Cognitive immunity in the Arab world

Cognitive immunity is related to the ability of individuals to form attitudes and perceptions based on a specific educational and cultural accumulation, which is the ability to place political, economic and other developments in a larger context.

The level of education, interaction with the community, culture, art and media contribute mainly to this. Information and data are like crude oil … just a black liquid that doesn’t get fat or get rich from hunger without converting it into derivatives, industry and money, and all this is knowledge. Just as we in the Arab world have an abundance of oil and crude resources, we also have an abundance of information and data and a lack of knowledge. We export crude oil, export information, import knowledge and import all finished products.

We also have an abundance of information and data and a lack of knowledge. We export crude oil, export information, import knowledge and import all finished products

This continued for several decades, during which time we were able to produce types of local knowledge at the level of culture, art and thought. It wasn’t exportable, but at least it covered most of our domestic consumption. Through this knowledge, we have developed in the Arab world a degree of cognitive immunity to distinguish between the real and the superstitious, the patriotic and the traitor … etc, but with the current state of excessive information and the lack of logic in subsequent events We entered an informed room.

The issue is not limited to the Arab world alone. American writer Thomas Friedman warned in two articles in the New York Times about the consequences of American cognitive immunodeficiency and its implications for the country’s political future. Last April, Friedman warned that US President Donald Trump has a problem with cognitive immunity to distinguish between quack and science in his stance on the Coronavirus (Covid 19) issue, which was reflected in his assessment of the risks of the virus. A few days ago, the same writer warned in the same newspaper about the negative impact of Twitter and Facebook on Americans’ cognitive immunity regarding the upcoming US presidential election and how they have become a focal point for promotion and circulation. of conspiracy theories.

In the United States, there may be enough separation rules for powers, as well as universities and lobbyists, to slightly offset people’s cognitive immunodeficiency. In the Arab world we are faced with a real problem, as there is a case of marginalization of the role of the intellectual and the thinker in the midst of political and war battles, which has been reflected in the level of publication and translation, and it is reflected in the digital content which is closely followed by the Arab audience. The rise of layers of politicians contributed to this; We do not say the ignorant, but in the first place the ignorant, and many of them reveal the level of the speeches they make.

Talking about cognitive immunity can be a path of intellectual luxury in light of the structural problems that are ravaging the Arab world. Threatening its borders, its being and its future under the buzz of cannons here and there, but the truth is that it is this cognitive fragility that helps in all of the above.

The decline in education levels and the migration of minds from the Arab world play an inexplicable role in this problem, and the current tragedy is that individual attempts to deal with this problem do not produce significant results. For example, several families and families try to do everything in their power to ensure a good education for their children, without making sure they have sufficient knowledge to qualify for judgment and to enter the job market.

Talking about cognitive immunity can be a path of intellectual luxury in light of the structural problems that are ravaging the Arab world. Threatening its borders, its being and its future under the buzz of cannons here and there, but the truth is that it is this cognitive fragility that helps in all of the above. And may God have mercy on the late Algerian thinker Malek Bennabi, who coined the term “colonialism” in the 1940s, before most Arab countries gained their independence, to reveal to us one of the factors inherent in the collective self that opens the way for the external colonizer.

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