Is Yuval Harari a Shlemiel? Yes, he is a lovable idiot!

by Geoffrey Clarfield,

Most people reasonably well read in the social sciences and the contemporary study of evolution, know that Yuval Harari is wrong about most things.

Below is a recent essay pointing out his factual and logical errors. Yet he is world famous. Why?

Having lived in Israel and met this character “type” many times, it is usually found among poor uneducated people but now there is one with a Phd!  I believe that Harari fulfills the role of a Shlemiel: a character from Yiddish literature who is at the same time lovable, self-deprecating, deluded, clever in some ways and a woefully ignorant, fallible “know it all” who is not aware of how wrong he is about the world. However, his audience knows it and gains compassion by watching him flail around in life. That is the charm of this theatrical role.

Here is a short intro to the character type the Shlemiel and then an essay on Harari’s poor scholarship and unsupportable predictions.

Harari is now as famous as Woody Allen and there is a reason for it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlemiel

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/07/the-dangerous-populist-science-of-yuval-noah-harari

I believe that Harari has missed his calling and should have gone into acting. He is young and one can only hope.