“The capitalist–consumerist ethic is revolutionary in another respect. Most previous ethical systems presented people with a pretty tough deal. They were promised paradise, but only if they cultivated compassion and tolerance, overcame craving and anger, and restrained their selfish interests. This was too tough for most. The history of ethics is a sad tale of wonderful ideals that nobody can live up to. Most Christians did not imitate Christ, most Buddhists failed to follow Buddha, and most Confucians would have caused Confucius a temper tantrum. In contrast, most people today successfully live up to the capitalist–consumerist ideal. The new ethic promises paradise on condition that the rich remain greedy and spend their time making more money and that the masses give free reign to their cravings and passions and buy more and more. This is the first religion in history whose followers actually do what they are asked to do. How though do we know that we'll really get paradise in return? We've seen it on television.”
-- Yuval Noah Harari, Israeli thinker, philosopher, and writer, author of "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind", "Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow", and "21 Lessons for the 21st century".
NOTE: I have read all these 3 books by him, and my mind was awakened to so many things I didn't know about humanity before. Too bad Maldives' ultra conservative right wing Adhaalath Party "sheikhs" (Islamic scholars) sold their souls for what one of my friends call "magaam, jaahath, shaan, and shaukath" offered by the highly corrupt government of outgoing (Alhamdhulillaahi) President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. I confess that I am ashamed to call myself a Maldives' journalist because I don't even know the meanings of three of these Dhivehi words except the first one which can be meant as "post", "position", or "status". LOL.
EXCERPTS FROM HIS PODCAST:
"I'm trying to conserve my time and attention and it can be such a draw, such a destruction. I don't think I would have the time to write books if I would have the smallest phone either. I guess that's true, because a lot of people use social media to promote their ideas. I mean, I have a Facebook account and a Twitter account. And so, it is useful. I mean, to get to people, I mean, you do need to live in the 21st century. Yeah, lesson number one, but I tried to, I'm very careful about preserving my time and my attention, attention is, maybe the most important resource, its present and many devices. Like smartphones are really designed to grab your attention to take over your attention. So, that can be dangerous." (Edited for clarity)
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