Yuval Noah Harari on the Mistake Strongmen Keep Making
Summary
Ezra Klein interviews Yuval Noah Harari about cooperation versus power, contrasting liberal internationalism with right-wing populism. They discuss how nationalism and shared stories enable large-scale trust, while criticizing the Trumpian belief that force alone ensures security. Harari argues that Israel’s current trajectory risks abandoning its 2,000-year legacy of learning for brute power, potentially destroying its moral standing and long-term survival.
Topics discussed
Introduction: Arthur Miller, Ben Brantley, and Yuval Noah Harari
Cooperation vs. Power: The limits of brute force in history
The collapse of liberalism and the power of shared fictions
Jewish history, nationalism, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
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Pain, memory, and the psychology of conflict resolution
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