21 Lessons for the 21st Century (3B18)
Date: 20/05/2025
Good morning Principal, teachers and schoolmates
Today I am going to share a book called 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by an Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari. In this book, not only he showcases his interpretation to human’s behaviour and trends of history but also describes what we need to prepare for the ever-changing 21st century society.
In the modern era of the information community, it is inevitable for us to receive and process massive amounts of information from different sources. Rapid flow of information has facilitated a more abrupt spread of fake news. At a certain point, people find themselve difficult to identify ‘truth’ from ubiquitous ‘rumours’.
The author elaborates this claim in Chapter 17 by stating the humans’ long pedigree to make up stories. From time to time, rumors have caused countless tragedies across the world. Dictators make up stories to conceal their persecution towards people, enshrine themselves and create a collective illusion of the government being kind or lenient to people. For instance, the Soviet Union used to publish propaganda posters of Stalin embracing children, creating an approachable image of Stalin to its citizens, and to the western world. But behind the smile is the massacre towards the little girl’s family. People could just barely uncover the brutality of Stalin after millions of innocent citizens had been killed or tortured a lot during his 30-year dictatorship.
From my point of view, one of the key takeaways of this chapter is not to overlook the impact of a single piece of information or dialogue that you read or speak. Sometimes, perhaps a sentence can help unite delicate powers of a single person into a strong driving force. But in other circumstances it could become a sword to stab people to death which you don’t even realise. Only by thinking twice before we say something can intrinsically stop the spread of rumours or fake news at the largest extent possible. Remember, there is no crying over spilled milk.
On the other hand, another message that the author brings to us is that how to find reliable news remains a huge topic of discussion at any time. In this case, rational thinking is crucial to deal with this. What does it mean? Again, think twice. Think twice before believing any claims. Do you remember the time when people were queuing to buy daily supplies ranging from rice to toilet paper during COVID-19 pandemic? Have you ever wondered why people went crazy even though those goods are not scarce at all? It all began with fake news about ‘announcement of a complete lockdown by the government. It was shared in WhatsApp, then panic quickly spread within Hongkongers and started to blindly accumulate supplies one followed by another.
Making an effort to do fact checks plays a pivotal role in preventing ourselves from falling into the trap of fake news. This can be achieved by simply scanning through a few more relevant sources to have a thorough understanding of things. If everyone does so, many tragedies will not happen without the support and approval of the vast majority of people.
I highly recommend this book to all schoolmates because the input of independent thinking is crucial to us. In the 21st century, there will be more challenges and opportunities than ever before. I hope you can learn from this book to embrace your bright future.
Thank you for listening.