Intellectual and social alienation in the Arab world

Contemporary man is undergoing a resounding shock of alienation under the influence of huge booms of change and transformation in various aspects of life and components of social and cultural existence. These enormous transformations of contemporary human society have been described under exciting titles such as: “post-globalization, post-modernity and post-knowledge”, namely: End titles which, in essence, describe the enormous human progress in the world. political, social, economic and technological life.

The use of the term alienation systematically dates back to the German philosopher “Hegel” who considered that alienation is the act of the individual banishing himself as an influential subject, then it is transformed into his object, therefore he is foreign to his environment, and this alienation ends only when the person identifies with his object and his goals, and by making a fixed identity belonging to him alone through another element (homeland, work, belief). He considered that there were two sides to alienation, one negative leading to isolation and the other positive leading to creativity. As for Sigmund Freud, Austrian specialist in the study of neuromedicine and founder of psychoanalysis, describing the conditions of his alienated era in the first half of the last century, as if he was describing the state of humanity today , saying, “We live in a very strange and complex time, where progress makes an eternal alliance with the trend. Barbarism and barbarism. ”

And here are the shovels of new progress, with its new mechanisms and hammers that crush contemporary man, deceive him, destroy him and destroy his moral and human meanings. The progress humanity is making today is (like yesterday) aimed at achieving profit, money, control, power, hegemony and competition. In this cycle of the tyranny of material utilitarian means over human ends, man turns into human fuel, which is burned and burned in the furnaces of contemporary or neoliberal capitalism with the elements of his strength, power and domination, and in this new liberal era of tyrant globalization, the value of all things increases and the value of man alone decreases.

Human societies are, in fact, faced with the shock of an alienating culture that aims for the transcendence of human values, and with the cycle of this devastating extension of the culture of alienation, the contemporary Arab person finds himself in a spiral of decline. unique cultural oppression characterized by the nature of complexity, depth and duality. And if the Western person lives a single foreign culture, represented in the culture of modernity, globalization and beyond, then the Arab person lives in the shadow of two foreign cultures, where he finds himself between the hammer of modernity and the anvil of traditional culture, with the capacity of this culture to practice the act of alienation and alienation.
The dominant traditional Arab culture – in its anthropological meaning – has become a unique model of backward culture, with all that cultural and intellectual backwardness means in terms of the ability to confiscate conscience and freedom and subjugate the human being. It is not paradoxical to say in this regard that this culture imposes on its affiliates the obligations of obedience, submission and abandonment, and accumulates its content What the dark past has conveyed to us, including the myths, the fanaticism, authoritarianism and illusions. In other words, traditional culture has instilled in us the values ​​of submission to the status quo, and it has been characterized by rigid fatalism, and has established the spirit of petty acceptance of what exists, and has worked to strip the individual of the spirit of initiative, and the lack of sense of responsibility, then of the sanctity of most aspects of life, and the consolidation of Salafism in the most dangerous. Its implications, and finally the intense presence of the patriarchy and the absence of critical vision.

Our traditional culture, which is supposed to safeguard human identity and dignity against the alienation of globalization, is characterized by powerlessness and puts the Arab person in a permanent negative state and an inexpressible critical coma. It is a culture of alienation par excellence, where the contemporary Arab person is characterized by passivity, a feeling of inferiority, helplessness, dependence, isolation and intolerance. It is no exaggeration to say that the Arab person, in the light of political, social and moral oppression, has been transformed into an entity emptied of his humanity in the light of this traditional culture which strips the human being. of his ability to move and go. The definitive proof of this spiritual death that we are living today is represented in the positions of the Arab peoples towards their national problems and their human destiny, while the Arab person loses his capacity to be held responsible for his problems. fateful as a natural consequence of his being under the pressure of two hostile cultures which make him incapable of participating positively in the great fateful events. .

This is what we see before our eyes today and what falls on our eyes. Under the mechanisms of global hegemony, the culture of consumption has evolved into an effective mechanism to place the Arab human being in the circle of alienation, then cannibalize his religious, ideological and intellectual convictions. Thus, the new world culture has played a major role in the destruction of the traditional structures of Arab societies and the transformation of the human being into consumer value. People who are affected by alienation from themselves and from their society, hate work and production and lose their creativity, especially the educated segment, due to the feeling that their society does not value creativity, does not not care about creative energies, and that the purpose of political power is to transform the human being into a simple machine that performs a specific function and specific job, and without Any objection after the individual is emptied of his spiritual aspects and intellectuals and that his passion is killed.

The feeling of alienation can lead to suicide, especially among creative people who cannot obey or adapt, as has happened with many names in Western and Arab countries, including the American writer ” Ernest Hemingway, who committed suicide in 1962 AD, and Lebanese poet “Khalil Hawi” in 1982. And Oscar-winning American actor “Robin Williams” in 2014 AD and others. Others are looking to regain their position by rebellion and revolution against what prevails in society.This oppression, oppression and tyranny which characterize most Arab political and social systems is one of the most important causes of disintegration and decadence The political, economic, social and religious in our Arab countries, and it constitutes a threat that threatens social unity and prevents civilized and human contact with other diverse environments.

The last interview: In his precious book “Jihad against the Cosmic Market”, the American political scientist and writer “Benjamin Barber” believes that the deconstructive effects of the world market will lead to complications and violent reactions within each culture. He adds, saying: I predict the resistance will be overcome (by annexing the T) in the end in the world market. This prediction is based on the enormous capacity of cosmic culture to overcome any narrow-mindedness that confronts it and attempts to preserve small entities.