Is Human Race Hurtling Towards Self-destruction?
In 1943, Ayn Rand in her philosophical work 'The Fountainhead' postulated:
"The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
So, one of the main characteristics of civilization is the progress of society towards privacy.
It was 68 years later, in 2011 that Yuval Noah Harari in 'Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind' came up with the profound concept that the myth making and storytelling ability of sapiens enabled us to live in a large society of strangers in a peaceful and harmonious way.
Today, the 'privacy' factor has gone for good with the advent of social media into our lives and our penchant for sharing everything about our private lives on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and LinkedIn.
Similarly, we are currently using our storytelling faculty for destructive purposes by inventing fake stories, creating doctored narratives, and gossiping about others on social media. Infact, we are so successful at it that it has assumed alarming proportions today often blurring the line between truth and lie or reality and fiction, creating frictions in the society and conflicts among the countries throughout the world.
How can we nurture Sapiens' God-given faculties of privateness and storytelling solely for constructive purposes? What can we do to rein in the social media and save ourselves from the impending catastrophe of annihilation of our race?
It was 68 years later, in 2011 that Yuval Noah Harari in 'Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind' came up with the profound concept that the myth making and storytelling ability of sapiens enabled us to live in a large society of strangers in a peaceful and harmonious way.
Today, the 'privacy' factor has gone for good with the advent of social media into our lives and our penchant for sharing everything about our private lives on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and LinkedIn.
Similarly, we are currently using our storytelling faculty for destructive purposes by inventing fake stories, creating doctored narratives, and gossiping about others on social media. Infact, we are so successful at it that it has assumed alarming proportions today often blurring the line between truth and lie or reality and fiction, creating frictions in the society and conflicts among the countries throughout the world.
How can we nurture Sapiens' God-given faculties of privateness and storytelling solely for constructive purposes? What can we do to rein in the social media and save ourselves from the impending catastrophe of annihilation of our race?
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