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and warmth, and a deadly weapon against prowling lions. Not long afterwards, humans
Homo sapiens probably also had a hard time talking behind each other’s backs – a much maligned ability which is in fact essential for cooperation in large numbers.
Yet none of these things exists outside the stories that people invent and tell one another. There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws and no justice outside the common imagination of human beings.
The difficulty lies not in telling the story, but in convincing everyone else to believe it.
An imagined reality is not a lie.
Sapiens have thus been living in a dual reality.
as Homo erectus did not undergo further
Animism is not a specific religion. It is a generic name for thousands of very different religions, cults and beliefs.
been used in a hunt as well. Fossilised human bones are no less hard to interpret. A fracture might indicate a war wound or an accident. Nor is the absence of fractures and cuts on an ancient skeleton conclusive proof that the person to whom the skeleton belonged did not die a violent death. Death can be caused by trauma to soft tissues that leaves no marks on bone. Even more importantly, during pre-industrial
It’s common today to explain anything and everything as the result of climate change, but the truth is that earth’s climate never rests. It is in constant flux.
These animals had to evolve a fear of humankind, but before they could do so they were gone.
chains collapsed, driving the weakest links into extinction.5
activities. They did, however, find monumental pillared structures decorated with spectacular engravings. Each stone pillar weighed up to seven tons and reached a height of five metres. In a nearby quarry they found a half-chiselled pillar weighing fifty tons. Altogether, they uncovered more than ten monumental
appearance of cities, kingdoms and empires was not enough time to allow an instinct for mass cooperation to evolve. Despite
Evolution is based on difference, not on equality.
Of all human collective activities, the one most difficult to organise is violence.
Like the elite of ancient Egypt, most people in most cultures dedicate their lives to building pyramids. Only the names, shapes and sizes of these pyramids change from one culture to the other.
Inter-subjective phenomena are neither malevolent frauds nor insignificant charades.
There is no way out of the imagined order. When we break down our prison walls and run towards freedom, we are in fact running into the more spacious exercise yard of a bigger prison.
Because the Sapiens social order is imagined, humans cannot preserve the critical information for running it simply by making copies of their DNA and passing these on to their progeny.
on even had writing never been invented. But
or genes that makes whites naturally
If you want to keep any human group isolated – women, Jews, Roma, gays, blacks – the best way to do it is convince everyone that these people are a source of pollution.
Unjust discrimination often gets worse, not better, with time. Money comes to money, and poverty to poverty. Education comes to education, and ignorance to ignorance.
