MemCast
MemCast / episode / insight
Power alone cannot sustain civilizations - cooperation and trust are equally fundamental
  • Human power ultimately depends on cooperation, not just brute force
  • Even militaries require soldiers to believe in shared stories/morality
  • Societies spending >50% on military (historical norm) are inherently unstable
  • Modern democracies prove trust-based systems can outperform pure power structures
Yuval Noah HarariPeople by WTF00:14:46

Supporting quotes

Ultimately, human power is based on cooperation, not on force. Even if you want to build an army, how do you get thousands, millions of soldiers who don't know you personally, to obey your commands? Yuval Noah Harari
For most of history, more than 50% of the budget of every government in history... goes to the military. In the early 21st century, the average expenditure on the military worldwide was about 6% to 7%. Yuval Noah Harari

From this concept

The Fiction of Power

Harari challenges the cynical view that power is the only reality in human affairs, arguing that cooperation and trust are equally fundamental to civilization. He examines how this worldview leads to societal breakdown.

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