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akpinar73
Sep 17, 20229 min read

The Intellectual of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow


Yuval Noah Harari analyzes what we do not see, what we do not know, what we have become, and even what we will become. He analyzes how our free will alternates the progression of life as we know it, and how our conscious minds lead us to suffer. By looking through his personal version of a macro and micro-lens he depicted man-kind as a whole and its correlation with other Hominids and Primates. His exploration of biology integrating with history reveals questions rather than statements. And that is why he is an intellectual; he brings up conversations in regards to accepted narratives and encourages every reader to ask; why did humans make it this far? Why are we the ones who build and communicate and develop this world? Are we really developing anything or are we making opportunities for suffering? These are some of my questions, as an influenced reader, about the world. He draws connections between past patterns, going as far as 70,000 years back, and creates concern by introducing the possibility of a contemporary pattern within history. Harari assumes tomorrow in the span of a global ecosystem and compels everyone to individually reconsider their existence and responsibilities to the earth as humanity is a lost cause.

Before digging deeper into Harari’s educational and influential background, here is a little about his personal life… He was born and raised in Kiryat Ata, Israel into a secular Jewish family. His family was spread around Lebanon and Eastern Europe. Even as a child, he had an exceptionally extraordinary mind and taught himself to read at a very young age. His education life followed a sequin of historical studies, consisting of medieval times, the military, and human evolution. Jared Diamond’s literary works inspired him to be a writer as well, and this led to him educating the whole world on mankind's birth, evolution, and expiration date. I think that the exceptional aspect of his writings are not his findings per say, but more his insights into the future and how sapiens tend to think. He discusses all the revolutions in history and how they affected the speed of the sapien revolution. The factors such as cognitive behavior, agricultural developments, and scientific innovations all set course to history. That being said, Harari writes the unwritten within the detailed history textbooks. He generalizes sapiens within the chronological order of events and connects them to what is to come. Harari has certain notable arguments on the logic behind evolution and how its conclusions are a result of people demanding explanations. As he states in Sapiens; “How do you cause people to believe in an imagined order such as Christianity, democracy or capitalism? First, you never admit that the order is imagined.” Therefore, one comes to the realization that everything Harari predicts about the future has a possibility of becoming reality as somethings we have believed to be real for centuries were also just stories and predictions once.

Harari is an outstanding intellectual because of the way he composes his writings. He could be talking about history, and collaborate it with a quote that people resonate with so strongly that you are captivated. His persuasive language is a result of weaving of emotions through factual discussions. The emotions are employed to elevate sensitivity towards the facts. He empowers people to think for themselves and realize the power of self consciousness. One of my favorite statements he makes in Sapiens is; “How many young college graduates have taken demanding jobs in high-powered firms, vowing that they will work hard to earn money that will enable them to retire and pursue their real interests when they are thirty-five? But by the time they reach that age, they have large mortgages, children to school, houses in the suburbs that necessitate at least two cars per family, and a sense that life is not worth living without really good wine and expensive holidays abroad. What are they supposed to do, go back to digging up roots? No, they double their efforts and keep slaving away.” As it applies to almost everyone around me as I watch them make decisions about their future. People are so worried about the next 10 years that they forget to realize the importance of tomorrow. And in a sense, that is the message Harari is emphasizing on, whether it has scientific or personal implications. Humanity as a whole will face excruciating situations unless they begin taking accountability for their everyday actions as days turn to weeks, which turn to years, and before you know it the world is polluted with all sorts of demons.

I could use this essay to summarize the public intellectuals' writings and personal experiences, and for someone like Yuval Noah Harari I could write a whole book. Rather, I want to speak about his mind and goals. Humans are so consumed with what has been fed to them by society as “urgent” that they forget they are a tiny puzzle piece within humanity. And while humanity itself is in danger in the near future, the triviality of everyday problems are too overbearing for one to notice anything else. Harari is a public intellectual as he has earned credibility in regards to his knowledge on history due to his educational past, and decided to convey his thoughts to the world through writing. He shares his ideas, whether imaginative or not, with the world in order to educate humans on where they came from and humanity on where it is headed. As Stephen Mack depicts in “Are Public Intellectuals a Thing of The Past”; “A public intellectual is someone who focuses on creating an impact rather than focusing on their status and recognition as a public intellectual”. Harari is a perfect example of this as he began publishing simply because his brain was overflowing with predictions and worries, and he felt the urge to share this with the world in an influential attempt.

Harari explains that humans give a meaning to everything around them and therefore one can envision the future as the story will be unraveled by the very same humans. He discusses how technological developments and devices will take over as we give them the power to do so, as with each invention we create more efficiency but also surrender personal abilities as the device is able to take care of it. A noteworthy sharing he made within his writings was how even though humanity technically means the large collective of humans, humans are not pieces of humanity. I found this extraordinary as the point being made was that humans consider their options, evaluate their decisions, and think rationally as well as emotionally. Therefore, there is a misconception that if everyone exercises these human behaviors, as an entity humans will be caring towards the world and cause the least damage possible. However, that entity of humans is humanity and humanity as a whole does not function this way. There are more selfish behaviors involved that lead to grand destruction. He emphasizes the universe is a meaningless cycle of events and our position on the Homo branch got lucky enough to build a life in this world but collectively none of it matters. We give life a meaning to get through it and “reality” is just our creation to make things make sense. Just as Stephen Mack discusses in his essay “Wicked Paradox: The Cleric As A Public Intellectual”, humans need to have a very vivid imagination in order to restore peace within their minds. To have a meaning is to accept the story behind something, but it is us who writes the story and passes it down. Mack exemplifies this matter through comparing religious matters with political ones. The truth is not that these concepts don't “mix” but that they both occupy space within the “human imagination” with contradicting philosophies. Therefore, the very meaning is that humans create restrictions within their minds which reflect the overall attitude of humanity.

Just as all intellectuals do, and the consequence of having such a public presence, Harari faced his share of controversy. As his mind is quite literally published for the whole world to highlight, redline, and judge, there are people and arguments who oppose him. An example would be when he wrote his book “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” and in order to spread the book's reach he approved translations to many languages. Russian being one of them, he approved changes to the tone of his dialect as they contained a harsher tone when addressing the authorities of Russia. While I find what he did to be reasonable, the world did not agree. People began attacking his morality and ethics as a whole by stating that he was going against his own words and therefore sacrificing the credibility of all of his writings. Harari is known to be a liberal man with no censorship, and this adjustment of wording caused people to be outraged as it went against those liberal ideas. However, he was simply doing what an intellectual does; spreading his knowledge. So if the sacrifice he makes in order to have his thoughts circulate in such a largely populated country is minor edits then it should be valid. I think that it was an understandable edit and it should not create a judgment against his entire values as a person. Criticism comes with bold choices and this was one that Harari faced, but his end goal was not to sacrifice his ideas, rather he wanted to be able to spread his thoughts within Russia as it is a leading global power.

Furthermore, I believe that to be a public intellectual means to express the knowledge one possesses with the sole intention of educating people. Harari encourages people to question where their kind is headed, and to recognize how technology is fragmenting the very core of humanity overtime. He is someone who raises questions that no one thought to ask, and achieves to spread them globally. To have the power to make an impact all around the world within many members of society by simply raising concerns about humans is to be a public intellectual. Harari receives criticism from publicists and others as he voices his thoughts in regards to technological advancements as a historian. He is judged by various members of the media for being a fraud as he is not an expert in science and therefore should not voice his opinions on scientific matters. Infact, in an article by Current Affairs he was referred to as a “science populist” which in simple terms means someone who romanticizes science by explaining simple facts in a figurative and persuasive manner. The article goes on to say that however popular Harari’s work may have become, he misinforms the world by promoting a more irrational understanding of science. If you were to ask me, calling Harari a storyteller is tremendously disrespectful as he managed to summarize humanity and how we ended up in the present within 443 pages. He successfully conveys medical, environmental, and social concepts while preserving people's interests. While Harari might not have the commonly accepted educational background to be able to write about biology and evolution, one cannot say that his writings are not eye opening. And at the end of the day, what he is doing as a public intellectual is providing a birds eye view of one tiny person in a world of never ending history. To do this one does not need a degree, rather the interest in the topic and to be able to describe the concept of evolution in an enlightening manner. That is something biology textbooks cannot do. Harari is simply being the intellectual he is by questioning known facts, asking why we are the way we are in order to understand where we are headed.

Moreover, this is exactly why I chose Harari as the perfect example of a public intellectual; his entire existence manages to challenge the common definition of a public intellectual. I say this for two reasons. To begin with, an intellectual is expected to be an expert on the topic, and generally experts are people who have a background in what they discuss; who have diplomas framed on their walls in the topics they go on to research and publish. Harari studied history, he most definitely is a credible historian. However, he did not study science and has no background in technological advancements. Yet most of his sharings draw a bridge between the past and future; history of evolution and the future of technology within our evolution. While challenging the definition of public intellectual, he still catches the attention of and educates all humans, including scientists, with his sharings. Secondly, A public intellectual is described as an individual who appeals to their readers through rational writings rather than emotional. However, Harari’s language flows in an emotional manner painting a persuasive picture of what we think reality to be and how it will destroy us. He constructs arguments about physical and biological matters while preserving his ideological tone. The employment of emotions go towards strengthening the arguments and thereby allowing the writings to be more rational.

To say the least, he is a truly unique man who is absolutely deserving of the title public intellectual. Harari did not have pressure on him to enlighten the world with his theories on evolution and predictions on what is to come. He simply felt inclined to make his thought process up for public display and discussion. Nobody was awaiting his publishing, but it surely impacted the lives of many. The world went on to discuss his words in articles, seminars, papers, and more. As Stephen Mack said in his essay “Are Public Intellectuals a thing of the Past?”; “The measure of public intellectual work is not whether the people are listening, but whether they’re hearing things worth talking about.” Yuvsl Noah Harari made people hear things worth talking about, both on a personal and global level.



Bibliography

Current Affairs. “The Dangerous Populist Science of Yuval Noah Harari” Current Affairs, https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/07/the-dangerous-populist-science-of-yuval-noah-harari

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