The Authority of the Individual Feelings, Beliefs and Ideas

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David Frum: How did we get to a point where democracy puts so much primacy on the authority of human feelings, beliefs and ideas and emotions? He says technology is breaking down are the stories that we've now collectively told ourselves about our own meaning and emotions. The big turning point was the west, around the eighteenth century - it shifted the source of authority inside humans. It's not the laws of natureit certainly not some book written by priests two thousand years ago. It's your heart. That's it. Good is whatever feels good. Ifwe don't careyo, you're corrupt.

Yuval Noah Harari is one of the rare historians who can give us a two-million-year perspective on today’s headlines. In this wide-ranging conversation, Yuval explains how technology and democracy have evolved together over the course of human history, from paleolithic tribes to city states to kingdoms to nation states. So where do we go from here? “In almost all the conversations I have,” Yuval says, “we get stuck in dystopia and we never explore the no less problematic questions of what happens when we avoid dystopia.” We push beyond dystopia and consider the nearly unimaginable alternatives in this special episode of Your Undivided Attention.