Someone I respect has suggested that this needs more explanation: Concerning the Universal Myths. In Sapiens Harari talks about the Unification of Humankind. In those chapters he identifies 3 Universal myths. The first being empire, the next being Money and the last being religion. He then goes on to say that the current ideologies that represent those myths in the modern liberal package are empire = democracy (the individual voter knows what is best for him/her), money = capitalism (the customer knows what is best for him/her), religion = humanism (the individual makes the decisions as to what is best for him/her ie whom to marry, where to live etc)
The idea behind religion being humanism is based on the framework of our worldview containing an “is” (the objective reality) and an “ought” (the individuals subjective reality and the groups inner-subjective reality). Religion for many centuries was the belief system and associated with a god like creature and provided the “ought”. However now it is more secular and represented by an idea of individual humanism. So the issue of what “ought” to be is now humanism.
However, Harari identifies three types of humanism, 1 – Liberal humanism (focused on the individual), 2 -social humanism (focused on the group) and 3 - evolutionary humanism (focused on the “higher mind” idea like Nazism). I question whether the idea of utilitarianism might not be somewhere between liberal and social humanism. That is the point of my YouTube.
Utilitarian capitalism would be a balance of the 5 pillars of capitalism while individualism appears to me to advantage the profit pillar. I am also asking whether utilitarian democracy might advantage services over liberty but might expect us to compromise on some of the rule of law issues. That is my food for thought in this YouTube. Am I too subtle? I am concerned about being too preachy, but I might have walked it back too far. My wife says I can be obtuse sometimes when I am trying too hard to be subtle.
Recently I have read these 250 to 500 page books about some of these topics and I find them telling me little more than I could get from a 3 minute Bob Dylan song so I am concerned that I will over state things.
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