The Bibi of historians: The slumber of history breeds monsters, anti-intellectual education breeds anti-intellectuals, and where can intellectual integrity be found? And the Lord said unto Yuval: Henceforth thy name shall no longer be called Yuval Harari, but thy name shall be Yuval "Noah" Harari. Following the article in The New Yorker, Harari's appearances in the past year and his latest book
"We publicize the flatterers (even on Shabbat) because of the desecration of God's name"Whether we like it or not - Yuval Noah Harari is the most famous Israeli intellectual in the world, and the closest thing to a "light unto the nations" that has come out of this place. And whether we like it or not - Yuval Noah Harari is embarrassing us. A society is not measured by the level of its laggards, but rather by that of the prominent intellectuals it produces - its philosophers. Despite the beautifying social clichés, the value of education is not expressed in "helping weak students" - but in the excellent ones. A culture is remembered for its peaks - not its valleys. Today's Israeli is seen by the world mainly through two iconic figures: Yuval Noah Harari and Bibi. What a pity that the essential distance between them is negligible - and in fact defines Israeliness.
The same charlatanism and arrogance, the same preaching and self-righteousness, and the same boundless insolence to the extent that there is nothing behind it except its "success" - this is what is common to our two representative geniuses, with their IQ noticeable from afar (though not noticeable up close, it should be noted). And beneath all this - an absolute lack of culture, which has buried even the significant and rather rare potential and talent of these two. Yes, let us not delude ourselves with false consolations - there was no lack of abilities and intelligence here, and even originality, hence the great disappointment and sense of missed opportunity - and the desire to trace the source of the failure. The spiritual fall of the hero of our times and our society, namely the talented person with the exceptional psychometric score, due to a hubris unique to us - is our intellectual tragedy.
After all, it is not the ugly Israeli who is the important yardstick for evaluating our society - but the smart Israeli. The lament focusing on manifestations of Israeli vulgarity has never bothered us, for the manifestations of French, English or German vulgarity (remember?) are no less horrifying. And here we discover that unfortunately, our gifted ones are dilettantes, who at their root draw from exactly the same source as the Israeli who shouts in the Louvre, only this time in the high version of the "professor" of history (or his son). Our Yuval doesn't read literature, has never studied philosophy (it shows!), and has not a shred of understanding of his own culture (Jewish, if we're not confused) - and on the other hand, his ambition encompasses the world. If we compare him to the Jewish intellectual of the diaspora - we'll want to bury ourselves, and outside the Holy Land.
Our genius (Benjamin/Yuval/replace with the next Israeli in line) succeeded big mainly because of his negative traits - lack of seriousness, lack of depth, terrible simplicity (hence his marketing ability!) - and now he thinks of them as virtues in complete lack of awareness, and disgraces us all over the world while thinking he is doing us honor and "Israeli pride". Let's note that this local measure of pride is not necessarily personal arrogance (that is - not only), but also an intellectual message: it is arrogance as an ideology. Not just to be lacking in depth, but to be the prophet of the death of depth: to be an ideological opponent of the very idea of depth (the outdated, European... depth, you bore me!). Populism (Benjamin) and popularization (Yuval) suckle like twins from the same withered teats of the Israeli sow.
"What if your amygdala is a Russian agent?" Yuval asks Mark (Zuckerberg) in a stunning punchline during their recorded summit confrontation. Even before that, he tells him that thanks to the meditation that has taken over him, he is much more aware of what's happening inside his brain than others (he met the amygdala there!). Zuckerberg arrived in a defensive position, ready to be crucified on the issue of privacy by the profound and distinguished philosopher of technology, but at a certain point when Yuval explains his fears that Facebook could take over people from within - he realizes that an idiot stands before him. Zucky chuckles with relief and says with American politeness that there is a very big gap between what "people" imagine can be done technologically and what is even close to that in the foreseeable future. But if Zuckerberg had been listening to Harari lately - he wouldn't have been worried. Harari used to be at least original. Today he repeats himself like a mantra (did we already mention meditation?) in all his appearances, and derives his 2-4 fixed insights backwards from the idea of "consciousness" he discovered, for he is brainwashed, a well-known virtue for "inner depth" (too bad he didn't join Na Nach Nachma Nachman of Uman!). And what if your amygdala is an agent of Buddha? And what if your cortex is an agent of collective stupidity? And what if you are an anti-cultural agent of Israeli shallowness?
Harari, after all, doesn't understand a thing about the technological and scientific fields relevant to his predictions, fears and proposals as a world expert, and has never studied them even at the level of an undergraduate course, but only from secondary sources (and why does he need to understand, or God forbid learn? After all, he sees the big picture!). His great expertise is to put on an expert facade in front of people who have learned about them from quaternary sources. On the rare occasions when he is confronted with this, he uses an evasive maneuver claiming that as a historian (ha ha) he only talks about people's perceptions of the future, not about the future itself, or warns only of possibilities (which doesn't prevent him from providing both definitive prophecies and specific claims about technological "possibilities" that will happen, meaning that he thinks will happen). He has no hand or foot in the very wide range of scientific and technological developments with disruptive potential for all his predictions and his terribly simplistic worldview, and which require a full-time job just to keep track of their development (and those he will never mention or know - he is an ignoramus busy filling his mind with nothing for two hours every day and two months a year - see meditation - which of course allows him "clarity" and "focus" on that big picture, when every detail in it can change the whole. But why confuse Yuvals with details?). Since he is not only not a man of realistic thinking, but also not a man of humanistic thinking (he is a man of post-humanistic thinking), he has not internalized anything from the history of the development of science and technology or even ideas, not to mention the complex and fateful interaction between them (which would have sown in him a measure of humility, or at least shame, or at least some hint of self-awareness, in that guru of awareness and consciousness). Since the education system never taught him anything of depth - he simply doesn't know such a thing exists. And this allows him to speak with absolute confidence, to join a cult (oh, the inner emptiness!), and to give TED talks, and to despise everything he doesn't understand (did someone say religion? philosophy? literature? serious historical work?). How Israeli!
Is the occupation to blame for the phenomenon of Harari's arrogance? Or perhaps the phenomenon of Harari's arrogance is to blame for the occupation? Is Bibi to blame for the collapse of education and culture in Israel? Or perhaps their collapse is to blame for him? Did Jewish chutzpah turn into Israeli chutzpah when it lost its fear, or vice versa, or vice versa (what does it matter what it means!)? Well, what these two last prophets who are always first to identify - Bibi and Harari - have in common is precisely their Israeli secularism, which unlike the secularism of the Enlightenment (and Jewish diaspora!) never replaced religion with the religion of culture - but with sheer abandonment. The Gentiles can look down on the confused Yuval but he will never notice and therefore never be confused - for he is busy spreading "the gospel". Over time, like Netanyahu the prophet himself, the first to identify, he also becomes more and more corrupt (a flatterer flattered and cuckolded), because his importance as a spreader of the gospel is above all (even above the gospel itself). Suddenly our Yuval learned about global warming (or more precisely learned that you are expected to utter something on the subject as part of the "role") - America turns you into a hypocrite, and smears you, and flavors you with all kinds of concoctions of intellectual corruption and gross smears (who will notice?), and here you already believe that you are not just a former historian who was never really interested in history (history is so former!) - but a philosopher (after all, philosopher doesn't really mean anything, right? Man of culture that you are). And America is cheering for you. Yes, she (the blonde!) calls you a brave intellectual. And we must appreciate at least the courage, right?
For what is the supreme Israeli cultural capital, both on the right and on the left, both among the secular and the religious? In which single cultural slot - and not in any other cultural position, God forbid - do all the boys in the class compete and fall in love? It is of course the position of the rebuker at the gate - who proves mainly that he has not a shred of gospel and alternative, except for the very rebuke of your neighbor as a gospel and proof of your worth (Harari doesn't even know how to write! And this is known only to those who have read in Hebrew, that is, in the original language, his second, unedited book - in great arrogance. Luckily, the translation saves him the embarrassment of reading it in his mother tongue). If so, what wonder that we have no leader (or God forbid philosopher), but we are blessed with prophets? For it is not the position of the leader and thinker but rather the position of the rebuker and warner that is the desired position in Israel (and hence, by the way, the formative trauma of Yom Kippur - not because of the political and strategic mistake, but because where was Military Intelligence? Why why why didn't they activate the special means? How could it be that the information didn't set off all the red lights, after all who are we if not the people of the red lights, always first to identify? Only they forget that the boy who cried wolf was not the solution - he was the problem!). And here, the ethos has already changed. Love thy neighbor as thyself is the old version, because what's important is what grows out of loving the neighbor. The supreme Israeli moral categorical imperative is: Thou shalt surely rebuke thy fellow.
And of course, the more bitter the gospel - the more inflated the importance of Isaiah 2.0. For if the prophet was once a leper, today he already spreads the gospel to the Gentiles outside the camp - to a pure place. Every fart - a Paul! Bibi, modest as he is, warns only of a second Holocaust. Harari, less modest, already warns of the end of the human species. And Ilani already warns of the end of the whole world. And why should we complain? Should we warn against the loss of the cultural depth of Judaism, or the spreading retardation in the Jewish mind, or the death of the Jewish mother - producer of geniuses - in favor of the Israeli mother - producer of self-proclaimed geniuses? But seeing our rotten fruit wandering among the nations and spreading our gospel - we have no choice but to hide our faces in shame.
Reference - The article in The New Yorker