Sapiens: a brief History of Humankind

b. The imagined order shapes our desires
. Most people do not wish to accept
that the order governing their lives is imaginary, but in fact every person is born
into a pre-existing imagined order, and his or her desires are shaped from birth by
its dominant myths. Our personal desires thereby become the imagined order’s
most important defences.
For instance, the most cherished desires of present-day Westerners are shaped
by romantic, nationalist, capitalist and humanist myths that have been around for
centuries. Friends giving advice often tell each other, ‘Follow your heart.’ But the
heart is a double agent that usually takes its instructions from the dominant myths
of the day, and the very recommendation to ‘Follow your heart’ was implanted in
our minds by a combination of nineteenth-century Romantic myths and twentieth-
century consumerist myths. The Coca-Cola Company, for example, has marketed
Diet Coke around the world under the slogan, ‘Diet Coke. Do what feels good.’
Even what people take to be their most personal desires are usually
programmed by the imagined order. Let’s consider, for example, the popular
desire to take a holiday abroad. There is nothing natural or obvious about this. A
chimpanzee alpha male would never think of using his power in order to go on
holiday into the territory of a neighbouring chimpanzee band. The elite of ancient
Egypt spent their fortunes building pyramids and having their corpses mummi ed,
but none of them thought of going shopping in Babylon or taking a skiing holiday
in Phoenicia. People today spend a great deal of money on holidays abroad
because they are true believers in the myths of romantic consumerism.
Romanticism tells us that in order to make the most of our human potential we
must have as many di erent experiences as we can. We must open ourselves to a
wide spectrum of emotions; we must sample various kinds of relationships; we
must try di erent cuisines; we must learn to appreciate di erent styles of music.
One of the best ways to do all that is to break free from our daily routine, leave
behind our familiar setting, and go travelling in distant lands, where we can

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‘experience’ the culture, the smells, the tastes and the norms of other people. We
hear again and again the romantic myths about ‘how a new experience opened
my eyes and changed my life’.
Consumerism tells us that in order to be happy we must consume as many
products and services as possible. If we feel that something is missing or not quite
right, then we probably need to buy a product (a car, new clothes, organic food)
or a service (housekeeping, relationship therapy, yoga classes). Every television
commercial is another little legend about how consuming some product or service
will make life better.
Romanticism, which encourages variety, meshes perfectly with consumerism.
Their marriage has given birth to the infinite ‘market of experiences’, on which the
modern tourism industry is founded. The tourism industry does not sell ight
tickets and hotel bedrooms. It sells experiences. Paris is not a city, nor India a
country – they are both experiences, the consumption of which is supposed to
widen our horizons, ful l our human potential, and make us happier.
Consequently, when the relationship between a millionaire and his wife is going
through a rocky patch, he takes her on an expensive trip to Paris. The trip is not a
re ection of some independent desire, but rather of an ardent belief in the myths
of romantic consumerism. A wealthy man in ancient Egypt would never have
dreamed of solving a relationship crisis by taking his wife on holiday to Babylon.
Instead, he might have built for her the sumptuous tomb she had always wanted.