The Middle East – The Betrayal by the Elites
An esteemed Arab League ‘grandee’ recently thundered that it was impossible for the Arab world to accept anything – ‘other’- than 21st century modern secularism: Islamism was forbidden. Egypt’s ‘coup’ (“if you wish to call it such”, against the elected Muslim Brotherhood government) was absolutely appropriate, he insisted. An Islamist government would have been intolerable, and it was perfectly ‘right’ to have ousted it – just as Iranian influence in the Arab sphere needed to be repulsed too.
He adduced no argument. It was pure emotivism (after Alasdair MacIntyre’s definition). Which is to say, nothing but an expression of preference, an articulation of attitude or feeling – with the intent to produce an affective emotional response in the audience (and it did just that). Reason then, in an emotivist environment such as the Middle East today, can never compel a solution; we simply have to hunker down and decide our subjective attitude. Moral discussion becomes at best, mere rhetorical suasion.
This, therefore entails that the grandee’s ‘moral’ assertion about the requirement for an Arab ‘21st future’, cannot be as ‘rational’ as it purports to be. It is not. It is non-rational: were all our moral arguments to be nothing other than statements of subjective preference, then any genuine attempt at rational understanding is doomed.
Such an emotive approach, given a group of sufficient diversity (there were Iranians and Arab ‘populist’ protestors attending the event) contains – only – the potential to escalate into a shouting match – or worse. Of course, discussion on these terms can never reach resolution. Lines are drawn early, and participants rush to take sides. But in taking sides, they appear to render themselves incapable of hearing the other; or, of sharing values – or even facts. Everyone feels the heat. But no one sees the light.
Well, the point here, is not so much about the merits, (or the claimed lacunae), in Islamism or the Iranian Republic. It is about a fundamental betrayal by the Arab élites of their peoples.
Modern Arab autocracies and oligarchies, in presenting themselves as being neutral, secular-rational, value-free, in their execution of pre-ordained ends (such as with the coup against President Morsi) – in truth, are simply aping western neo-liberal, market ideology – effectively foreclosing on all escape routes from the coming, crisis engulfing Middle East nations.
The problem with this approach outlined by a ‘modern 21st century’ modern grandee, is that it underplays the extent to which the most important civil and political institutions in the Arab world have been systematically undermined by those very élites who were supposed to lead and represent them.
We all need such institutions, including families, associations (religious as well as secular), and of course, the formal institutions of government. They constitute, together with their underlying legacy of moral archetypal myths and literature, the durable forms of community life. They give life meaning by assigning roles, teaching self-control, and enforcing standards. In the process, they form the character of those who participate in them.
The élite’s betrayal is represented by the extent to which institutions have been undermined, in order to cement élite hold on power, and to anesthetise popular discontents and protest movements.
The discontents at the Arab ‘system’ have been very much on view recently in Lebanon and Iraq, (together with the old Gulf resort of emotivism): An attempt to produce a particular ‘affective response’ amongst protestors –– by shifting the blame for the Arab world’s maladies onto the Iranians, via an orchestrated social media bombardment. Washington, of course has a covert hand in these projects, hoping that, in fomenting fitna (sectarian strife), Iran will be weakened and contained.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/03/02/the-middle-east-the-betrayal-by-the-elites/