21 Lessons for the 21st Century

by Yuval Noah Harari

Similarly, the liberal belief in individual rationality may itself be the product of liberal groupthink. In one of the climactic moments of Monty Python’s Life of Brian, a huge crowd of starry-eyed followers mistakes Brian for the Messiah. Brian tells his disciples, “You don’t need to follow me, you don’t need to follow anybody! You’ve got to think for yourselves! You’re all individuals! You’re all different!” The enthusiastic crowd then chants in unison, “Yes! We’re all individuals! Yes, we are all different!” Monty Python was parodying the counterculture orthodoxy of the 1960s, but the point may be true of the belief in rational individualism in general. Modern democracies are full of crowds shouting in unison, “Yes, the voter knows best! Yes, the customer is always right!”