Our human fictions

Summary 

In the TED Talk What Explains the Rise of Humans, Yuval Noah Harari says that our greatest achievements both good and evil that have made humans the dominant species on Earth over the past 70,000 years were enabled by our evolved ability to make up stories. It is because we can tell fictions about gods, nations and human rights and so on that we can cooperate with strangers in vast organizations with flexibility no other animal has, that made us masters of the planet. Money, especially the US dollar, which is strongly believed in even by terrorists who hate America, is another example of a powerful fictional story Harari gives to explain our success over every other animal.

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Response 

Harari tells his story of humankind's rise to power over all of Earthly creation very well. I had actually read the book before I watched this talk, so his ideas were not entirely new to me, but he presents them very well. His thesis that we are nothing special on an individual level is well supported with reasons, and he uses great examples to clarify his more abstract ideas about our species' place in the world. In his discussion of the fiction that is money, for example, he uses the example of how we successfully exchange a banana for a piece of paper, whereas no chimpanzee wouild do such a thing. Harari's imaginary chimp example would say, if offered  a piece of paper in exchange for a tasty banana, "What do you think I am? A human?" As well as presenting a powerful thesis about us, his talk is, throughout, also entertaining. 

Harari is a professor of history, and he clearly knows his subject well. When his books began to be published a few years ago, they got rave reviews, although I'm sure that they must have upset many people, especially the traditionally religious who think that gods, ghosts, Santa Claus, heaven, Valhalla, Thor, and life after death are real. Harari very clearly states that all of these things are fictions, made up stories that are totally untrue. That did not worry me, but some of his other points were a little more disturbing. I think that morality matters, that we should to what is just both in our own lives and in society, but Harari makes a strong case that along with every religious belief, the whole idea of morals is a fiction, including the human rights stories that I personally think very important, and which have, as he notes in other examples, been powerful forces for human organization,  helping millions of people to effectively cooperate to make a better world. But then, is the very notion of a "better world" itself anything more than a fiction that we make up, with a reality that only exists inter-subjectively, that is, between the minds of the human beings that share belief in the story they have made up? 

These seem to me deep waters for us to swim in, but we should swim in them if we care about any values, since the foundations of our beliefs about values will otherwise be easily washed away. And as science teaches us,  with its truer (?) stories about the world, understanding is a safer home to live in than confusion that is untested, unsubstantiated and perhaps not even logically consistent. 

I hope you find Harari's ideas as challenging and thought provoking as I have. 
 

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Question

According to Harari, our political systems, our nations, our moralities, our businesses, our gods, and so on are all only fictional stories, albeit very powerful stories, that our brains make up out of nothing, with no more objective reality than the nation of Wakanda, vibranium or the afterlife showin the fictional story Black Panther. 

To what extent do you agree or disagree with Harari's statement?
(I thought it might be more interesting to write an IELTS writing task 2 type question this time. But it is still only one question for you to respond to.)