MAIN INTRO FOR ANSWERS
GLOSSARY
linchpin (n.): the most important thing
retort (v.): make a quick reply to an accusation or a challenge
barbarous (adj.): cruel or wild
spectacular (adj.): impressive
disintegrate (v.): to break or cause sth to break into small parts or pieces
embedded (v.): to fix sth deeply and firmly in a mass of sth
genesis (n.): origin of sth
egotism (n.): the practice of thinking and talking too often or too much about oneself
concubines (n.): (in countries a man can legally have more than one wife) a woman who lives with a man, often as well as his wife or wives, but with lower status
fringe (n.): the front part of sb’s hair, cut so that it hangs over the forehead
annihilated (v.): to destroy sb/sth completely
grandiose (adj.): more elaborate than necessary
chutzpah (n.): extreme self-confidence, audacity
ludicrous (adj.): ridiculous, absurd
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prof. Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher, and the bestselling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and Sapiens: A Graphic History. He is a co-founder of Sapienship, a multidisciplinary organisation advocating for global responsibility whose mission is to clarify the public conversation, support the quest for solutions, and focus attention on the most important challenges facing the world today. He is now a lecturer in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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SUMMARY
Humility by Yuval Noah Harari
This essay, 'Humility', has been written by Israeli writer Yuval Noah Harari. The author has presented the conflicting history of human civilization in the text.
Here in this essay, the author tells us that humility is a quality that is lacking in most cultures. He exemplifies the virtue of humility by presenting the universal human capabilities such as morality, art, spirituality, and creativity that are inherent in our DNA.
In the essay, the author talks about people of different groups and cultures and their claims and beliefs about their history and important inventions. In the world, people of different groups boast about their cultures and believe that their cultures are the foundation of human history. With this arrogant faith, these people tend to stand in the centre of the world.
Greek people still consider that history began with Homer (an ancient Greek writer and epic poet), Sophocles, and Plato (a great philosopher). For them, important ideas and inventions were born in places as Greek as Athens, Sparta (unique for the social order in ancient Greece), Alexandria, or Constantinople.
The author says that, unlike Greek people, Chinese people also have their own claims regarding the history of the world. According to the Chinese nationalists, human history really began with the Yellow Emperor and the Xia and Shang dynasties, which were later followed and imitated by Westerners, Muslims, Indians, and many others. But later on, Hindu nativists refute these Chinese boasts or claims and argue that even aeroplanes and nuclear bombs were invented by ancient sages in the Indian subcontinent long before Confucius or Plato, not to mention Einstein and the Wright brothers. They represent examples from Hindu mythology and examples of Maharishi Bharadwaja, who invented the rocket and aeroplane, and Vishwamitra, who not only invented but also used missiles. In addition, Acharya Kanad was the father of atomic theory.
He rejects the claims of Chinese human history, saying that nuclear weapons were also used in the time of the Mahabharata to explain how later developed civilizations came into existence from them. The example of the use of nuclear weapons during the Mahabharata period is one of the finest examples of Hindu civilization and has its glimpses in ancient times long before the Chinese pride.
Religious Muslims consider all history before the Prophet Muhammad to be largely irrelevant. They consider all history after the revelation of the Quran to revolve around the Muslim ummah. But Turkish, Iranian, and Egyptian nationalists argue that their nation was the source of all that was good about humanity and that they are the real preservers of the purity of Islam, even after the revelation of the Quran.
British, French, German, American, Russian, Japanese, and countless other groups take pride in their distinctive achievements in raising the human race from barbaric and immoral ignorance. The Aztecs (nomadic tribes in northern Mexico) claim to have controlled the law of physics and sacrificed human lives to save the universe.
Each group considers itself the centre of the universe and the inventor of the most important philosophies and contributions. But no group is truly unique; some forms of their philosophies and beliefs have existed before them. The religions that survived are those that were most violent; they managed to convert the largest number of the population to their faith.
The author thinks of all these claims as false. According to him, no religion or nation existed today when humans colonised the world, domesticated plants and animals, created the first city, or invented writing and money.
He says that he is all too familiar with such crude arrogance because the Jews, even his own people, believe that they are the most important thing in the world. As far as any popular human achievements or inventions are concerned, they claim that their credit belongs to themselves.
The author once visited Israel and noticed that all the basic yoga postures derived from the shape of the Hebrew alphabet, as his yoga teacher introduced that yoga was invented by Abraham. Abraham taught these postures to the son of one of his concubines, who went to India and taught yoga to the Indians.
Thus, yoga was introduced by the Jews. Secular Jews may not agree with it. In the end, he claims that it is more polite and easy to criticise one's own people than to criticise others or foreigners, as they are not familiar with the critics. The Jews believe that they are the chosen people and that the Gentiles (not Jews) are not equal to them in importance according to God.
The universal human abilities embedded in our DNA are morality, art, spirituality, and creativity. Their genesis was in Stone Age Africa.
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