Cognitive immunity in the Arab world

Cognitive immunity is related to the ability of individuals to form attitudes and perceptions based on specific educational and cultural accumulation, which is the ability to place political, economic and other developments in a larger context.

The level of education, community interaction, culture, arts and media mainly contribute. Information and data is like crude oil … just black liquid that doesn’t get fat or get richer from hunger without converting it into by-products, industry and money, and it’s all knowledge . Just as we in the Arab world have abundant oil and raw resources, we also have an abundance of information and data and a lack of knowledge. We export crude oil, we export information, we import knowledge, and we import all finished products.

We also have an abundance of information and data and a lack of knowledge. We export crude oil, we export information, we import knowledge, and we import all finished products

This continued for several decades, during which time we were able to produce local types of knowledge at the level of culture, arts and thought. It was not exportable, but at least it covered a large part of our domestic consumption. Thanks to this knowledge, we have developed in the Arab world a certain degree of cognitive immunity to distinguish between the real and the superstitious, the patriotic and the traitor … etc., but with the current state of satiety in the quantity information transmitted and the lack of logic in successive events; We entered a knowledgeable room.

The question is not limited to the Arab world only. American writer Thomas Friedman warned in two New York Times articles about the consequences of Americans’ cognitive immunodeficiency and its implications for the country’s political future. Last April, Friedman warned that US President Donald Trump had a cognitive immunity problem to differentiate quackery and science in his stance on the issue of the Coronavirus (Covid 19), which was reflected in his risk assessment of the virus. A few days ago, the same writer warned in the same newspaper about the negative impact of Twitter and Facebook on the cognitive immunity of Americans regarding the upcoming US presidential elections, and how they have become a focus promotion and dissemination of conspiracy theories.

In the United States, there may be enough separation of powers rules, as well as universities and lobbyists, to slightly compensate for people’s cognitive immunodeficiency. In the Arab world we are facing a real problem, because there is a case of marginalization of the role of the intellectual and the thinker in the midst of political and war battles, which was reflected in the level of editing and translation , and was reflected in digital content which is closely watched by the Arab audience. The rise of layers of politicians has contributed to this; We are not saying the uneducated, but the uneducated first and foremost, and many of them reveal the level of speeches they give.

Talking about cognitive immunity can be an avenue of intellectual luxury in light of the structural problems ravaging the Arab world. Threatening her boundaries, her being and her future under the hum of cannons from here and there, but the truth is, it’s this cognitive fragility that helps in all of the above.

The declining level of education and the migration of minds from the Arab world play an unexplained role in this problem, and the current tragedy is that individual attempts to deal with this problem are not yielding significant results. For example, different families and families try to do everything in their power to ensure a good education for their children, without ensuring that they have sufficient knowledge to qualify for the judgment and enter the labor market. .

Talking about cognitive immunity can be an avenue of intellectual luxury in light of the structural problems ravaging the Arab world. Threatening her limits, her being and her future under the hum of cannons from here and there, but the truth is, it’s this cognitive fragility that contributes to all of the above. And may God have mercy on the late Algerian thinker Malek Bennabi, who coined the term “colonialism” in the forties of the last century, before most Arab countries gained independence, to reveal to us one of the factors inherent in the collective self which opens the way for the external colonizer.

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