At first I was skeptical of Paul's choice this month thinking that it was going to be another business book on how to succeed in the 21st Century. It turns out that Yuval Harari is a gay male historian living on an Israeli commune practicing extensive meditation. The 21 lessons are his deep thoughts organized in chapters from disillusionment to meditation.
Harari states that the only certainty in life is change and he fears that many people are in danger of becoming irrelevant. He describes religions and politics as collections of stories. Nations are built on these stories resulting in nationalism, communism, and liberalism. People adopt various levels of religious belief based on Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, or other stories. The author states that moral behavior does not depend on religion and only a secular society has the primary objectives of seeking truth, compassion, and freedom.
The author feels that people should be aware of the dangers of power, technology, and rituals in controlling our minds. He feels that though meditation we can better understand our own minds and have a better chance of finding truth.
Yes Paul, this book should make for an interesting conversation.
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