الخميس، 4 فبراير 2010

Superbackwardness


Hassan Ajami

We , the Arabs and Muslims , live in a state of superbackwardness. There is a big difference between backwardness and superbackwardness. The backward people are those who do not provide any useful thing to humanity, while the superbackward people are those who develop backwardness through using science , knowledge , and technology in order to promote ignorance . We are superbackward people because we reject science and logic and rely on science to enhance ignorance and inhumanity

For example, each religious sect in the Islamic and Arab world has its own media ( i.e. T.V. channels , internet sites , and newspapers etc ) , schools , and universities. And the main purpose of these institutions is to challenge and defeat the other religious sects. This is how we use science and technology for carrying out our wars against each other and in order to promote ignorance and hatred. Another example of our state of superbackwardness is the following: our modern literature ( spoken or written ) rejects logic and does not rely on any scientific foundation. Our private and public speeches as well as our published articles and books fall in contradictions , circularities , and beg the questions . This clear rejection of logic and science led us to lose our humanity. This is so because humanity lies in the possession of reasonable and logical mind. In simple terms, we lost our minds

In addition, most of our sentences lack any meaningful content. This is so because we build propositions through joining unrelated concepts such as the proposition " the number seven is married ". The main reason behind our failure to develop meaningful speeches is that we reject logic and science. Since we do not follow the principles of logic and scientific reasoning, it is natural that we will fall continuously in uttering meaningless sentences. Furthermore, we use the ideas of famous scientists and philosophers in order to defend and justify our totalitarian regimes and our civil wars. This is a direct consequence of our rejection of logic and objective thinking

In the age of superbackwardness , ignorance became the highest virtue. We are rewarded when we accept and promote ignorance. And we are punished if we speak or act against our state of ignorance. The system of superbackwardness relies on these two mechanisms. The major principle that controls our lives is that ignorance is good and rewarding. This is why we became imprisoned in our thoughts , feelings , and behavior. In fact , we are living in the graves of our grandfathers