It is extremely hard to discover the truth when you are ruling the world.
You need to experiment with unproductive paths, to explore dead ends, to make
space for doubts and boredom, and to allow little seeds of insight to slowly grow
and blossom. If you cannot afford to waste time – you will never find the truth.
Great power inevitably distorts the truth. When you have great power in your
hand, everything looks like an invitation to meddle. Even if you somehow
overcome this urge, the people surrounding you will never forget the giant
hammer you are holding. Great power thus acts like a black hole that warps the
very space around it. The closer you get, the more twisted everything becomes.
Each person you see tries to flatter you, appease you, or get something from you.
A couple of years ago Yuval Noah Harari was invited to dinner with the
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Friends warned me not to go, but I
couldn’t resist the temptation. I thought I might finally hear some big secrets that
are divulged only to important ears behind closed doors. What a disappointment
it was! There were about thirty people there, and everyone tried to get the Great
Man’s attention, impress him with their wit, curry favor, or get something out of
him. If anyone there knew any big secrets, they did an extremely good job of
keeping them to themselves. This was hardly Netanyahu’s fault, or indeed
anybody’s fault. It was the fault of the gravitational pull of power.
If you really want truth, you need to escape the black hole of power.
Leaders are thus trapped in a double bind. If they stay in the centre of power,
they will have an extremely distorted vision of the world. If they venture to the
margins, they will waste too much of their precious time. In the coming decades,
the world will become even more complex than it is today. Individual humans –
whether pawns or kings – will consequently know even less about the
technological gadgets, the economic currents, and the political dynamics that
shape the world. As Socrates observed more than 2,000 years ago, the best we
can do under such conditions is to acknowledge our own individual ignorance.
But what then about morality and justice? If we cannot understand the
world, how can we hope to tell the difference between right and wrong, justice
and injustice?