Humility
Yoval Noah Harari
Summary:
Yuval Noah Harari, a well-known
essayist from Jerusalem, wrote the essay Humility. In this essay, he displays humility
by debunking humanity’s illusions of superiority and mastery. Morality, art,
spirituality, and creativity, he says, are universal human talents encoded in
our DNA. The author displays the virtue of humility in this essay, which may be
characterized as “a recognition of the real limits of our techno-social
knowledge and ability,” by debunking humanity’s illusions of superiority and
mastery. According to Harari, humility is a trait that most societies lack.
Most individuals feel that they are at the center of the universe and that
their culture is the foundation of human history.
Greeks think that history started
with Homer, Sophocles, and Plato and that pivotal ideas and innovations were
born in Athens, Sparta, Alexandria, or Constantinople. Some Indians think that
ancient sages in the Indian subcontinent devised airplanes and nuclear bombs
long before Confucius or Plato, let alone Einstein and the Wright brothers.
The Jews feel that monotheism
should be credited to them and that they are a prominent group in the world —
one of the top three faiths. However, there are only 15 million Jews, and there
is no reason to believe that they are more significant than the Hindu faith,
which has considerably more adherents.
Each group considers itself to be
the center of the world, as well as the creator of the most significant
ideologies and accomplishments.
However, no group is genuinely
unique; some version of their ideology and ideas existed before them. The
faiths that survived were the most aggressive — they managed to convert the
greatest amount of people to their beliefs. For example, the Biblical phrase
“love thy neighbor as thyself,” which Jews claim as their own, had previously
occurred in China.
Similarly, monotheism has its
origins in Egypt and was not initially Jewish. Monotheism has led to global
catastrophe, and no one should be happy about having developed it. A few
centuries after its creation, Christianity prohibited all faiths save the
Jewish religion, although many Jews were still persecuted, whereas Islam now
considers all history previous to Mohammed to be meaningless.
Many outstanding concepts,
according to Chinese nationalists, originated in their culture. The Jews
believe that they are God’s chosen people and that gentiles are not on pace
with them in terms of importance. While some sages have advocated for religious
tolerance, the historical trend has always been to persecute those who hold
opposing views. Ironically, this is the very self-centeredness that most faiths
warn against.
Understanding
the text
Answer the following
questions.
A.
Describe the claim of the Chinese
nationalists about human history.
Answer: Chinese nationalists
claim that history began with the Yellow Emperor and the Xia and Shang
dynasties. They believe that anything that was accomplished by other rulers
like westerners, Muslims or Indians is a bit imitation of Chinese achievement.
B.
What do pious Muslims believe about human
history?
Answer: Pious Muslims believe
that all history follows the Quran. All the history before Prophet Muhammad was
mostly meaningless and all history after that following Quran’s revelation
revolves around the Muslim ummah.
C.
What did the Aztecs firmly believe about
the universe?
Answer: The Aztecs firmly
believed about the universe that annual sacrifice is the reason behind the
existence of the universe. Without annual sacrifice, the sun wouldn’t rise and
the whole cosmos would collapse.
D.
What, according to the essay, are the
universal human abilities?
Answer: According to the essay,
the universal human abilities are art, creativity, spirituality and mortality.
E.
How are the basic yoga postures derived
from the shape of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet?
Answer: The basic yoga postures
derived from the shape of letters of the Hebrew alphabet as the yoga posture
Tuladandasana imitates the letter ‘daled’, Trikonasana imitated the form of the
Hebrew letter ‘aleph’ and so on.
Reference to the context
A.
How do Hindu nationalists refute the
Chinese claim that human history began with the Yellow Emperor and the Xia and
Shang dynasties? Who do you agree with, and why?
Answer: Hindu nationalists refute
the Chinese claim that humans began with the Yellow Emperor and the Xia and
Shang dynasties by claiming that Indian sages developed the theory of planes
and nuclear weapons long before Plato, Confucius or Einstein and the Wright
brothers.
In the Hindu holy books of
Hindus, different evidence of discoveries and inventions are found long before
any scientists proved them. Hinduism is found to be the oldest religion in the
world according to various scientific as well as archaeological studies. Thus, I
agree with the Hindu nationalists over Chinese claims through different
evidence that was found in Hinduism.
B.
The author has dealt with a controversial
debate on human history. Why do you think history has been a major contested
issue in the present world?
Answer: The essay ‘Humility’
written by Yuval Noah Harari is about the different controversies about human
history. The essay presents the thoughts and people’s beliefs in human history
according to their religion.
In my opinion, history has been a
major contested issue in the present world due to egoism. I would like to call
egoism the supremacy of their belief in their religion only rather than
understanding others. Most individuals believe that their religion is the
oldest and they are the centre of the universe. They believe that their culture
is superior to all others. According to them, everything originated from their
culture. So, because of egoism human history has been a major contested issue.
The author wishes to remove a sense of superiority and domination from
humanity.
Reference beyond the text
A.
Write a short essay on The Conflicting
History of Human Civilization.
Answer:
The Conflicting History of
Human Civilization
When we talk about the History of
Human Civilization, we never cease to claim the civilization we belong to is
the first and the most important. We are under the veil of superiority and
mastery of our own race. Our nature is that we want to put ourselves at the
centre of the world. We find the same ego in the people who belong to
civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Maya, India, China, Rome, Greece and
Persia. Such is in the case of religions either Abrahamic or Indian.
Many Greeks claim that history
began in Athens, Sparta, Alexandria or Constantinople. Chinese retort this
claim and admit that history began during Yellow Emperor, Xia and Shan
Dynasties. They further claim that the inventions of Westerns, Muslims or
Indians are pale replicas of Chinese inventions. Hindus boast that all the
modern inventions of science date back to their civilization. Even rockets,
missiles and atomic theories were invented by ancient sages in Indian
subcontinents. Muslims on the other hand credit the Prophet
Muhammad and the Quran to be the
first ones. Turkish, Iranian and Egyptian nationalists argue that their nations
were the
fountainhead and preserver the
purity of Islam before Muhammad and the Quran. British, French, German,
American, Russian, Japanese claim that they achieved spectacular achievement
and uplifted humans from barbarous and immoral ignorance. Aztecs firmly believe
that their sacrifice is the cause of preventing the disintegration of the
universe. Even Jews claim credit for the important inventions of the world.
Even they say yoga postures were invented by Abraham. The postures of yoga were
derived from the Hebrew alphabet. Even the claim that the study of holy
scriptures by Jewish rabbis is the main cause to stop the annihilation of this
universe.
In fact, all these claims are
false. Such claims are the products of egotism and racism. Instead, these
religions or civilizations, the first humans colonized the world, and
domesticated plants and animals. It is only a crass egotism to ascribe to them
a more recent place and times. Morality, art, spirituality, creativity are
universal human abilities embedded in human DNA. We don’t like to criticize
one’s own people, culture, religion, customs. Instead, we glorify them. We lack
modesty. This is the main cause of conflicts among human civilizations.
B.
The author claims, “Since it is more
polite to criticize one’s own people than to criticize foreigners.” Do you
agree to his claim? Give your reasons.
Answer: In the essay “Humility” the author Harari claims that it is polite to criticize one’s own people than to criticize foreigners. I agree with his claim because if we criticize foreigners the conflict arises. People are very much obsessed with their own history and civilization. They don’t want to listen to people who belong to another religion and community criticize their own religion and community. We blindly believe what is said or written about our culture, religion and civilization. How foolish people are when they believe that the existence of this universe depends on human sacrifice and reading of holy scriptures. No one knows how long this universe has been existing and it is merely a crash egotism to say the human sacrifice and reading of holy scripture prevents this cosmos to be annihilated. If missiles and rockets were developed by ancient sages, humans could have been landed on the moon thousands of years ago. If we criticize such things being foreigners, it will result in a clash between two groups of people. If we want to correct us, we must find out loopholes in our civilization by ourselves.