Shock of Awareness..!
Dr .Salah Hashem
We often read and hear about the importance of awareness in building human societies, and without human awareness of the historical circumstances nature, crises, and sources of power….. these societies become fragile and weak, unable to face civilizational or even cultural shocks that may threaten their survival in general.
The Russian philosopher “Anton Chekhov” spoke about the nature of failed societies as societies in which every successful mind is matched by a thousand foolish minds. And every conscious word is matched by a thousand foolish words. And in which the majority of its citizens remain idiots, and they always prevail over the wise and those with sound human logic. If you see trivial topics occupying the forefront of the conversations of the hour among the intellectuals and the public, and when the trivial people take center stage, know that you are talking about failed societies.
When humanity is absent, societies become sick and awareness becomes an effective remedy for the restoration of their health. Awareness and good understanding may be an effective alternative to the most powerful weapons in societies’ wars in their political, military and economic crises, the first way to stabilize and confront all kinds of greed, whether political or material.
In the context of talking about the importance of awareness in facing material greed and waves of monopoly, especially in crises, a French story that I had read about the herd culture, which later became a proverb in many political situations that talk about herds and the absence of awareness.. And why we always compare the absent to sheep.
The story tells of a man named Panurge who was on a cruise on a ship. On the same ship was the sheep merchant “Dandono” with a flock of sheep transported for sale.. ““Dandono” was a greedy merchant who represented the absence of humanity. Panurge was determined to take revenge on the greedy merchant, so he decided to buy a sheep from the merchant at a high price.
Amidst the happiness of “Dondono” with the winning deal… Panurge” grabs the sheep by its horns in a strange scene and drags it forcefully to the side of the ship and throwing him into the sea, One of the sheep was only following the footsteps of the drowned sheep to meet its inevitable fate, to be followed by the second, third and fourth amid the trauma of the merchant. then the remaining sheep lined up in a “majestic line” to play their part in jumping.
Dandono went crazy while trying to prevent the herd from jumping into the water, but all his attempts failed. The “belief” of the sheep in what they were doing was too great to be resisted, and with a strong motive of greed, “Dandono” rushed to catch the last of the living sheep, hoping to save him from his inevitable fate. However, the “believing” sheep could not abandon the culture of the herd to which it was built, and was insisting on They drifted after the sheep, and they both fell into the water to drown together.
The expression “moutons de Panurge” from this story became a common term in the French language, meaning that the group unconsciously or voluntarily drifted behind the opinions or actions of others.. After that, the term was transferred to all human societies to confirm that it is not more dangerous to a society than His herd spirit is growing.
We often meet in our lives entire flocks of “Panurge sheep” repeating words or doing actions just because they heard or saw someone doing so. Psychologists call this phenomenon “verbal” disease, in which it is intended to repeat terms without understanding or realizing their meaning..! Consciousness is a human phenomenon that allows a person to use his mind, and if he does not use it, he allows others to use it and control it.
There is no clear agreement between writers and philosophers on the importance of awareness despite its role in building personality. Many philosophers believe that awareness may become a curse and prevent a person from enjoying his life, and that he is usually hurt because he has suffered more than his ability to bear or that he has known too much. And that sadness afflicts only those who understand more than they should or because they know too much!.
The writer “Franz Kafka” believes that excessive awareness is more dangerous for a person than drugs .. while the writer and philosopher “Emil Cioran” says that awareness is a chronic curse, a terrible disaster, and that it is our true exile, for ignorance is a homeland, and awareness is an exile. Thus, he is not much different from “Fyodor Dostoevsky,” who believes that complete awareness is a dangerous human disease!
Here, I may agree with the views of Kafka, Sioran, and Dostoevsky about the danger of awareness sometimes to human security and at other times to the stability of societies. Aristotle’s crime was that teaching people to speak, just as awareness was a major cause of al-Hallaj’s tragedy, and it is the same awareness that prompted people in Marcus’s Philippines to sell their electoral votes Because they were aware that it was the first time, and perhaps the last they saw the candidates for parliament, as they believed that the sums they received in exchange for selling their votes might be the only return from the parliamentary elections! This may be beneficial on the level of narrow individual interests, but it will definitely be a highly effective rate of demolition for the future of states, systems and human societies.
Safe awareness is one in which knowledge is as much as needed.. Whatever the danger of awareness, there is no doubt that it is a clean weapon for countries to achieve stability and development, and without it societies become easy prey for the cultural invasion that manages minds and ideas and makes them work upside down to become deadly weapons directed only towards their societies and civilizations that have been destroyed. Build its civilization over the years.
