300000Years of fear...existential challenges facing humankind's journey
On the shelves of libraries, the Egyptian reader is looking at an unconventional cover of a book recently published by the Egyptian Lebanese House entitled "300,000 Years of Fear: The Story of Humans from the Beginning of the Universe to Monotheism".
In the middle of the book cover is a primitive man, surrounded in all directions by the lights of a shining modern city, its tall buildings and road advertisements.
These apparent contradictions are consistent with the content of the book presented by the Egyptian diplomat and writer Gamal Abu Al-Hassan, in an attempt to monitor the features of human history since ancient decades, in which he monitored the accumulation of knowledge and human awareness since the stages of hunting and gathering, passing through the establishment of groups, then stability and building cities, and construction Ancient civilizations, forming the first building blocks of contemporary life.
However, "300,000 Years of Fear" is not considered a purely historical journey, but rather a knowledge tour that uses various scientific disciplines, answering intertwined questions about the nature of the world, life, and the journey of humanity.
world of anxiety
While the book aims to tell the story of the human community since prehistoric times, its first pages stem from our contemporary reality, specifically from the crisis of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the period of total closure. She shares her fears and pain in light of contracting the virus, and having to isolate in her room, and then observing the world through her window and phone screen.
In light of Laila’s panic, the father decides to calm his daughter, by sharing with her through 10 messages, the chapters of the book, the story of humanity and the challenge of the quest for survival, which has left modern man with persistent feelings of fear and anxiety, his original motivation for survival, adaptation and development throughout the history of the wise man, since He appeared on the surface of the earth 300,000 years ago, as he tells.
Abul-Hassan says during the first chapter: "The hunter man lived captive to the fear of predators and various natural disasters, and the farmer lived at the mercy of the devastating floods, droughts or deadly diseases for which the cause is unknown. Today's man lives in highly structured and technologically advanced societies, but these Societies may suddenly stop working because of an object that cannot be seen with the naked eye, as happened with Corona, which crippled you and me, trapped in exchanging these messages.”
But the writer does not start the interesting story of mankind since the eras of hunting and gathering, but rather goes back to the moment of the Big Bang, and then the appearance of the planet Earth, up to life in its primitive forms before its many forms and spectra were enjoyed by various creatures.
The look of a flying bird
The author's story intersects with various scientific fields throughout the book's ten chapters, in order to be able to answer the "big questions" as he describes it, about what life is, human nature, and the roots of fear, violence, sacrifice, and compassion.
It deals with biology to explain the primary aspects of life in the form of a cell, genetics to explain the "code of life" or DNA, physics and chemistry to explain the close relationship of man to energy, as well as anthropology, linguistics, psychology, history and philosophy.
The Egyptian writer Gamal Abul-Hassan describes his book to "Al-Sharq" as a comprehensive and broad vision of a flying bird, which includes various sciences, and answers questions that occupy the non-specialist reader.
Abul-Hassan points out that "the book belongs to the category of great history books that present a comprehensive view and intersect with different sciences, such as biology, human sciences, climate and others, to form a great history of the natural conditions associated with human life, from the beginning of the universe to contemporary history, by answering questions of interest the reader".
The temptation of science
Despite the variety of scientific issues that the writer deals with, his language remains easy, and he relies on mutual dialogue with his daughter, who receives his emails, making comparisons and presenting models related to the present to explain scientific concepts.
It also relies on popular examples, aphorisms, and even behavioral innovations, balancing, for example, between the wise man's style of building his community and the behavior of electronic eavesdropping.
The writer resorted to that tone in order to suit different segments of readers, primarily young people of varying scientific levels, as he explains to Al-Sharq, without resorting to the approach of simplifying science completely.
He says, "I chose this type of story of the human journey to answer the questions that may concern young people, but they quickly ignore them or get distracted by them. I would like them not to be ashamed of these questions, but rather for them to find answers to them, such as the question about the purpose of wars, the topic of good and evil and others." .
He added, "There is a demand for scientific issues among young people, and the best example of this is the very popular Al-Duhaih program, but the offer in scientific fields or non-literary writings is still limited."
Therefore, Abul-Hassan considers that his book “represents an intermediate degree between academic writing and the simplification of science, but it aims to attract readers in general and young people in particular to the interest in science.
He continues: "We have to distinguish between the intersection with science in the context of education and the free reading to which the young reader turns with his desire and choice, and although the great history pattern does not belong to the work of simplifying science, it works like a herald sometimes who draws the attention of young people to in-depth scientific readings, It tempts them to intersect with the sciences.
social code
The chapters of the book discuss other aspects of human life with the help of social sciences. The writer focuses on the development of human consciousness, the emergence of languages, the mechanisms of counting and arithmetic, and their connection with the discovery of agriculture, and the irreversible changes that this discovery led to in the "social code" of human life.
The writer says in the seventh chapter of his book: "Unlike the traveling hunter man, the farmer understands the idea of property. With the emergence of property, the need arises to protect it in the face of the greedy. Ownership accompanies it and, as is the case in our societies today, conflicts. settling these disputes between members of society.
The emergence of the first building blocks of the group also required the emergence of sun and fire worship rituals, then the gods of ancient civilizations and other superstitious visions and beliefs that seek to explain the unknown about the universe, according to the author.
The continuous growth in the size of the population also led to the emergence of changes in the geographical and political features of their homelands. The village, the city, and then the state appeared, including the organizational features that control human behavior, such as reward, punishment, bureaucracy, up to the law.
Cradle of civilization
The writer deals with the civilizations of the ancient world, its symbols and philosophers. It monitors the features of the Egyptian civilization and the civilizations of China and India, as well as the Greek and Roman civilizations and the great empires, and the philosophies and concepts they left behind, but they still form part of the lived reality after the years have refined them, such as democracy.
The bulk of his last chapter is devoted to the stage of the emergence of monotheistic religions, and their impact on the structure of societies, while the experiences of great history usually depend on monitoring history to reach the present. Classical periods of history, continuing through the Middle Ages and later during the Renaissance.
He added: "We have to bear in mind that the period under discussion in the book is considered the most formative period for the reader, as modern and contemporary history is characterized by technological discoveries and applications only, while the practical structure was developed from the beginning until the eras of monotheism, and we still rely until today on ideas, philosophies and religions. appeared at that time.
The writer concludes his conversation with Al Sharq by saying: "I hope to complete this work in a second part, but the matter depends on the readers' reception of the book, and I, in turn, dedicate it to young people who feel the weight of the major questions related to humanity, path and destiny."
Source: websites