Viswanathan K's Thoughts

Everyone complains that we live in a world of lies and fiction, where truth is hard to differentiate from everything else. There’s even a term for it: the “post-truth” age. But, asks Yuval Noah Harari in 21 Lessons for the 21 st Century : “If this is the age of post-truth, when, exactly, was the halcyon age of truth? In the 1980s? The 1950s? The 1930s?” Habits like denying the very existence of certain countries is an age-old tactic. In 1931, Japan created the fake country of Manchukuo to justify their conquest of China. China itself claims Tibet was never independent. And the British occupied Australia saying it was “nobody’s land”, thereby wiping out 50,000 years of Aboriginal history. All of which is why Harari says: “Humans have always lived in the age of post-truth. Homo sapiens is a post-truth species, whose power depends on creating and believing fictions.” It’s been that way long before Facebook and WhatsApp, Trump and Putin: “For millennia, much of what pas...

Did you think that “fake news” arose in the Age of Social Media? That the transition to the “post-truth” world happened only recently? That the tendency accelerated with Putin, Trump and the rise of right wing? Wrong, writes Yuval Noah Harari, in his forthcoming book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. Wiping out or creating countries to suit one’s agenda is an age old tactic. In 1931, Japan created a fake country called Manchukuo to justify its aggression against China. China in turn denies the existence of Tibet. Britain called Australia “nobody’s land” and set about occupying it. The Zionists called Palestine “a land without a people”. “In fact, humans have always lived in the age of post-truth. Homo sapiens is a post-truth species, whose power depends on creating and believing fictions.” And no, continues Harari, it isn’t only in politics we do this: “We have zero scientific evidence that Eve was tempted by the serpent, that the souls of all infidels burn in h...