I am going to transcribe, not word for word, but pretty much so, an interview on CNN between Christiane Amanpour and Yuval Harari. Yuval Harari is an Israeli historian and has written the book “Sapiens” which was a New York Times bestseller. Christiane Amanpour is a repórter for CNN. The reason why I am posting this interview is because it reveals the direction the world is heading. Harai calls for new world leadership to stand up. He calls for the need for biometric monitoring of the population of the world to protect us from events like the present virus. He even warns that the technology we have available to us to protect our health could be used to form a totalitarian state of government. Of course, those who know Bible prophecy know that God's word predicts that an antichrist world government shall arise in the last days before the return of Christ. Could the Corona Virus be ushering us to accept such a world government in order to protect our health and that of our loved ones? Let's read the interview and see the ideas that are being presented.
Christiane:
Welcome back Yuval Harari. You’ve written much about history and a lot about what makes us human. These are extradinary days. Have you seen in modern times in our technological economical global society a crisis quite like this one?
Harari:
No, not quite like this one for a least a hundred years and nobody has a living experience of what we are seeing which makes it quite frightening. But if you look at the broader perspective of history then, yes, humanity has dealt with many such epidemics before. But probably we are in a better situation today than ever before to deal with such an outbreak.
Christiane:
Because of?
Harari:
Modern medicine. When the Black Death came in the 14th century and swept from China to Britain in about 10 years killing between a ¼ to ½ of the entire population of Asia and Europe, no one had any idea of what was happening, what was the cause of the disease and what could be done about it. Today, with the Coronavirus epidemic, it took just two weeks for scientist and doctors not just to identify the vÃrus behind the outbreak, but to also sequence the entire genome of the vÃrus and develop a test to at least tell us who has the vÃrus and who doesn’t. We are still a distance away from over coming this, but we are in a better position than any previous time in history.
Christiane:
But Coronavirus swept from China to Britain to the USA in a much shorter period of just a few months. What as an ordinary citizen frightens you the most or you wish most would happen to stop the pandemic at least?
Harari:
I think the worst thing is the disunity we see in the world, the lack of cooperation and coordination between countries and also between the population and the government. This is basically the payday of what we have been seeing in the last four years with the epidmic of “Fake News” and with the deteriation of international relations. If you compare the present crisis to the 2008 financial crisis, which of course was a crisis of a different kind, but there are still similarities. In 2008 you had responsible adults in the world with or who took a leadership position to rally the world behind them which thus prevented a worse outcome. But over the last four years, basically we have seen a rapid deteriation of trust in the international system. The country which was the leader in the previous 2008 crisis and also in the last epedemic in 2014, the Ebola epidemic, and that was the USA. Now, it’s not taking any kind of leadership position.
Harari:
Yes, because you can’t deal with virus or we can’t prevent epidemics through isolation. You can only prevent them with information. If you really want to isolate yourself to the degree that you are not exposed to outside epidemics, you’ll have to go back, and even to the Middle Ages is not far enough. We had the same kind of epedemics even in the Middle Ages. If you really want to isolate yourself against epidemics you have to go back all the way to the Stone Age. And nobody can do that.
Christiane:
Welcome back Yuval Harari. You’ve written much about history and a lot about what makes us human. These are extradinary days. Have you seen in modern times in our technological economical global society a crisis quite like this one?
Harari:
No, not quite like this one for a least a hundred years and nobody has a living experience of what we are seeing which makes it quite frightening. But if you look at the broader perspective of history then, yes, humanity has dealt with many such epidemics before. But probably we are in a better situation today than ever before to deal with such an outbreak.
Christiane:
Because of?
Harari:
Modern medicine. When the Black Death came in the 14th century and swept from China to Britain in about 10 years killing between a ¼ to ½ of the entire population of Asia and Europe, no one had any idea of what was happening, what was the cause of the disease and what could be done about it. Today, with the Coronavirus epidemic, it took just two weeks for scientist and doctors not just to identify the vÃrus behind the outbreak, but to also sequence the entire genome of the vÃrus and develop a test to at least tell us who has the vÃrus and who doesn’t. We are still a distance away from over coming this, but we are in a better position than any previous time in history.
Christiane:
But Coronavirus swept from China to Britain to the USA in a much shorter period of just a few months. What as an ordinary citizen frightens you the most or you wish most would happen to stop the pandemic at least?
Harari:
I think the worst thing is the disunity we see in the world, the lack of cooperation and coordination between countries and also between the population and the government. This is basically the payday of what we have been seeing in the last four years with the epidmic of “Fake News” and with the deteriation of international relations. If you compare the present crisis to the 2008 financial crisis, which of course was a crisis of a different kind, but there are still similarities. In 2008 you had responsible adults in the world with or who took a leadership position to rally the world behind them which thus prevented a worse outcome. But over the last four years, basically we have seen a rapid deteriation of trust in the international system. The country which was the leader in the previous 2008 crisis and also in the last epedemic in 2014, the Ebola epidemic, and that was the USA. Now, it’s not taking any kind of leadership position.
Actually in 2016 the current administration made it very clear that the USA has resigned its position as gobal leader and the US doesn’t have any friends in the world. It only has “interests.” Even if now the US, which it is not doing so far, but even if it would try to assume a leadership position, no one will follow a leader whose motto is “Me first.” But what really frightens me is the lack of leadership and cooperation. What people should realize is that the threat of an epidemic in any one country, threatens the entire world. The danger is that if we don’t contain it in time, the vÃrus will grow. That is one of the worse problems with this kind of epidemic, it is the rapid evolution of the vÃrus. We saw this before with the 2014 Ebola epidemic. It actually started with one genetic mutation in the virus in one person in West Africa. The rare Ebola disease became a raging epidemic because this one mutation increased the contagiousness of the vÃrus 4 times. The same thing could be happening right now, somewhere in Iran or Italy or any where else and wherever it happens, it endangers the entire world. When this happens you must close ranks against the vÃrus.
[Dennis Edwards: It seems like Harai is calling for new world leadership to step up. That the world needs a leader who can give us more cooperation and coordination. He seems to calling for a non-American world leader to stand up and help lead the world. Could this seeming good world leader be the Antichrist predicted of in the Bible that will lead the world during the last seven years. A world leader who comes in peaceably, deceiving the nations, but ultimately implements the famous biometric implant needed to buy or sell. Those that refuse the implant will be considered criminals, terrorists, or enemies of the state. Are we moving quickly toward the road of One World Government under a new world leader whose not American?]
Christiane:
You say close ranks but that seems to be contrary to what the populous or nationalists of 2016 whether it is the USA or UK or elsewhere around the world. The idea that globalization is just “bad” and we need to always close ranks so that we don’t get anything “bad” from around the corner. But what your saying now is that idea is a bankrupt theory when dealing with this type of crisis.
Christiane:
You say close ranks but that seems to be contrary to what the populous or nationalists of 2016 whether it is the USA or UK or elsewhere around the world. The idea that globalization is just “bad” and we need to always close ranks so that we don’t get anything “bad” from around the corner. But what your saying now is that idea is a bankrupt theory when dealing with this type of crisis.
Harari:
Yes, because you can’t deal with virus or we can’t prevent epidemics through isolation. You can only prevent them with information. If you really want to isolate yourself to the degree that you are not exposed to outside epidemics, you’ll have to go back, and even to the Middle Ages is not far enough. We had the same kind of epedemics even in the Middle Ages. If you really want to isolate yourself against epidemics you have to go back all the way to the Stone Age. And nobody can do that.
The real border you need to protect is not between countries, but the border between the human world and the vÃrus field. Humans are surrounded by all sorts of vÃrus in animals and all sorts of places and if the vÃrus crosses the border to the human field that’s what we need to prevent. If the vÃrus that let’s say originates in a bat, manages to cross the border and enter the human espécies anywhere in the world that vÃrus then adapts to the human body and then it is a danger to everybody all over the world. Now it is an illusion to think that in the long term you can protect yourself from that vÃrus by simply closing the borders of your country. The more effective policy is to police the border between human kind and the vÃrus world.
Christiane:
How do you do that?
Harari:
By supporting health systems all over the world and by realizing that something that is happening now in West Africa, Iran, or China, is a threat to everyone in the world. So we need more organizations like the World Health Organization and more international solidaritry to help the country which is currently most affected. Deal with the crisis whether it is by sending them equipment or personal help and more than anything else good information or by economic support.
Christiane:
How do you do that?
Harari:
By supporting health systems all over the world and by realizing that something that is happening now in West Africa, Iran, or China, is a threat to everyone in the world. So we need more organizations like the World Health Organization and more international solidaritry to help the country which is currently most affected. Deal with the crisis whether it is by sending them equipment or personal help and more than anything else good information or by economic support.
A country where an outbreak begins, if it thinks it is on its own, it will hesitate to take drastic quarentene measures. It thinks that if we lock down the entire country or city we will collapse economically and nobody will come to help us. So let’s wait and see whether it really is such a big danger or not. But then, it’s too late. Now, if a country like Italy would know that if it locks itself down it will receive help from other countries, it will be willing to take these drastic measures sooner which will be a benefit for the whole of humanity. And every euro that Germany or France use in supporting Italy in such a situation would save them a hundred euros later on not having to deal with the epidemic in their own city or country.
Christiane:
Now that this vÃrus is out of the box and there has been a slow response around the world to try to police that border between the vÃrus and human beings. Italy has taken a drastic measure with the whole country in lock down, what do you think about that?
Harari:
I would say that this is a test for the European Union which has lost a lot of support over the last few years. It is a chance for the European Union to really prove its worth. It is the time for the other members of the Union to come to the aid of Italy. If they do that, they will not only protect their own citizens, but they will show the value of such a system as the European Union. If they don’t do that, the vÃrus could destroy the Union and not just individual human lives.
Christiane:
I want to ask you about the social impact. Does something like this, where people are forced to be self isolated with very little information, very little testing , very little belief in what they are being told, how do you see this affecting society?
Harari:
The immdeiate issue is the issue of trust, whether people trust their governments, and whether people trust what they are being told by the media. To have effective quarentene, you need the cooperation of the population and that is a very problamatic isuue. Trust of government and media over the last few years has been eroded. The other part of the problem, more long term, is about surveilence. One of the dangers in the current epidemic is that it will justify extreme measures of surveilence, especially biometric surveilence. Biometric surveilence will be justified as a need to deal with the emergency. But what we have seen in the past is that even after the emergency is over, the surveilence will remain. We are talking about a system of monitoring an entire population all the time through biometric signals , alledgedly to protect people from future epidemics.
Christiane:
Now that this vÃrus is out of the box and there has been a slow response around the world to try to police that border between the vÃrus and human beings. Italy has taken a drastic measure with the whole country in lock down, what do you think about that?
Harari:
I would say that this is a test for the European Union which has lost a lot of support over the last few years. It is a chance for the European Union to really prove its worth. It is the time for the other members of the Union to come to the aid of Italy. If they do that, they will not only protect their own citizens, but they will show the value of such a system as the European Union. If they don’t do that, the vÃrus could destroy the Union and not just individual human lives.
Christiane:
I want to ask you about the social impact. Does something like this, where people are forced to be self isolated with very little information, very little testing , very little belief in what they are being told, how do you see this affecting society?
Harari:
The immdeiate issue is the issue of trust, whether people trust their governments, and whether people trust what they are being told by the media. To have effective quarentene, you need the cooperation of the population and that is a very problamatic isuue. Trust of government and media over the last few years has been eroded. The other part of the problem, more long term, is about surveilence. One of the dangers in the current epidemic is that it will justify extreme measures of surveilence, especially biometric surveilence. Biometric surveilence will be justified as a need to deal with the emergency. But what we have seen in the past is that even after the emergency is over, the surveilence will remain. We are talking about a system of monitoring an entire population all the time through biometric signals , alledgedly to protect people from future epidemics.
But the biometric surveilence could also form the bases of an extreme totalitarian regime. We are facing the huge issue of surveilence and privacy in our age. I think we will see a big battle between privacy and health and in the long run health is likely to win. People will have no privacy at all in the name of protecting them from the spread of infectuos epidemics. We have the technology which can be very effective. We now have the technolgy to monitor the entire population and discovery the outbreak of a new disease when it is only just beginning and when it is very easy to contain. We would be able to follow all the infected people and know exactly where they are and what they do. But this kind of surveilence system can then be used to monitor many other things, such as what people think, what people feel, etc. If we aren’t careful the present epidemic can give justification for the excellerating the development of a totalitarian regime.
Christiane:
That’s a pretty dramatic thought, to try to digest. Humans were not meant to be self isolating species and there are already anedotal reports from Italy and elsewhere of people not being able to have that normal social contact in a café etc, resulting in loneliness and shut in syndrone and depression. That also is a big worry for society.
Harari:
The reason humans are especially vulnerable to epidemics is because we are a social animal. And this is how epedemics prey. The thing about the viruses is that they often exploit the best part of human nature against us. They exploit the fact that we like to socialize,but also that we help each other. When somebody is sick, the obvious natural thing to do, especially to someone who is a friend or a family member, is to come to them and give them support and to take care of them, to give them emotional support, to touch them, to hug them. But this is exactly how the vÃruses prey. The vÃrus makes use of our best qualities of human nature against us.
Christiane:
That’s a pretty dramatic thought, to try to digest. Humans were not meant to be self isolating species and there are already anedotal reports from Italy and elsewhere of people not being able to have that normal social contact in a café etc, resulting in loneliness and shut in syndrone and depression. That also is a big worry for society.
Harari:
The reason humans are especially vulnerable to epidemics is because we are a social animal. And this is how epedemics prey. The thing about the viruses is that they often exploit the best part of human nature against us. They exploit the fact that we like to socialize,but also that we help each other. When somebody is sick, the obvious natural thing to do, especially to someone who is a friend or a family member, is to come to them and give them support and to take care of them, to give them emotional support, to touch them, to hug them. But this is exactly how the vÃruses prey. The vÃrus makes use of our best qualities of human nature against us.
Again there are two ways on how to deal with that. One way is to give information to people. If people will trust the information they receive, they can change their behavior unleast until the epidemic is over. The other way is the totalitarian way through technological biometric monitoring. It couldn’t have be done in the Middle Ages, but it can be done today. We have the technology where we could survey everybody so that we can identify the initial signal of someone becoming sick. We now have the technology to know your temperature even without putting something inside your body. Just from a distance we can know if your body temperature is higher. We can know all the people you have visited. We can know who broke the government instruction of not to hug people and not to kiss them. So if people do not believe the information and they don’t obey their government out of trust, they can be compelled to do it by an omnipresent regime of surveilence. It is a dangerous path. I hope we don’t go in that direction.
Christiane:
Thank you for joining us.
Christiane:
Thank you for joining us.
Dennis Edwards: Those of you who have studied Bible Prophecy know that in the last days the prophets have prophesized that a totaliatarian world dictator would arive on the scene peacefully and gain power through deceiving the public. The world leader would support the poor and share the wealth with them. He also would enact a treaty or world agreement which would solve the Middle East problem and in some way unite the world religions. The agreement would allow the Jews to begin sacrificial worship on the Temple mount and rebuild the temple. Eventually, some three and a half years into the seven year agreemnet that he makes with the nations, he will break the agreement, invade Israel, and set up his own world government there. He will enter into the recently rebuilt temple, proclaim himself God, and place "the abomination that makes desolate" in the temple. Could the abomination be some sort of world computer or AI that is able to help him monitor the whole world? At that point, he begins a deadly persecution of all those who refuse to accept the biometric monitoring device implant which they will need in order to buy or sell. All those who refuse to accept such a device will be hunted down as criminals, terrorists, or enemies of the state. Jesus called that period, just before His miraculous return in the sky, the time of Great Tribulation. It will last for three and a half years.
Brethren, we could very well be moving faster towards those horrific years than we wish to. If you are interested in having a more indepth study of these coming events, please let me know.
Dennis
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