"The mass popular revolts in Tunisia and Egypt and the uprisings shaking Bahrain and Libya at the moment are contributing to sinking the culturalist mythologies of this intellectually exhausted generation of militants turned into detached, sour commentators. Not all wines age well. One also hopes that these world-historical events will contribute to overcoming the simplistic binary logic of interpretation which have dominated public discourse on opposite sides of the political spectrum for so long: external causes vs. internal ones, imperialism and colonialism vs. Islam, political logics vs. cultural ones. The recent popular uprisings have contributed to the disintegration of what now became the old culturalist myth."
—Fadi Bardawil writes that the past two months show that Arab society is not what anyone thought it was. The dictatorships, the Western analysts, the former revolutionaries that make up the aging Arab intelligentsia—all wrong. Time for them all to fade away. Meanwhile, yesterday's protests in Benghazi alone are estimated to have left 60 dead and hundreds injured.
THANK YOU. If any hypothesis has been as thoroughly proven over the past few decades as "middle east 'experts' have no fucking idea what they are talking about," I'd like to know what it is.
I like to think "Diet Dr. Pepper tastes more like regular Dr. Pepper" is a hypothesis that's been more or less locked down. I would also say "conservatives are assholes" has been thoroughly proven, although that's less a hypothesis than a straight-up postulate.
"Middle East Experts" do know what they are talking about, but they are paid to push a certain agenda. Usually the one promoting the most weapons sales. It is a very lucrative racket to be paid to tell the American people "objectively" what the government wants them to believe.
Whoa, so despite all the propaganda fed to the American public from our media and Zionist financed "think" tanks in Washington, it turns out that Arabs just might actually be human beings after all? Who knew?
I might be misunderstanding what is meant by "political logics vs. cultural ones," but it seems like nothing we've seen so far stands in opposition to this idea. Mass uprisings are always going to be pretty much removed from political logics. People just need to get out in the street and stay angry. It's what happens after the government steps down that you'd expect political logics to emerge, yes? Or did I mistranslate the academy speak that Fadi was throwing down?
I know several people fifty-years old and older who've devoted their entire professional lives to studying what Mr. Bry would appear to construe as the "Arab world" and "Middle East politics," and so far not one has ventured, publicly or privately, any definition whatsoever of what these "uprisings" might mean, individually or collectively.
I'm also puzzled by Mr. Bry's seemingly un-ironic parroting of the terms "Arab society" and "aging Arab intelligentsia," as if they described known and measurable quantities, while at the same time criticizing others for their perceived or actual presumptuousness.
His carping in this way is all the more mysterious when we consider that at least three of the "Arab societies" at issue have very large minorities that don't identify themselves as "Arab" in any way at all.
a teacher from wisconsin responded to abe's weekend update with a 10,000+ number. i drank a mimosa to celebrate.
*disclaimer~i would have had a mimosa ennywayz*
Forgive me if I'm using some terms, wrong, Flight of the Angry Spoon. Are there better ones? I am far from an expert on this stuff. I'm trying to learn more. I read an interesting article, and I thought to share it. (And I liked how it reminded me of the lyrics to the Who's "Substitute.") I didn't mean to suggest anything about measurable quantities and I don't mean to be carping. These are major and important events we're watching in the world, and—as Bardawil points out (yes, with lots of long words and academy speak)—it seems that the thing coming clearest about them, what we should take from this moving forward, is that a lot what we've been hearing for a long time, a lot of what has been written and accepted as wisdom, doesn't hold much water. I especially like the attack on binary logic—that which is always so attractive in its simplicity, and so often fails us.
We should all have more humility when talking about this stuff, not less. If I came off the other way, I'm sorry.
For everyone commenting that this is a brutal takedown of "middle eastern experts", it's really not. There are a lot of generalities being thrown around this piece, which I guess is par for the course in a blog post.
Sure there's embarrassment in the Western intelligence and academic community, but the same people in the Middle Eastern intelligence and academic communities failed to anticipate these events too. You can't reliably and specifically anticipate a popular uprising.
And his last swipe proclaiming the decline of European culture and values, and the "crises" in their Democracies is downright weird, if not outright prejudiced. The Arab people are somehow mystically resistant to any analysis, and those who perform it are perpetuating structures of thought that are supposed to paralyze the Arab people. And yet he's able to perform the same analysis comprised of hysterical notions (i.e. the "crises in European democracies"), anger towards the "European elite", and vague notions of declining cultural mythologies.
Ironically, that is PRECISELY what he complains about European/American scholars doing to the Arab world. He's LITERALLY doing that same thing in reverse. It's a far cry from "denying binary logic" to just reverse what's happening. That's actually the definition of binary logic.
THANK YOU. If any hypothesis has been as thoroughly proven over the past few decades as "middle east 'experts' have no fucking idea what they are talking about," I'd like to know what it is.
I like to think "Diet Dr. Pepper tastes more like regular Dr. Pepper" is a hypothesis that's been more or less locked down. I would also say "conservatives are assholes" has been thoroughly proven, although that's less a hypothesis than a straight-up postulate.
"Middle East Experts" do know what they are talking about, but they are paid to push a certain agenda. Usually the one promoting the most weapons sales. It is a very lucrative racket to be paid to tell the American people "objectively" what the government wants them to believe.
I would rather believe that they are stupid than evil.
Whoa, so despite all the propaganda fed to the American public from our media and Zionist financed "think" tanks in Washington, it turns out that Arabs just might actually be human beings after all? Who knew?
i can use big words 2, watch me now
jamahiriya
Have you actually seen the movie?
I might be misunderstanding what is meant by "political logics vs. cultural ones," but it seems like nothing we've seen so far stands in opposition to this idea. Mass uprisings are always going to be pretty much removed from political logics. People just need to get out in the street and stay angry. It's what happens after the government steps down that you'd expect political logics to emerge, yes? Or did I mistranslate the academy speak that Fadi was throwing down?
When did tolerance, equality and liberty get to be "European founding myths"? I seem to remember a part about being suckled by a she-wolf.
I know several people fifty-years old and older who've devoted their entire professional lives to studying what Mr. Bry would appear to construe as the "Arab world" and "Middle East politics," and so far not one has ventured, publicly or privately, any definition whatsoever of what these "uprisings" might mean, individually or collectively.
I'm also puzzled by Mr. Bry's seemingly un-ironic parroting of the terms "Arab society" and "aging Arab intelligentsia," as if they described known and measurable quantities, while at the same time criticizing others for their perceived or actual presumptuousness.
His carping in this way is all the more mysterious when we consider that at least three of the "Arab societies" at issue have very large minorities that don't identify themselves as "Arab" in any way at all.
I had no idea we were so close to five digits. Did we pass that point already, and I missed it?
a teacher from wisconsin responded to abe's weekend update with a 10,000+ number. i drank a mimosa to celebrate.
*disclaimer~i would have had a mimosa ennywayz*
Forgive me if I'm using some terms, wrong, Flight of the Angry Spoon. Are there better ones? I am far from an expert on this stuff. I'm trying to learn more. I read an interesting article, and I thought to share it. (And I liked how it reminded me of the lyrics to the Who's "Substitute.") I didn't mean to suggest anything about measurable quantities and I don't mean to be carping. These are major and important events we're watching in the world, and—as Bardawil points out (yes, with lots of long words and academy speak)—it seems that the thing coming clearest about them, what we should take from this moving forward, is that a lot what we've been hearing for a long time, a lot of what has been written and accepted as wisdom, doesn't hold much water. I especially like the attack on binary logic—that which is always so attractive in its simplicity, and so often fails us.
We should all have more humility when talking about this stuff, not less. If I came off the other way, I'm sorry.
That's what you get for not being sarcastic enough, "Mr. Bry".
For everyone commenting that this is a brutal takedown of "middle eastern experts", it's really not. There are a lot of generalities being thrown around this piece, which I guess is par for the course in a blog post.
Sure there's embarrassment in the Western intelligence and academic community, but the same people in the Middle Eastern intelligence and academic communities failed to anticipate these events too. You can't reliably and specifically anticipate a popular uprising.
And his last swipe proclaiming the decline of European culture and values, and the "crises" in their Democracies is downright weird, if not outright prejudiced. The Arab people are somehow mystically resistant to any analysis, and those who perform it are perpetuating structures of thought that are supposed to paralyze the Arab people. And yet he's able to perform the same analysis comprised of hysterical notions (i.e. the "crises in European democracies"), anger towards the "European elite", and vague notions of declining cultural mythologies.
Ironically, that is PRECISELY what he complains about European/American scholars doing to the Arab world. He's LITERALLY doing that same thing in reverse. It's a far cry from "denying binary logic" to just reverse what's happening. That's actually the definition of binary logic.