From the Depths of Books (4): Assassination of the Mind

From the Depths of Books (4) Assassination of the Mind
The Ordeal of Arab Culture between Salafism and Dependency

14-2-2018
Book "Assassination of the Mind" in its fourth edition in 2006 by its author Dr. Burhan Ghalioun, in which the author reviews what was seething in Arab society at that time of struggles and explosions, which revealed "an open crisis", exactly as is the case in our days, whose most important manifestations are the loss of security and reassurance and the disappearance of all certainty, the abandonment of every positive stance toward reality, and the sinking into a posture of total negativity embodied in self-rejection and in the rejection of the other together; also among its prominent manifestations is the increase of positions based on reflexes, empty extremism, and disgruntlement with everything that exists and critiquing it without distinction, bewilderment and despair in the face of closed paths, the deterioration of the intellectual climate, and the decline of the bounds of rational debate, under the pressure of fundamentalist currents, and the emergence of sectarianism and tribalism.Where the fate of the countries was taken out of the hands of their own people and placed in the hands of those who show greater skill in dealing with the major powers and dominant states, and thus the recklessness of adventurers becomes bold and forceful, and in the absence of a clear vision, the conviction of the ignorant becomes a source of recognition, and the claims of the demanding and arrogant become vision and prophecy. The crisis of the Arab mind springs from the same source as the crisis of Arab action, and it is a manifestation of existence outside the self or for the non-self.The problems confronting the Arab world today cannot all be solved from the perspective of a single ideological horizon, or from an ideological horizon in general, for there is no solution to the problem of economic, industrial, and agricultural development from the horizon of Salafi or fundamentalist ideology, nor is there a solution to the legal and legislative problem from the horizon of an ideology that denies Islam or renounces it; for every development of the legal institution must be linked to the beliefs and ethics of the people, otherwise it would be divorced from reality and lacking any credibility and effect. What is required, then, is not the construction of a new ideology, but rather the change in the quality of the relationship between ideologies and the prevailing ideas and currents, and transforming it from a relationship of hostility, severance, and internal fighting into a relationship of coexistence, dialogue, exchange, and interaction. It is this change in the quality of that relationship that will lead to a gradual and radical change in the substance, function, method of operation, and development of each of the intellectual currents involved...

The author shows the Arab society's need for a creative culture (and culture according to his definition is the summary of a society's experience, its consciousness of itself and its environment encompassing all aspects of life—scientific, political, economic, spiritual, and social), teeming with disagreement, contradiction, plurality, and the removal of the dominance of a single ideological discourse that kills the possibility of the emergence and development of any opposing epistemic discourse. The author also shows the necessity of building unity based on new relations among ideologies, orientations, and currents that are genuinely differentiated and productively combative, and not identical in method, function, and aim; and this struggle enriches the culture and the society and both together..so that its foundation becomes competition and rivalry in discovery, creativity, contribution, and proving merit. As for the prevailing ideological combat discourse, it can continue and affirm its existence only by obscuring the real issues at hand, imposing prerequisites, assailing instead of discussing, accusing instead of arguing, and aggression instead of dialogue.