Sapiens: a brief History of Humankind

a. The imagined order is embedded in the material world
. Though the
imagined order exists only in our minds, it can be woven into the material reality
around us, and even set in stone. Most Westerners today believe in individualism.
They believe that every human is an individual, whose worth does not depend on
what other people think of him or her. Each of us has within ourselves a brilliant
ray of light that gives value and meaning to our lives. In modern Western schools
teachers and parents tell children that if their classmates make fun of them, they
should ignore it. Only they themselves, not others, know their true worth.
In modern architecture, this myth leaps out of the imagination to take shape in
stone and mortar. The ideal modern house is divided into many small rooms so
that each child can have a private space, hidden from view, providing for
maximum autonomy. This private room almost invariably has a door, and in
many households it is accepted practice for the child to close, and perhaps lock,
the door. Even parents are forbidden to enter without knocking and asking
permission. The room is decorated as the child sees t, with rock-star posters on
the wall and dirty socks on the oor. Somebody growing up in such a space
cannot help but imagine himself ‘an individual’, his true worth emanating from
within rather than from without.
Medieval noblemen did not believe in individualism. Someone’s worth was
determined by their place in the social hierarchy, and by what other people said
about them. Being laughed at was a horrible indignity. Noblemen taught their

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children to protect their good name whatever the cost. Like modern individualism,
the medieval value system left the imagination and was manifested in the stone of
medieval castles. The castle rarely contained private rooms for children (or
anyone else, for that matter). The teenage son of a medieval baron did not have a
private room on the castle’s second oor, with posters of Richard the Lionheart
and King Arthur on the walls and a locked door that his parents were not allowed
to open. He slept alongside many other youths in a large hall. He was always on
display and always had to take into account what others saw and said. Someone
growing up in such conditions naturally concluded that a man’s true worth was
determined by his place in the social hierarchy and by what other people said of
him.
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