The two books were recently published in conjunction with the outbreak of the war on Gaza without agreement (Al Jazeera)
The fierce war on the Gaza Strip has raised a flood of critical questions and intellectual revisions on the Arab and international horizons, including those related to the behavior of Western democracies towards the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.
Nations that have emerged on the world's platforms in the position of value professorship in pleading for human rights, freedom and dignity, their leaders, elites and media have been seen crudely slipping into the trench of the genocidal army, which is committing brutal massacres transmitted around the clock via live broadcasts, practicing a flagrant denial of what is happening, and expecting restrictions on freedom of expression to the point of banning public events and mass events and banning phrases and symbols calling for freedom for Palestine even in academic spaces.
Rediscovering the world
This war has provided an opportunity to rediscover the modern world and the reality of Western democracies, and two recent books published simultaneously with the outbreak of this war, without agreement, will help to take a closer and balanced anatomical look from within the crisis of Western democracies, and to the modern human society that allows for a repetition of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and horrific war crimes as such.
The book "Rethinking Democracy" and "Critique of the World - Rethinking the Modern Human Reality", by media consultant and researcher in European and international affairs, Hossam Shaker, based in Vienna, explore the topics of dealing with a critical and insightful perspective, and the reader of the two books will not like to understand the behavior of the countries of the global foreground, and explain the contradictions of their policies and the wildness of some of their positions, as observed in the ongoing war and others.
The two books were published against an extensive series of critical pamphlets by researcher Hossam Shaker totaling 20 publications, in about 3,<> pages of small pieces that are accessible to readers, and are published by the Istanbul-based Arab Family Foundation.
Hossam Shaker's book Rethinking Democracy gives the reader unusual views of democracy and the reality of its applications in its European and Western strongholds
Deficiencies in the reality of democratic experiments
In his book Rethinking Democracy, Hossam Shaker gives the reader unusual views of democracy and the reality of its applications in its European and Western strongholds, and begins to rethink it, starting with a review of conceptual foundations such as "Is democracy the rule of the people by the people?".
The book, which consists of about 200 pages of small pieces, presents related issues such as the development of democracy and the rationalization of good governance, observing dilemmas, crises and deficiencies in the reality of democratic experiences, such as: political liquidity, the crisis of representative democracy, paths of elite selection, and the concentration of influence in Western democracies.
It is also exposed to the phenomenon of "exception to democracy", which literally makes democracy for "some of the population only" who have the privilege to vote in the ballot rounds, because of the factor of nationality or citizenship that not everyone possesses, so that a large proportion of the population of voting age in some European capitals, are excluded for this reason from democracy, and this level is expected to escalate in the coming years.
The book stands at the paradox that some ancient democracies fear the rise of democratic rule in other countries, and the dilemma of the absence of "democratization" from foreign policies, and the fact that these policies are located on the borders of democracy or in isolation from it in reality, which contributes - for example - to interpreting the positions of Western countries on the ongoing war of extermination in Gaza, as if the book issued simultaneously with it foresaw these outcomes, and paved the way for the public to understand and absorb them.
Freedom of expression
Perhaps one of the book's most interesting chapters deals with freedom of expression in European democracies, where the author shows through tireless probing the predicament of this freedom and the noose on it in certain ways, or using this freedom in a way that strikes at other values and principles. The book then examines the deterioration of some democratic environments to a culture of prohibition through a series of restrictions, prohibitions, and nibbling on gains that were previously available to the general public, in addition to the rampant authoritarianism and censorship systems in some democracies.
Despite the critical estimates and conclusions pushed by the book, the author warns against slipping into a ready-made conclusion that there is no possibility of "devising reform alternatives", at least partially, from within democracy itself, and that "the alternative does not take place in naïve choices of totalitarian authoritarian control, or in relapsing to models of authorities that are hidden under the pretext of giving the masses power."
However, the author cautions that reformist approaches should not overlook "the ability of capitalism to fill some of the voids created by the state, and that it is able to establish its presence even from the positions of civil society and non-governmental organizations, through forms of establishment, financing, co-optation, guidance, etc."
Pleadings in criticism of the world
The book "Critique of the World", which is about 180 pages, opens horizons for rethinking the modern human reality, through treatments that place aspects calculated on modernity and beyond on the morgue of criticism and scrutiny, which seeks to discover contradictions, clarify failures, explore the depths and diagnose hidden places.
In this book, researcher Hossam Shaker questions the modern human reality, or tries to try some of its experiences and manifestations, through a combination of social, historical, philosophical, cultural and psychological perspectives, without burdening the language of the book or causing the ruggedness of its texts on the reader, who may be motivated by this work to re-understand the world from new faces.
A topic related to the current event, the ongoing war of extermination against Gaza, is what is happening "outside the field of view" available to the public of modern nations. The field of vision still falls short of enabling nations that declare their allegiance to modernity to perceive the general scene and to be aware of its dimensions, circumstances and high prices in reality and morals.
As the author adds, "This field of vision is often determined by the scope of the sense of the collective self 'we'", so that the emotionally reprehensible 'other' is isolated in such a way that it no longer falls under the privileges of the collective self."
It is as if the author anticipates what happened in conjunction with the publication of the book during the Gaza war when he recounts for example, "regimes that declare their loyalty to modernity – and beyond – continue their efforts to quarantine the field of vision and prevent it from escaping outside desirable ranges, as they are keen to exclude the sensitive human being of their civilization from keeping pace with what is happening in the field of brutal behavior reserved for the parties."
Modernist imagination
In his dive into the depths of the "modernist imagination", Hossam Shaker observes the dilemmas of some modernist discourses, such as: "ignoring the balance of values, by invoking a specific value or certain values selectively and giving them primacy independently of their circumstances and without ensuring their discipline with other values related to objective contexts.
"This disorder was heavily reflected in the modernist imagination in a way that seduced the easy making of unjust judgments and the justification of rogue practices while encapsulating them in value and principle, which interacts at the levels of the individual, society, the state and above," the author says.
He adds that "the modernist imagination, taking advantage of its favorite slogans, goes beyond the fact that principles do not actually work at all, and rather are subject to restrictions and controls, some of which may confer a privilege of use that undermines the operation of the logo in some spheres of reality for reasons dictated by interests, complicity and assessments of the limits and consequences of the possible (...) One of the functional roles offered by fiction is its ability to mobilize against specific destinations if interpretive pretexts are established for it."
The behavior of traditional savagery is known to be active and initiator, but its effect in lethality and pain may not match some aspects of modern savagery.
Modern savagery
Hossam Shaker opens the file of "Modern Savagery", a qualitative pleading that draws the features of a methodology that distinguishes between traditional and modern models of savagery. In this regard, the author states, for example, that "modern savagery is keen to create a bridge between the starting point and the target point, it may operate through a technical intermediary (...) or through a human intermediary provided by proxy war, in which third parties achieve interests envisaged by war sponsors who avoid appearing on the ground."
On this basis, "modern savagery does not operate according to the first-order equation that is customary in the tradition of primitive savagery, or traditional systems of savagery (...) Modern savagery resorts to complex equations and the distribution of roles while manipulating the constant and directing the variable, seizing the opportunities and variables of the international system, and the priorities of its discourse to serve the intended purposes."
The book then reveals an unremarkable aspect of "modern savagery" – "reluctance to act." While traditional savagery behavior is known as "active and initiator, its lethality and pain may not be comparable to some modern savagery based on a failure to do what principled obligations and moral responsibilities dictate."
Perhaps this idea in particular gains double weight in reassessing Western policies in the position on the war of extermination in Gaza, because although it did not collude with this war, it did not use its proven influence in the international community that qualifies it to curb the war and stop it immediately.
The author summarizes the presentation of this pattern of "passive savagery" in the following example, which serves to measure broader policies and attitudes against it: "If a ship sailing at sea does not intervene to rescue a boat that is about to sink, simply because it is carrying a crowd of wretched people who have sailed towards a delusional earthly paradise, the piles of corpses that the waves will throw ashore will continue to bear witness to this negative effect of savagery, which does its heinous act of reluctance rather than courage."
Source : Al Jazeera