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EXTRACTION AND REFINEMENT OFCULTURAL RESOURCES
 by:
Dr.Ali Shariati
. As a nation and a society possesses economic resources, rich in energy, but worthles when raw, it also possesses vast cultural and spiritualresources that have accumulated throughout history. An inept andincompetant nation will sit upon such rich treasures which are capable of making people comfortable, nevertheless its people will remain ignorant,stagnant and deprived. At the present time we know of large nations inAsia and Africa that own vast and rich cultural resources, but they are being stereotyped as backward, ignorant and spiritually and morally bankrupt. There is a correspondance between the cultural and economicresources of a nation. In short, a generation looking for a way to solve itseconomic and cultural-spiritual problems and to transform its societyinto a progressive and creative one, must posses a historical and cultural awareness aw well astechnical-scientific know-how. This does not mean it should merely emulate another progressivesociety. Rather, it must posses an independant experiance, and original principles and virtues,with a new mission in moving towards its goals.In recent years the enlightened generations of Asia and Africa have come into direct contact withthe philosophical, cultural and spiritual schools of Europe. In the past (eg. in the 19th century),when an educated Asian returned from Europe, he would merely recount his memories, andwhatever he said people would accept. This was the only type of connection between Asians andEuropeans. Today however, Asian and African free-thinkers are well acquanted with Europe dueto today's educated class, mutual relations, heightening of cultural awareness, and familiaritywith various aspects of European culture. These handful of Eastern free-thinkers are self-conscious of themselves as well as their cultural and spiritual values.They have realised despite the fact that they posses great and rich cultures brimming withspirituality, philosophy, and knowledge of life, they are so 'culturally' poverty stricken (due toalienation from their roots) that they have their mouths open for any European cultural morsels.These peoples' only pride is to learn the collaquialisms,ideas, expressions of the Europeanthinkers and take them home as souveneirs. We notice that the contents have nothing to do withour miseries, pains and fate. The fact is that the Easterner suffers from hunger while theWesterner suffers from a full stomach. Therefore what the latter says does not make any sense tothe former, though in their western atmosphere they are proper and make sense. However oncethese ideas are transferred to a different atmosphere they become useless except to those wholike to show off.I have sutied existentialsim and am a bit familiar with it. I see existentialism in it's philosophicaland spiritual form, and as an art, the most splendid human consciousness in industrial Europeand the materialistic West. But unfortunately I often notice that our Asian and African free-
 
thinkers, who know nothing about their own native historical and spiritual treasures and knowonly one western language,have learned existentialism in Europe or America and imported it totheir homeland- often passing it off as a new phenomenon. When we examine the "souveneirs"we notice that what was the existentialist revolution of the 19th century in Kierkegaard's era tothe 20th century, in Sartre's and Jasper's period consists of a sort of spiritual and humanconsciousness against the materialistic order and vile and fossilizsing of consumption which has been ruling the West.Up to this point,fine, but as compared to the Eastern spiritual experiances, these are veryelementary and crude lessons. Anxiety, which has been the most basic spirit of existentialism inthe past 100 years (man's estrangement with the material world, the anxiety due to responsibilityand inability to find direction and the right way), make up the bulk of the most fundamental problems of existentialism. We see that such problems are as easy as "learning the alphabet" inEastern theosophy . They have existed in Laotse,Buddhism and Islamic theosophy long ago, wehave had rich experiances in such areas.Unfortunately for example, we notice that an Iranianfree-thinker goes to Europe without knowing anything about Islam and his own history other than those things he learned from "Mama" and "Granny" and his high school books. He studiesliterature, philosophy and art, and when he returns home, he offers us elementary concepts thatare taught in our high schools and religious seminars.For instance, this free-thinker goes to Europe and learns that Sartre talks about "Choisir" (verb inFrench,to choose,and Choix,a noun), which is our determinism and free-will in persian.Determination and free-will have always been in circulation and usage in our culture, especiallyin the philosophical,spiritual,and theosophical writings of the Islamic culture. However, sincethis free thinker was unaware of their existence before going to Europe , he thinks he is offeringsomething new!We notice that there is an exact correspondance between the economic and the spiritual fate of the East. As I mention before a nation which is incapable of utilizing it's own material resourcesremains hungary, no matter how rich it is. By the same token if a nation cannot know it's owncultural and spiritual resources and is incapable of extracting,refining, and turning them intoenergy, it will remain ignorant and backward while sitting in piles of spiritual and culturalresources. The same type of correspondance exists between the role of cultural and materialresources in the fate of a society. That is, those who are incapable of utilizing their resourceshave to extend their hands for rations from foreigners.We see that the conscious Europe, which knows us better than we know ourselves, utilizes our cultural and spiritual resources and builds new schools of thought and ideas. Since we are notworthy of a conscious utilization of our spiritual resources, our free-thinkers have to beg them,and it never dawns these free-thinkers that what they are recieving is their own raw materials.Since they were not able to utilize their own resources, they are being accused of savagery,ignorance,spiritual,moral, and material poverty.Therefore,as the East is trying to know it's own raw material resources- - learning to extractthem,showing their worth in refining and converting them to energy - in order to save itself from poverty, it should also do the same in cultural realms. By extracting and refining it's cultural
 
resources it must attain a spiritual comfort, as well as a spiritual movement and creativity. As theEast is trying to become self-sufficient and independant in the economic realm in order not toconsume European consumer goods, by utilizing the same consciousness, it must try and becomeindependant of Western spiritual products and ultimately achieve moral and spiritualindependence.It is impossible to achieve economic independance, without having achieved spiritualindependance and vice versa. These two are interdependant as well as complimentary conditions.In order to have an independant character in the material,social, and economic sphere, we mustdevelop an independant consciousness before the West, and vice versa. What should we do, andin what way?It is quite obvious. We must know that the best teacher for regaining and wresting one'sindependance and national character is the enemy (or enemies) who robbed us from our independance and national character. Therefore we must develop consciousness of how the Westhas deprived us of our cultural and spiritual resources and consequently trained a generation of Easterners who have lost the capability of utilizing their rich treasures of thought,ethics,spirit,and culture. In reality we have become estranged from these resources. We must search for thesteps that the West has taken, as well as the mathod, and the sratagems it has used to succeed andreach it's goals in the East, to such an extent that she has accused the grand East, theorigin,cradle, and the foundation of Western man's civilization and culture, of savagery, backwardness and corruption. Once we study and find the tracks through which the West hasenterd our lands, we can then retrace them and return to the origin.Instead of knowing the great African and Asian thinkers of the present century who have foundsolutions with their own national and universal consciousness, with greed and indescribableenthusiasm, we spend our energies and efforts to know people such as Brecht, Beckett, and soforth who have nothing to do with our own condition. If I were a German I would worshipBrecht, but since I am an Iranian, I cannot understand him and I do not know what he can do for me. The fact is that Brecht's prescription is not good for my pain; he has a neurological problem, but I have a stomach ache. Further, he has gone through two world wars and three centuries of machinism, but I know neither what a world war is nor machinism and bourgeoisie. Thereforehis philosophy is of no use to me. My anxiety is over fuel for winter, my future job, and thetraining of my child, while his anxiety is existential. He is asking himself, "what is my role in theworld?". He has reached a point where is secure in all aspects and now he has come to grips withhis own existence. We are still without clothing and charcoal, but he is thinking about "himself".Therefore his malaise is different than mine.In searching for a writer and thinker , we must look to those individuals whose pains,history,condition, and fate are identical to ours. I wish we knew Kateb Yassin instead of Brecht, Omar Mawloud, Omar Ozgan,Frantz Fanon, and Aime Cesaire instead of Jean Paul Sartre and Camus.Unless we know ourselves to the extent that we are familiar with the Western free-thinkers, wewill to the same extent become alienated from ourselves.Those who sincerely and honestly contaminate the Eastern free-thinkers' minds withexistential,cultural,philosophical, and social problems of the post W.W.II Western man and create
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