22AR27-28

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AR 27:28 - Yuval Noah Harari: "seductive," sensational storyteller

In this issue:

CULTURE - plugging in to cinematic narcissism

+ one's biology as a problem to be overcome via technology

HARARI, YUVAL NOAH - when storytelling makes for "dangerous populist science"

Apologia Report 27:28 (1,581)
August 10, 2022

CULTURE

Is the unspoken mission of Religion Unplugged (Institute for Nonprofit News) to help unplug religion from culture? Consider this recent piece: "Marvel Has Issues With God" by Joseph Holmes (Jul 13 '22) which begins: "The Marvel Cinematic Universe [MCU] has a new big bad. And it's God Himself." Over the past 14 years, Marvel movies - "arguably the most dominant pop culture franchise in the world today" - were predictable, having "typically gone out of their way to be secular, keeping their social commentary to the sociopolitical. But no more. Over the past year, most of the Marvel movies or shows released have had some version of God as the main villain."

Their analysis? "There is a reason that young people are increasingly leaving religion: They were taught that God is good, loving, powerful, frowns on homosexuality, frowns on premairital sex and created them in six literal days. Then they suffered deeply, had sex, met gay people, were abused by the church, learned about evolution, learned their church's oppressive and violent history and watched their fellow Christians behave likewise. They became convinced that the God they were taught about isn't real or is more evil than good. ...

"In this way, the rage against god in our culture - including Marvel movies - is really a centuries-long rage against institutions that have let people down. Most Americans today are rapidly losing trust in our institutions. ...

"It becomes rage against existence itself. The Celestials of 'The Eternals' don't so much resemble institutions as they do the natural order of the world: the cycle of creation and destruction that will eventually wipe out the memory of everything that ever lived. ...

"Carl Trueman's The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self <www.bit.ly/3cR1ewO> notes that in ancient times, people generally saw reality as good and justice as conforming one's desires to reality; in the modern day, our desires are seen as good, and justice is to conform reality to our desires. The transgender debate is a good example. In previous ages, if your mind and body disagreed, your mind was wrong. Today, if your mind and body disagree, your body is wrong."

Holmes speculates at length about where all this will lead. The idea of cinematic narcissism, however, doesn't come up. <www.bit.ly/3Se142q>

For a look at how Islam gets the opposite MCU reatment, check out "Islam inspires Ms. Marvel’s show and comics in different ways" by Swara Salih (polygon.com, Jul 21 '22) <www.bit.ly/3JBMKwP>

All things Trueman gets cranked up a notch with "What Is a Human?," Rod Dreher's July 14 piece drawing attention to how "Transgenderism is a gateway to transhumanism." Dreher <www.bit.ly/3cUSkhG> notes that Paul Kingsnorth's Substack <www.bit.ly/3POKepg> "talks about how the public controversy over transgenderism is not really about male and female. It's about human nature itself. ...

Kingsnorth writes that "in America - now ground-zero for the abolition of biology - thousands of girls are undergoing double mastectomies, and teenage boys are being given 'puberty-blocking' drugs designed to chemically castrate rapists. Eleven-year-old girls are taught that 'if you feel uncomfortable in your body, it means you are transgender' - which may explain why, in some classrooms, a quarter of the children identify as precisely that. The concept of 'trans kids' - a notion that would have been inconceivably baffling to most people even a few years back, and for many still is - is now being pushed so hard that it starts to look less like the liberation of an oppressed minority than an agenda to reprogramme society with an entirely new conception of the human body - and thus of nature itself."

Kingsnorth moves on to Carl Trueman's "invaluable" The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, book (recently abridged, as Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution <www.bit.ly/3oIbEBs> which traces "the roots of the West's falling apart....

"The real issue is that a young generation of hyper-urbanised, always-on young people, increasingly divorced from nature and growing up in a psychologised, inward-looking anticulture, is being led towards the conclusion that biology is a problem to be overcome, that their body is a form of oppression and that the solution to their pain may go beyond a new set of pronouns, or even invasive surgery, towards nanotechnology, 'cyberconsciousness software' and perhaps, ultimately, the end of their physical embodiment altogether."

Dreher warns: "I strongly urge you to read the whole thing - and to subscribe. Unless we rise against these elite controllers, the day is coming when these writings will be outlawed." And he asks: "Does anybody at your church ever talk about this stuff? If not, why not? If your church isn't talking about this stuff, it is not preparing you for the present that's here and the future that's coming." <www.bit.ly/3PLI9KN>

Last month Dreher was interviewed by Jordan B. Peterson <www.bit.ly/3Qdu3le> on the Daily Wire (Jul 14 '22) about their mutual interest in the history of totalitarianism and its influence upon the present. <www.bit.ly/3BD9b2G> Truly noteworthy.

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HARARI, YUVAL NOAH

Up-and-coming Israeli historian and pop-science authority Harari <www.ynharari.com> - author of bestsellers like Sapiens (2015) and Homo Deus (2016) - is gaining widespread attention, but isn't greatly impressing those who really know the subject matter, writes Darshana Narayanan in Cultural Affairs <www.bit.ly/3vrocAO>; (Jul '22).

Neuroscientist and journalist Narayanan <www.bit.ly/3oD0JZJ> (Head of Research, Pymetrics), explains that "among Harari's flock are some of the most powerful people in the world," and that titans like Meta's Mark Zuckerberg "come to him much like the ancient kings to their oracles."

They are all listening intently, says Narayanan, "not for an expert in any one of their fields, but for a historian who, in many ways, is a fraud - most of all, about science." After reviewing Harari's notoriety, Narayanan observes that "We have been seduced by Harari because of the power not of his truth or scholarship, but of his storytelling. ...

"In this day and age, good storytelling is more necessary, but riskier, than ever before, particularly when it comes to science. ... Important societal and individual actions depend on our best understanding of the world around us - now more than ever, with the plague in all our houses, and the worst yet to come with climate change."

Here Narayanan subjects Harari to serious scrutiny. "Harari's own thesis advisor, Professor Steven Gunn from Oxford - who guided Harari's research on "Renaissance Military Memoirs: War, History and Identity, 1450-1600" - has made a startling acknowledgement: that his ex-pupil has essentially managed to dodge the fact-checking process. ...

"Harari's errors are numerous and substantial, and [pointing them out] cannot be dismissed as nit-picking." Narayanan trots out plenty of examples, concluding at one point: "Harari's storytelling is vivid and gripping, but it is empty of science."

Harari came onto our radar <www.bit.ly/3zJZSwS> with AR; in 2017, but hasn't received much criticism from his peers until now. Reviewing her concerns, Narayanan summarizes that "By echoing the narratives of Silicon Valley, science populist Harari is promoting - yet again - a false crisis. Worse, he is diverting our attention from the real harms of algorithms and the unchecked power of the tech industry."

One of Narayanan's scientific colleagues, biologist Hjalmar Turesson, shows how Harari "uses an exceedingly weak example to justify the need for [Ecuador's] famously racist and violent police state."

Harari has ominously written that "major epidemics will continue to endanger humankind in the future only if humankind itself creates them, in the service of some ruthless ideology. The era when humankind stood helpless before natural epidemics is probably over. But we may come to miss it."

Narayanan notes that "Using the opportunity to promote a false crisis - another core trait of a science populist - Harari gave dire warnings of 'under-the-skin surveillance' (admittedly a worrisome concept)." However, Harari often accompanies WEF leaders who promote the use of vaccine-passport technology.

Narayanan concludes: "Harari has seduced us with his storytelling, but a close look at his record shows that he sacrifices science to sensationalism, often makes grave factual errors, and portrays what should be speculative as certain. [He] reinforces the narratives of surveillance capitalists, giving them a free pass to manipulate our behaviors to suit their commercial interests. To save ourselves from this current crisis, and the ones ahead of us, we must forcefully reject [his] dangerous populist science...."

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