Book Tip No. 31 (2018): 21 LESSONS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Munich 2018.
Anyone who has already dealt with the (worldwide bestsellers) by Yuval Noah Harari will find some thought processes in his new book familiar, and will also like Harari’s joy in pointed formulation. With good books, as Nicholas Taleb points out with some emphasis, it makes sense to read them twice or even three times. This also applies to Harari: you can confidently and profitably engage in another confrontation with Harari and the big questions of humanity. 21 chapters must be; so you will find pointed and easily readable treatises on topics such as community, civilization, nationalism, war, terrorism, religion, justice, ignorance and 13 other keywords from a usually unusual but quite understandable perspective.
The fact that not all chapters (such as resilience) are equally convincing is bearable. What would be desirable in a further work is a more detailed analysis and concrete evaluation of the institutional framework conditions under which humanity will probably live today and in the coming decades. For example, what does the future of political parties in a democracy look like? With regard to institutions, there are many highly exciting, promising, but not yet sufficiently tested theoretical approaches, especially with regard to the liberalism almost declared dead by Harari.
Hans-Christian Riekhof
