Britain and France were the main torchbearers of what was deemed ‘the west’ in 1900. The Boer War and Afghan conflicts saw the stresses within the ‘west’ but the rival within the ‘west’ being “middle Europe” or central really saw the locomotive for civil war within the ‘west’. We saw the Anglo debacle at Dardanelles and surprise Ottoman victories and the other non Europeans being Japanese defeat traditionally ‘western’ powers. The so called west went more westwards to “America” and post 1945 the Anglo settlers convict states (Australia) and South Africa and Canada and New Zealand became under American sphere of influence. We saw wars of independence and western retreat from Indo~China and China itself go Communist. As did Cuba. Francis Fukuyama termed the end of history supposedly with collapse of Soviet Communism. Hence Pax America from 1991 really reassert “the west” until 2001 or 2003 before losing ground over two decades. Now it is this modern post 1990 and Bill Clinton triumph that was unravelling this image of “west” now led over the Atlantic that it being questioned as a pinnacle of human social development

aaahh "humans are now hackable animals" and "free will- thats over" guy.... he is so anti-human on every level

Timothy is not history . Real history has a long memory but Timothy’s interpretation of history based on today’s political propaganda. He just used political figures in his own way. Fakes

i am not a hystorian but i often imagine...what would happen is we would to start teaching children how we all became friends and overcame terrible past?

I am ashamed of being a British born Canadian and that ever wear the uniform to serve and protect. NATO is a warmongering instrument of US foreign policy. The EU is a joke.

Great contest and analysis.

The thing that stands out with this video (headline), and the comments that could have been expected, is that polarisation is king. It's all black and white and whoever says and writes anything has to be either "destroyed" or glorified. Bloody hell, get a grip! If you are incapable of exercising kind critique and get into the details don't post anything rather than parading your intellectual lazyness!!

There is a scenario where everyone loses. And I think its more likely at this point. The west has large military dominance relative to everyone else in the world. If they fail to bend them to their will, they are finished. Use of force will expand.

Yes, why don't we spend more time blaming ourselves for what is happening in Ukraine and Gaza, and at the same time why don't we take our focus off the politicians and power brokers who are directly responsible for the carnage? Yes, more sanctimonious navel gazing is what is required, and not looking at what and who is actually responsible for these situations. Yes... yes... what we need more of is deep philosophical pontification and more blaming of ourselves - this is the obvious solution! But as far as identifying and blaming those who are ACTUALLY responsible goes... it is a case of "nothing to see here". Implying that "WE” are all to blame sounds very sanctimonious, but it only causes those who ACTUALLY ARE to blame to blend into the background and become invisible. Excellent work.

Never heard of Snyder. There are so many pseudo-intellectual propagandists around nowadays. Well funded by such worthy institutions as the National Endowment for Dictatorship.

AIPAC plant.

Why on earth did Cormac McCarthy never win a Nobel Prize? Is it because he was not a "political progressive"?

Actually, when the first conflict started after 2014, Ukranians were generally unwilling to fight the Russians (and vice versa). It took a lot of replacements, reshuffling and right wing nationalist propaganda, placing Azov affiliated figures in key positions in the military, and so on, to be able to turn the tide of Ukranian reluctance to fight the Russian forces.

Fortunately, you have few subscribers!

Most of the stuff here, and in the presentation, is just mud-slinging nonsense, not rooted in anything in Harari's book. We have empty generalizations ("reductionist," "controversial," "elitist", "highly suspicious","not really convinced", "not original" - someho, daring and careless and yet "old hat."). It's just a form of intellectual McCarthyism dressed up in pleasant tones. Frankly, I don't care whether he has and hasn't charisma. I don't care whether he is a particularly pleasant person. I don't care whether he has anything to do with the WEF (why shouldn't he talk to Klaus Schwab?). I don't care that "professional historians" don't like his work - of course they don't! If you want traditional histories - they're there - just read Toynbee, the Durants, JM Roberts, or William McNeill, etc. Harari tried to do something else, and he was spectacularly successful. Does his book have flaws? Yep. (1) Amaziingly, for an acolyte of Jared Diamond, none of Diamond's wonderful insights about the effect of the biome on conditining the development of complex societies finds their way into Harari's book. (2) He completely misunderstands the period known as The Enlightenment, by stating that the defining characteristic was "do your thing" - it was anything but that. (3) His statement that prior to 70,000 years ago sapiens' effect on the environment was similar to that of jelly fish is wrong - for hundreds of thousands of years sapiens fired the landscape, with huge effect. (4) The notion that the most sapiens can aspire to is "pleasant sensations" is ridiculously reductionist - see philosophers from the Greeks, to Martha Nussbaum. Still, it is a stimulating read and his latest, "Nexus" is a perceptive view of the dangers of AI - he is far from a sycophant of Big Tech. We hope for better, more reasoned, and less ridiculous commentary on this site.

RIGHT YOU ARE, Timothy Snyder, Mr. Burning Archive! But these days, it all goes a bit beyond just telling us big lies, but actually re-writing history -

As an historian he continues to hold on to fake Zionist narrative. He talks about reality and yet he continues to live in an occupied land

So, he should have written an encyclopedia instead of a book, so he can delve in all these issues you mentioned at the end? I am still not finding a valid critique anywhere in the comments, it's all vague seemingly biased assertions about his work from people who obviously dislike him for w/e reason

Give Rushdie his Nobel prize!

If you can’t pivot from understanding the past for the sake of that itself to using that understanding to mine the future what fun are you having anyways?

We just need to accept that we will not progress beyond the middle ages, the crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, the Israeli genocide of Gaza, until the rest of the world shuts down depravity.

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fail.

Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize for waging wars. That is one of many scandals of the Swedish Nobel organization utterly controlled by the imperialists and colonizers. Sweden is now a member of the NATO colonizers "defensive?" alliance that plan to expand globally especially into East Asia in the near future according to chief Stotlenberg. How is this for peace?? Just look at what they do, not what they preach & lied.

Ireland is part of Europe and a member of the EU and we are massively against American support for Israel's annihilation of the Palestinians. (Neither do most Irish people support American led NATO encroachment on Russia).

Firstly, when you say “western intellectual culture has fallen into the abyss”, please explain that. I have my ideas on that, I want to hear yours. Examples would help. Secondly, I know you can do much better in that you ask umpteen hand-wringing questions and only in the last minute share your view more clearly, albeit with photos rather than the extensive text-based commentary and book references of which I yearn as a resident in Australia and of which you are eminently capable of providing. So that’s a request, for you to speak your mind openly and fulsomely, with book references on my two points. The Gaza Genocide requires it of all of us. Still, thank you for this introductory video.

Simply put, yours is an output of verbal diarrhoea. Lots of words without any content. Waste of time to even attempting analysis of your monologue.

I got to 1:17, then they say that the only two people who are sober and could save the entire human race are the bad guys. I think we deserve what's coming.

Harari has realized the importance of showmanship, sprinkled with some controversial history, for the purpose of getting rich and lots of attention.

Anyone with a decent amount of common knowledge about history and insight into European history knows that Timothy is a liar and a person who deliberately fuels hatred towards Russians and other Slavic peoples. He’s a disgrace to the historian faculty.

2:10 We yearn for a savior in a demoralized global society in crisis. So many speak of World War Three as if the Cold War never ended. The Cold War’s ideological battle has yet to end. Communism failed, and capitalism is failing in every measurable metric. Did the Cold War truly end, or was it merely a rejection of industrialization?

We have no historical precedent for a live ongoing genocide that billions have already been exposed to. What does that mean for Western democracy? Would the reaction be the same if the holocaust was live-streamed the same way? It’s uncharted territory, and so far, the results have been insignificant.

"Multi-polar world" is accepting Russian terrorism and nuclear-threats as normal politics. Dont be a sucker Troll, science is universal and international, not multipular deception.

Here is some decieving propaganda from a Russian bootlicker for all you troll to digest. There are some bought quasi-intellectuals in the West and here appears to be one. Wonder ful wonderful Russia with so good respect for Human Rights, dont you think!?!?

It’s no surprise those that suffer from TDS also are Banderites at heart…

The West may have sunk into the abyss but I’m not sure about the rest of the world. We in the West know so little about the Global Majority are often reject their voices out of hand if they say something different to what passes for political correctness in the West. The ideological and intellectual straitjacket we impose on ourselves stunts our democracy.

The constant mispronouncing of his name gives me urticaria... Hay rye ree Hay rye ree Hay rye ree Gee man. 😢😮

Can't understand a thing of what he says. Awful accent

This position given here, is a typical example of the Blame Game kzbin.info/www/bejne/foLCg2ywa8iohcU And sorry to say, it is a quite abusive tactic in and of itself Synchronicity, the fact when you just saw that other video just before the next video

I feel you but I think the ending could easily be reversed by reading something like Einet Wilf's book The War of Return or listening to some of her talks. She would say the the filter works in the other direction, as expressed by concepts she uses like "Westplaining", etc. I feel similarly about Ukraine, because there is a major nationalistic element in the Putinite space, erasing the national identities of other cultures like Georgia and Ukraine, the Russian military's behavior in Syria, the seeming inability to tell the truth about Euromaidan. I refer to books like Ukraine’s Maidan, Russia’s War by Mychailo Wynnyckyj, which was published before the invasion.

Perhaps it's easy for me to slice through the onion layers to get at the truth, but I was born in Washington DC and have seen beyond many of it's facades. It's built on money, corruption and power, and is subservient to the interests of the oligarchy. Case in point, William Browder, recently received his Knighthood from King Charles for his service to the crown. He was also associated with Robert Maxwell, Maxwell Communications Corporation. Peel back enough layers and you find an international banker behind the controls. On the Israel conflict, the reality it's been very well concealed over decades, but it's there. Grace Halsell, was on the staff of LBJ as a speechwriter, but later researched the activity of the settlers in Israel and wrote of the many injustices taking place against the indigenous Arabs. The reality is that modern day Israel is an extension of the Anglo-American alliance built on the shaky foundation of Jewish Zionism, buttressed with Christian Zionism. Benjamin Freedmen who was an associate of Bernard Baruch and was involved in the Versailles Treaty spoke at length in 1961 at the Waldorf Astoria (in Washington DC) of the great crimes committed by European bankers which led to WW2. We live in a completely narcissistic society today (at least in much of the west) as evidenced in our mass media. God help us.

One thing is clear. Humans never learn from history. At least not the humans in power

Thank you!

Gaza is a lost cause. They do not want peace. They live with envy and hate and use their dead kids to manipulate us. When they emigrate here and you actually meet these people, you will learn why not one Muslim country invites them.

Jeff Rich blythely dismisses “ Russia gate” as a hoax. If you read the Republican controlled Senate report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, you will see documented collusion between Russian intelligence and the Trump campaign. Unfortunately, no specific laws were broken and consequently the Mueller investigation could not refer Trump for indictment. The type of activity engaged in by the Trump campaign, in coordination with Russian intelligence, if not illegal, should be. It is also undeniably true that Trump’s obstruction of justice during the investigation should have resulted in indictment. By far Trump’s biggest crime is undermining faith in free and fair elections in the United States. It is not hyperbole to say that the peaceful transfer of power is what separates the United States from failed states worldwide. Soft peddling the threat from Trump to American democracy is wishful thinking. We don’t need to make Trump out to be the second coming of Adolf Hitler to be concerned about his threat to our future

I'm beginning to think that humanity is pretty much beyond redemption. Even Jesus can't save us, The only hope seems to be all good people should curb their religions and greed and adopt and cultivate pacifism . If people would only apply the principles that christians give lip service to but fail to follow then maybe we can have a future.

I'm neither pro this nor that, and when i see what's happening in Palestine, i feel nothing. And i think that is ok , i just don't care. I have enough problems of my own.

Bravo Jeff ! & thanks, will read & revert ;)

What I would expect from this video is some argumentation to counter the arguments which respectable speaker raises. It's not enough to just present 5 arguments in question and assume that one can question then but to actually debate the arguments. Which I didn't find in significance in this video.

American policy over Ukraine has been a disaster. No strategic objectives. Biden worrying about Russian collapse is hindering Ukraine winning the war. Let Russia collapse. Micro management of the war as LBJ did in Vietnam. Incrementalism due to self deterrence, Putin deterres the white house, over fears of escalation. Biden is weak. America tried Nation building, now its trying to aid Nation collapse.

Great content, Jeff Rich. True, Karl Gjellerup is living in total oblivion today. Pontoppidan, however, is still read, much loved, and his three great novels are still published in new editions.