existentialtheory-blog

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Review of Yuval Harari’s Sapiens

The most important intellectual revolution today is the realization that humanism is no longer a valid or reliable framework for understanding the contemporary condition. Humanism is the belief that our agency, ability to reason, communicate through language, organize into large groups, advance technology, live with dignity, and do things other animals can’t do makes us the most important species on this planet. Human-centric conceptions of life argue that plants and animals are the fuel for our advances. Yuval Harari in his book Sapiens resists human-centric explanations of the world, that is, those that explain away our success as a result of human ingenuity, or credit divine providence for placing us as the original species. He also shies away from reductionist explanations of human's as just another animal. Harari presents a view of entangled humanism, where Homo sapiens are neither masters of our Universe or are merely just another animals species, but they play an integral role in a world affected by our activities such as climate change, pollution, deforestation, and species extinction, and processes completely out of our control such as asteroid collisions, volcanoes, earthquakes, and other cosmic events.

Yuval Harari writes in his masterful work Sapiens that only about two million years ago Homo sapiens were just one of several human-like species including Homo Denisovans, Neanderthal’s, and Homo Floresiensis. He explains how we rose as the primary human species on Earth through luck and good fortune: a mutation that gave us story telling abilities, our ability to survive disease and live in colder climates, and other factors that led to the extinction of other human-like species.  This was, of course, an unexpected event 64 million years after 75% of non-avian species including Dinosaurs became extinct. Harari’s book raises several provocative questions on the development narrative of Homo Sapiens:

First, whether our success should be measured in quantity of our numbers, or based on qualitative measures such as happiness and satisfaction

Second, whether technological progress has always improved the quality of our life?

Finally, do our unique capabilities give us the right to exploit all other species?

Harari’s description of how Homo sapiens advanced from hunter and gatherers to farmers was fascinating. Harari claims that the agricultural revolution was the most significant event in increasing human population and gave us the ability to self-organize in large numbers. While the agricultural revolution allowed for the mass production of food, it had two other consequences. First, it led to the domestication of animals for milk and meat production, a practice that resulted in increasing suffering for animals, and second, it allowed people to invest in the future (grow food for the future) in hopes of not having to hunt every day. Up until the discovery of Penicillin, the agricultural revolution provided a worse quality of life than previous hunter and gatherer societies. Harari writes that childhood mortality rate was almost 30% in agricultural communities and the proximity to domestic animals gave rise to numerous infectious diseases. Most research now confirms that the life expectancy of Agricultural societies was shorter than hunter-gatherer/forager societies due to over-reliance on grain and animal milk instead of the more nutritious breast-milk.

The hunter-gatherers' diet was more varied and didn't rely on a single grain that had to be grown. Hunter-gatherers also enjoyed a better quality of life working only about 20 hours work a week, while farmers had to work longer days for less nutritious food. Agriculturalists suffered from anemia, vitamin deficiencies, spinal deformations, shorter heights, and more dental problems due to the reliance on a single grain for food. The primary objective of the agricultural revolution to store food for the future and give time for people to invent and enjoy luxuries was not achieved by most farmers as they had to work long days to grow crops, and wealthy feudal lords controlled the food supply at the expense of a majority of the population.

Today, there are over a billion cattle today, and its terms of evolutionary success they represent one of the most successful species in the animal world. However, they also suffer more than any creature in the known universe. Cattle and agricultural revolution show that survival and growth should not be the only measure of the success of a particular species. Harari writes the following about cattle,

“In many modern dairy farms, a milk cow usually lives for about five years before being slaughtered. During these five years, she is almost constantly pregnant and is fertilized within 60 to 120 days after giving birth in order to preserve maximum milk production. Her calves are separated from her shortly after birth. The females are reared to become the next generation of dairy cows, whereas the males are handed over to the care of the meat industry. The calf is locked inside a tiny cage not much bigger than the calf’s own body. There the calf spends its entire life – about four months on average. It never leaves its cage, nor is it allowed to play with other calves or even walk – all so that its muscles will not grow strong. Soft muscles mean a soft and juicy steak. The first time the calf has a chance to walk, stretch its muscles and touch other calves is on its way to the slaughterhouse.”

Harari’s description of modern factory farm system shows how little regard humans have for animal suffering. It is a fair assumption that a calf would prefer to wander in open fields as opposed to living on an industrial farm. However, we continue to subsidize and fund factory farms at a high cost to our environment, personal health, and monetary system. Today more people in America die of obesity than starvation. We can grow food much more efficiently, but it is being distributed inefficiently and consumed to the point of earlier death.

Harari argues that as humans have moved away from becoming hunters and foragers and into the agricultural era, we began using our free time differently. As foragers, we focused on maintaining strong social relationships which were necessary to hunt game and kill spare time, however, the shift to farming saw humans organize into societies and start investing for food into the future. For the first time, humans were able to wager off the present for the future. The idea was to work hard now and hoard grain for the future. The idea of investing in the future became an important feature of modern societies, which was not necessary for foragers who survived from hunting animals in their vicinity. However, investing in the future brought along its own problems. Harari writes the following about the luxury trap,

“One of history’s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations. Once people get used to a certain luxury, they take it for granted. Then they begin to count on it. Finally, they reach a point where they can’t live without it.”

Harari writes we have invested monumentally in luxuries and time-saving devices such as washing machines, vacuum cleaners, cell phones, and computers. Has this led to people working less? No, we just spend more time doing work outside of the office. These become ‘defensive goods’: things we need just to survive the frenetic pace of post-modern life. Something that is a luxury in one generation quickly becomes a necessity for the next one. The car was a luxury that became a necessity, cell phones were a luxury for a few, but now even the lowest level employee in the organization needs a cell-phone for basic tasks. A mobile phone is a survival tool even in the slums of India. Luxuries become defensive goods, and defensive goods become expensive and a pain to maintain.

Harari challenges many beliefs in our current world system that we have taken for granted. We always assumed working 9 to 5 for decades and slaving away for a corporation is the natural way for humans to live. We concluded that exploiting animals for our benefit and living is suburbs would provide us with luxuries and happiness.  We almost always assume that technological innovation and progress will make our lives easier. We are always investing and placing faith in the future.

#Sapiens #CriticalTheory #YuvalHarari #Latestagecapitalism #animalcruelty #veganism #moraltheory #Luxury