According to Harari we as humans by and large place a large focus on the state and the market for a few very interesting reasons. First it must be understood that we as humans, and facilitated through our imagined realities, have come to understand justice, freedom, and happiness to be the result of economic success. The advancement of human technology on a whole is also very centered on the state and the markets which provide the funds and direction in which science is developed. For instance war which is caused and carried out by states has been perhaps the greatest catalyst for scientific discovery. Growth markets also have become the focus of mankind because we associate success with a financial portfolio that has numbers in black and not red. The markets which can determine what course of action a state may take thus have become a centerpiece of human life. And complementing the market is the state which can also dictate where the markets will fluctuate, grow, and decline. In today’s society our focus and belief that economic success is what leads to freedom and happiness has in turn made the state and market our focal point.
I believe that historians jobs as humanity moves into an uncertain future is simply to record events and facts as they are. It is up to the future generations (if there are any) to interpret where we went wrong and where we got it right. Historians have such an important job and with the stroke of a pen can influence a future generation and that is why it is so important that history be recorded from multiple perspectives, but most importantly from a factual perspective. Historians also have the big responsibility in analyzing the past and perhaps finding solutions to current problems buried in our own past that we may have forgotten. Keeping the human story alive is a big task and should not be taken lightly or undertaken to advance a certain agenda.