The Arab Awakening: offensive? - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#14767308
Does anybody else feel the term Arab Spring / Awakening could possibly undermine the actual meaning behind the uprisings?

Analysing some of the contemporary headlines from Western media, it seems as if the words "Arab Spring / Awakening" illustrates how the Arabs had finally become 'enlightened' / or literally 'awaken' to the idea of democracy and freedom in North Africa and the Middle East. Could this be evidence of orientalist biases in the media?

Just a thought I've always wanted to discuss!

Have a good week :)
#14767312
Yes, it's a joke. But the original 1938 book the Arab Awakening by George Antoninus was also fake history (the "revolt" in a desert and the birth of Arab "nationality") which portrayed fictitious awakening and renaissance.
#14778125
The Arab world Needs Sowjetstyle System with Islamic symbols, which is secular but derived from Islamic Law.

Strict Quranic sharia, the Hadiths are 300 Years later written you can smoke them, cause they are inexacter then the New Testament of the Christians 2 Generations later (excpet Barnabas Evangelium the Muslim Evangelium). According Quran a women has not to be clothed like a Ninja it is enough to clothe not like a Whore, either you value the Quran or the Hadiths higher. In the Desert is different you Need this as sunshield then in the mountains of Europa

We Need to destroy pre-islamic arab tribal law, which is the cruelst. This means we have to destroy the tribethinking and form a pan-islamic thinking and marrying, over Generations the same tribe destroys the genetics, and now looking in the stomake if male or female or we fall back in pre-islamic traditions which were Hindulike, and the Girls burried at life in Sand.

We are different for the Rest of the World is War for the Muslims is it Party

In Islamic world leads capitalism to 1% has everything the rest nothing, so we Need communism islamic-communism
#14877863
No, I think it is an awakening because they are accepting more kinds of variance in social behavior than ever before. To me, this is something that started with the industrial revolution in england when we began to move from agricultural sort of ways of living to being in cities in advanced economies. The surplus labor made us have to transfer value to new kinds of professions and technology made task completion based less on physical power and more neutral giving women more ability to compete in society. This has been a 300 year transformation whose effects are still being felt in the west and can be seen in rural resistance to the change in cultural norms in the metropolitan areas. The battlefront in the west now is in acceptance of lgbt people particularly transgender individuals, but 50 years ago it was based more on acceptance of women and racial minorities. So there seems to be a certain cultural progression that keeps occurring as time goes on. Culture dominated by masculinity/power ---> power shifts to intellectual power not physical power---> power becomes distributed more with access to greater economic freedom/education ---> power shifts to women as they become more educated and are allowed more sexual choice---> acceptance of other minorities in society. All cultures are now undergoing this perspective shift emotionally, but it will take generations to accept the change that is already in progress in the arab world where you are now seeing women with more ability to self-determine by being allowed to drive for example. This is in part taking place in the parts of the world whose economy is resource based for historical reasons more slowly because the power dynamic there has always been different as can be seen in this video:


The power dynamic is different because there has not been as much surplus, but now with capitalism making the entire world richer there is becoming more surplus so power is shifting from controlling scarce goods to education. To me, this is a sort of spiritual transformation that you see in the writings of Tielhard de Chardin and his focus on an ever expanding circle of christ-like love for all people. I view the spirit as the biochemical process that keeps us alive and that "spirit" is transforming to more and more acceptance of a different kind of reality from the one "we grew up in" as a species which was very harsh, cold, primal, and brutal in the trees when we would club one another to death. Now we are becoming transhuman and learning new ways of being that accept the greater statistical variance that comes with larger populations
#14887758
I'm not sure that I would agree with the word 'offensive'. What we've seen is an example of magical thinking by the politicians of the western democracies. Their understanding of the underlying cultures of the area was [Ed.: and remains,] minimal.

Stable governmental systems must rest upon solid cultural foundations. That also means that the culture must be reflected in the government. The North African cultures are informed by tribal ties and by their religion. There is little there to form the support required for a modern democracy.

'Nuff said.
#14888091
Oxymandias wrote:@Torus34

North Africa needs to develop legitimate bureaucracy i.e. institutions capable of providing authority, security, and structure to society and fulfilling its needs.


Sir, North African societies have existed for a long, long time. These have provided authority [Islam and tribal heads,], security [the tribe] and structure [the endurance of the religion, the tribes and the means they have provided for the settling of conflicts within the societies] for the people. It is when we of the west attempt to 'help' them become nations in the image of western European examples that mischief obtains. The result is the rise of strong men within the often artificial boundaries that have been created. In the last year or so, Egypt serves as an example. Libya is perhaps 5 years from the rise of a unifying strong man in place of the presently warring factions.

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