We are born into a 'given' historical reality, and it shapes us entirely!

Yesterday, I was reading Yuval Noah Harari's new book "Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow" which I'm doing since the last month and still haven't completed the half yet.

The book embodies my favourite conglomeration of Big History combined with detailed and exciting immersion into deep history and central events that have shaped the world as we know it today. Big History is actually an interesting academic multidisciplinary approach which examines existence from the Big Bang to the present. While it explores long time frames of our existence, it enables us to grasp the history in the context of a bigger picture; integrating anthropology, medicine, technology, geology, cause-and-effect-relations and other disciplines.

And this is what Harari manages to provide in his book. I often pause and simulate the events that have occurred and this makes you aware of possibilities we don’t normally consider; or maybe understand why our ancestors did not. The telos hier is not to repeat the past, but in order to be liberated from it. "Each and every one of us has been born into a given historical reality, ruled by particular norms and values, and managed by a unique economic and political system. We take this reality for granted, thinking it is natural, inevitable and immutable. We forget that our world was created by an accidental chain of events, and that history shaped not only our technology, politics and society, but also our thoughts, fears and dreams. The cold hand of the past emerges from the grave of our ancestors, grips us by the neck and directs our gaze towards a single future. We have felt that grip from the moment we were born, so we assume that it is a natural and inescapable part of who we are. Therefore we seldom try to shake ourselves free, and envision alternative futures."