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Single Idea 20679

[filed under theme 24. Political Theory / B. Nature of a State / 5. Culture ]

Full Idea

Modern attempts to stabilise the sociopolitical order either declare a scientific theory (such as racial theories for Nazis, or economic ones for Communists) to be an absolute truths, or declare non-scientific dogmas (such as liberal values)

Gist of Idea

We stabilise societies with dogmas, either of dubious science, or of non-scientific values

Source

Yuval Noah Harari (Sapiens: brief history of humankind [2014], 14 'Ignoramus')

Book Ref

Harari,Yuval Noah: 'Sapiens: a brief history of Humankind' [Vintage 2014], p.282

A Reaction

[compressed]

The 29 ideas from Yuval Noah Harari

20663 If a group is bound by gossip, the natural size is 150 people [Harari]
20664 Animism is belief that every part of nature is aware and feeling, and can communicate [Harari]
20669 Dualist religions see everything as a battleground of good and evil forces [Harari]
20670 Dualist religions say the cosmos is a battleground, so can’t explain its order [Harari]
20673 Manichaeans and Gnostics: good made spirit, evil made flesh [Harari]
20671 In order to explain both order and evil, a single evil creator is best, but no one favours that [Harari]
20666 Most polytheist recognise one supreme power or law, behind the various gods [Harari]
20667 Polytheism is open-minded, and rarely persecutes opponents [Harari]
20668 Monotheism appeared in Egypt in 1350 BCE, when the god Aten was declared supreme [Harari]
20665 Mythologies are usual contracts with the gods, exchanging devotion for control of nature [Harari]
20674 The Nazi aim was to encourage progressive evolution, and avoid degeneration [Harari]
20675 The more you know about history, the harder it becomes to explain [Harari]
20676 History teaches us that the present was not inevitable, and shows us the possibilities [Harari]
20677 Since 1500 human population has increased fourteenfold, and consumption far more [Harari]
20678 The Scientific Revolution was the discovery of our own ignorance [Harari]
20679 We stabilise societies with dogmas, either of dubious science, or of non-scientific values [Harari]
20684 Financing is increasingly through credit rather than taxes; people prefer investing to taxation [Harari]
20685 No market is free of political bias, and markets need protection of their freedoms [Harari]
20681 The sacred command of capitalism is that profits must be used to increase production [Harari]
20682 The main rule of capitalism is that all other goods depend on economic growth [Harari]
20683 The progress of capitalism depends entirely on the new discoveries and gadgets of science [Harari]
20687 In capitalism the rich invest, and the rest of us go shopping [Harari]
20686 For millenia people didn't know how to convert one type of energy into another [Harari]
20690 The state fostered individualism, to break the power of family and community [Harari]
20689 In 1750 losing your family and community meant death [Harari]
20691 Real peace is the implausibility of war (and not just its absence) [Harari]
20688 People 300m tons; domesticated animals 700m tons; larger wild animals 100m tons [Harari]
20692 Money does produce happiness, but only up to a point [Harari]
20693 Freedom may work against us, as individuals can choose to leave, and make fewer commitments [Harari]