Hadley Bent’s Reviews > Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind > Status Update

“Stuffing arises from craving”

Accept joy as joy and sadness as sadness. See the world for how it is, not what you want it to be.

“Syncretism might, in fact, be the single great world religion.”

I think this is a good way of thinking of it, because, like he says in the book, “monotheist, dualist, polytheist, and animist legacies, jumbling together under a single divine umbrella.” There’s so many ways of thinking and seeing the world for what it has been, is, and will be. Why is there this conception that one way is the right way?

The end sections of chapter 11 discuss how no empire was built to serve all humans. No matter what the position & views are of the people, there will always be this divide of “good guys” and “bad guys”. This is truly is a subjective mindset, because it’s purely based on who you align yourself with. We’ve seen this is history, present events, and we will certainly see it in the future too.

“Sapiens instinctively divide humanity into two parts, ‘us’ and ‘them’.

“Us ‘ is people like you and me, who share our language, religion and customs.”

Regardless of what language, religion, customs one practices, we are all ‘us’. We are all people.

I liked his thoughts of isolated human worlds - like single planets - each embedded in individual cultures and customs, but all existing in the overall galaxy.

“What’s So Good About Men?”
… I’m asking myself the same question.

Ch. 6, Building Pyramids was WOW!
His discussions of the Imagined Order and the means of how we live - our desire for travel and new experiences and our modern ideals, all in the search for individualism, autonomy and “happiness” - were so interesting. Saying how the Imagined Order is inter-subjective and even if we think we as a person are “free”, we are still in the same prison as everyone else. 🤯