Talk about the history of mankind

"There is only one kind of heroism in life, that is to recognize the truth of life and still love life" < Roman. Roland >

Li Xiang 2016/6/22 6:42:35

"A Brief History of mankind"
The game of fiction and truth
Tell the story level?
Accidental and inevitable?
The Book of the History of mankind
What does humiliation and truth say?

Even if you've read "Guns, Germs and Steel," and "historical maps of human genes," a brain-opening book, Yovar Herali's "History of mankind" is enough to amaze you, as it is first filled with refreshing insights, such as the history of human history that may be more of a crooked hit will wrong. , such as the so-called monotheism is due to want to defeat the pagan, want to let people convert "yuan Tianzun" and particularly rich in combat and aggression, but in fact, may be more camouflage of the local conditions of the pagan; the emergence of agriculture may not be because of the social division of labor, but because people want to "serve" the Gods in the sky, The problem of the food supply of this large-scale collective activity has promoted the development of agriculture ...

A brief History of mankind/[Israel] Yovar Herali/Lin Junhong/CITIC Press/2014.11

In addition to these abound "insights", the whole book also gives people a very grand narrative feeling. Vision is enough macro enough global, the angle of view is enough to "overlook", almost from God's point of view to the human beings and the changes of the earthly world, and therefore a brief history of mankind is not just about human's own histories, but also a natural history, ecological history and geological history and so on.

After nearly 30 years under the guidance of the new historiography to the small, marginal characters of the daily fate and local, the region's little history of "love", people gradually through the dense thin details to fill the big history of the efforts of the picture is not satisfied, like a vegetarian half a day suddenly want to eat meat, There is an urgent desire to jump out of the "big history" of human beings, which is also the source of explosive growth in recent years in global history, new Global History, world history and a brief history.

If the narrative of big history is to be complete, it will be shanfanjiujian to understand accrue to stretch out a historical main line, that is, the so-called history, otherwise the history can not be concise, and to their own lethargy and why is it Zhao Zhao?

Of course, it is one thing to "discover" the evolution of history, and it is another to find a suitable structure to unfold. Exhaustive is OK, but it has to be felt "framed" throughout the big history. At this point you have a history of the interception of fragments and the focus of the history of the armature, you really see the power: which moments and events are the "singularity" of history, which trends really represent the history of "forward" direction, which tools carry the history of the driving force and so on.

The most important of these is to find the "keywords" in tandem history, such as Ian Morris to "war" hub to string up human history, Tao Grass Noss with "violence" and its control to show the evolution of social order, while Delon Asimogro and James · A. Robinson two brothers are the "system" and its changes as a platform to show the rise and fall of the national tragedy.

As far as the history of mankind is concerned, the grip of the historical main line is not too surprising, for us to be familiar with the globalization narrative, we must feel that human history is a "great confluence" of the story of the statement, to say that the title should be the meaning and "the right nonsense", to bad say there is a backward from the status quo. Yovar Herali's beauty lies in the use of the "three revolutions"-the framework of the cognitive revolution, the agricultural revolution and the scientific revolution-to curl the course of human development, and to explain how Cosmopolitan's human being went to "we are", using money, religion, and empires as the three driving forces and cohesive tools.

With these rather novel organizational symbols in hand, Yovar Herali can tell the story of mankind in a leisurely manner. And to his story luster is, he put the academic popularization, that is, "kingdoms" Vernacular as "kingdoms" ability. The Hindu caste system, for example, is an order that Aryan, an intruder, "invented" to "persuade" the Conqueror to resign himself to the discourse of Max Weber in the religion of India: Hindu teachings and Buddhism. For example, in the automobile production line, although the workers earn more than the former shoemaker, but never enjoy the pleasure of completing a product from beginning to end, is undoubtedly Marx's "alienation" of the popular version of the expression.

Although Yovar Herali's grasp of the great history of mankind gives a sense of ease, the lines of a brief history of mankind are fraught with confusion: there is no law in human history, but rather full of random choices, and more often than not in "creating" history, but will wrong. While the road of human beings is rugged and muddy, full of violence and self-righteous prejudice due to fear, the future development is not the overall grasp, the rapid evolution of scientific and technological progress or will bring all kinds of unexpected risks to mankind.

Yovar Herali
Yovar Herali
In addition, human history is not a continuous progress of the linear process, the overall improvement of human welfare will not necessarily be quantified as an increase in personal happiness index, it is difficult to say that we are more happy and strong than the first. Even in a sense, a human history is about how human "self-gan Light cheap" history: From guts skills full, morning strawberry noon mushroom night Roast rabbit free collectors, degenerate into yingyinggougou servitude life diet monotonous farmers and workers on the assembly line. More startling is that human not only from the light base, but also to sink difficult, unwilling to be contented and happy, for thousands of years has been in the habitat beat endemic state.

What is more, human beings are often in the banner of civilization, Science and progress "as the base" of all things, including the transformation of the natural environment, "civilized" foreign land "barbarians" and domesticated until the production of various animals, the results of the ecological environment, Biodiversity and the survival of Aboriginal cultures and communities have resulted in various or intentional or unintended destructive damage.

At present, human beings are even more "cheap", trying to transcend all kinds of ethical taboos, to create their own can not control the biochemical or artificial intelligence, thus putting human beings into a hopeless situation.

Yovar Herali that what we need now is Plato's "Philosopher's King", a philosophical perspective on what kind of future human beings want, and the consequences of "accidental innovation" in advance. But the leaders we now face are a group of "managers" who are adept at dealing with today's daily affairs, so it is not optimistic that human beings can pre-contract and dispose of future risks.

Nonetheless, Yovar Herali is not pedantic, and it is not an anti-development person. He fully acknowledges the benefits of the advancement of Science and technology and the evolution of the political and economic system to the whole of humankind, including the disappearance of mass starvation, the retreat of violence and the long-term peace and so on. He just wanted to break the myth of "progress", to show more that so-called progress could lead to more problems, and that there was no solution to the plight of mankind.

This will make the reader even more humble, if not more pessimistic, to be more conscious of the arrogance and prejudice that we believe to be true, but in vain and bigotry. Although this deconstruction is quite embarrassing, it is not offensive because of his humor, mastery and some kind of self-deprecating.

The interview with Yovar Herali was a pleasant experience, and his humility seemed to be quite sincere, even lacking in shyness, relative to his liberal knowledge. At the end of the interview, when asked why he grew up in a small country like Israel, confronted with wars, conflicts and terrorism that had become a part of everyday life, he was able to have such an open vision and a compassion perspective, and he answered with a peculiar sense of humor: in Israel, you either believe that the world is black or white, Then choose one end of it and be stubborn and brave to live, or go beyond it altogether.

Quicksand River old gentleman, in the white Fish P290 page a book, the word, on the cattle

Witnessed in the country, bull Gores hit people, farmers use three feet of sticks across the horn, to passers-by, this is the owner's silent declaration.

Japanese national treasure-class Sinologist Bai Chuanjing, in Chinese characters hundred words a book, the second page, the letter word, the upper part in the Oracle and inscriptions is a small branch of the image, this word reflects the branch into the prayer device (the shape of the mouth), and then pray to the gods.

This old gentleman, because the counterpart word this radical unique opinion, thought that the class mouth radical is the sorcery activity prayer, the sacrificial device, takes this as the base point, for has the class mouth vessel's word to carry on the new analysis.

Talk about the history of mankind