THERE’S no sugar-coating it: the world is definitely in a bit of a mess right now. Surf the web or turn on the radio and you’ll be hit by a catalogue of woe: climate change, the war in Ukraine, soaring food prices and plummeting stock markets.
Yuval Noah Harari is the first to admit that good news is in short supply, and yet whenever he sees a soccer game in progress it gives him hope that most of mankind’s greatest problems can be fixed.
The celebrated Israeli historian is a big fan of the Beautiful Game because it is the perfect illustration of what humans can achieve when they work together.
“The world cup is a model for good nationalism,” he says. “People’s primary loyalty is to the national team, they wave flags and come together to watch their team. But at the same time it’s all based on a global understanding of co-operation, because you can’t have a world cup if every nation invents its own set of rules.”
The 46-year-old academic is warming to his theme. “The offside rule didn’t come down from heaven or from the laws of physics,” he says, a black floral shirt peeking out from beneath his white pullover.
“We created it. If you think about it, football is just a completely fictional story.”
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This is how Yuval made his name.
His ability to take the everyday, the mundane and assign it a place in the vast span of human history has
