No matter what the moment presents, we are faced with deciding how it’s going to go. Either (A) we allow the moment to become the context for our decisions, or (B) we expand the context of who/what we are from within which we make choices that redefine the moment. Perhaps not as familiar, habituated or easy as (A) might appear to be, (B) has a future that just might allow us to thrive.
Yuval Noah Harari is not known for the easy lines of enquiry and he is known for the provocative ones. His work is not intended to bring us comfort – it is intended to press us forward into a future grounded in Self-discovery and affected by our willingness to ‘do the work’ at a much higher level of thinking.
We really do become what we think about.
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“Sapiens” is one of my favorite books — brilliant. I’ve always wondered why Harari focuses at the end of that book and in subsequent work on AI rather than climate change, and I’ve come to think that it’s because he won’t mind if ecocide prevents AI from taking over. In this clip you’ve shared, I love Harari’s idea that the very survival of elephants, rivers etc depends on the decisions of fictional entities. Such absurdity!! Laughing is more fun and life-giving than crying…. and seeing that reality and knowing ourselves deeply and compassionately helps. Tip three (focus on finding guidance in your life) describes the type of guidance that your work excels at in helping us understand our realities and make sense of our worlds, and it leads right into tip four (take time to understand yourself). Together, for me, they’ve been a recipe for experiencing the fullness of my life — of each moment — without settling for experiences/a reality in which I’m not fully seen/alive.
I greatly appreciate what I believe his message to be: old thinking will not keep us resourceful in a new reality. Expanding the way we think – about ourselves, about our world and about how we choose to move through that world – is not a ‘nice to have’ but is imperative to our ability to function. He is indeed, a compelling presence in our world, at this time.