Intellectuals, soldiers, and thieves in the glorious July 23 state!

July 23, 1952 Revolution Command Council (social media sites)

The situation of Egyptian intellectuals has become neither an enemy nor a friend, and “writers” have turned into mere “scribes” in the government cabinet.

Whoever tried to be a writer was marginalized, and assassinated morally and materially. There are many examples, and many victims, since “July 23, 1952,” which ended - officially and has remained politically and culturally in its manifestations until today - on October 6, 1981, with the assassination of “Free Officer, Council Member.” “Leadership” Anwar Sadat, at the hands of the “Islamic ally,” the “faithful president” who opened the prisons, took out the “Islamists,” and made them enjoy freedom. They killed him as an “infidel,” and he was the president who read the Qur’an and performed prayers on time.

An army of intellectuals

The story of intellectuals with the “July 23” state is complex. It begins with Fathi Radwan, a lawyer, journalist and member of the old “National Party” - the party of Mustafa Kamel and Mohamed Farid - accepting the position of Minister of National Guidance. It was a “propaganda” ministry for the nascent military state, and among its departments were , Arts Authority, and the interest was cancelled.

Fathi Radwan left the government, and Tharwat Okasha, an officer in the armored cavalry, came. He was an intellectual, loved writing and translating, and had two ideas: one in which he was influenced by the “Yugoslavia” experience, and the other in which he was influenced by American and Soviet intelligence.

As for the Yugoslav idea, it is the “Culture Palaces Authority,” which is the body responsible for the “army of intellectuals” in cities and villages.

The American-Soviet idea is to “create an army of thinkers and creators” whose mission will be “to think and inject visions” that will prolong the life of the regime.

The symbols of this army were university professors and researchers in the industrial and agricultural fields, and everyone was subject to the General Investigations Department (State Security) and General Intelligence.

Because the “July 23” state did not believe in the masses, nor did they trust them. It only used them, employed them, and made them the popular “seal of slogan.”

This expansion in employing “crews of idea producers” required outlets and channels into which the “army of intellectuals” could pour its intellectual and creative production. The appropriate outlets for the time - the fifties and sixties of the twentieth century - were radio, cultural magazines, and television. “It was said about him at the time that he was born a giant!”

These outlets are divided into “financial grades.” This “novelist,” for example, has a good, useful product, so his “job grade” is higher than others, and consequently his financial dues are greater, and the way he delivers his financial dues takes the form of a “radio series,” where His novels are turned into a series broadcast on the radio, and he receives a “reward” from the radio treasury, which was of great importance in shaping public opinion and the collective conscience of the masses.

Monopoly of positions

This “journalist” has the ability to inject ideas and visions, and therefore deserves to sit above the seat of “editor-in-chief,” and this seat was controlled by the “security services” after 1960, which was the year the press institutions were transformed into a government facility, headed by a senior officer in the government. "Press Investigations", which represents one of the departments of the "General Investigations" apparatus, which is a "terror" and moral destruction apparatus, whose officers were trained by American intelligence officers in training courses they obtained in Washington in the 1950s.

These are the ones who took charge of destroying the "communists who were arrested on New Year's Eve 1959." The "military" who monopolized the position of editor-in-chief and the position of "novelist" was "Youssef Al-Sibai", a member of the "Free Officers" organization - the cavalry branch. He held major journalistic positions, and his novels were turned into films, the most famous of which was “Return My Heart,” which became an icon of the “Glorious July 23” state.

When the communists detained in the "Al-Mahariq Detention Center" in Western Sahara found that they had been referred for political retirement, they decided to establish a "cultural institute" in the prison, in which the communists learned from the talented people the art of journalistic production, the art of theater, and the art of singing.

These were joined to the regime's "intellectual army", following the reconciliation that took place between the Communists and Abdel Nasser in 1964. The Communists gained freedom, dissolved the "Communist Party", and the party leadership asked them to come to the headquarters of the "Socialist Union" and join it, which was the ruling party at the time.

The senior leaders of the “defunct” Communist Party were placed in press institutions and the Ministry of Culture, and “cultural corruption” was legalized. The regular intellectual, or the “agents intellectual,” received financial rewards from the newspaper, radio, and magazine affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, and was then given the state’s incentive or appreciation award. According to his activity, sincerity, and the strength of the “investigative reports” that he submits to the security apparatus charged with monitoring this or that sector.

The scene became strange. It made the intellectual a “military” and made the “military” issue fatwas on culture, media, and the arts, and teach people the meaning of patriotism, as it defends the land, carries weapons, and is proficient in the profession of “killing” on battlefields.

To these was added another segment, the segment of “thieves” or thieves, who plunder public money in the name of “cultural work,” and the Ministry of Culture and its sister Ministry of Information were transformed into ministries of “organized plunder” of public money.

Beggar intellectuals

The most dangerous episode was the "Mubarak" episode, which closed the arc of "Glorious July 23", and lasted for thirty years, and summoned from the warehouses - Nasserist and Sadatist - all the leaders and minds who had been raised in the arms of the traditional revolutionary Nasserist and Sadatist "army of thought" as well. , so that it can confront the armed Islamic anger that Egypt witnessed in the eighties and nineties of the twentieth century.

For years, I asked people this question: “Are you with the secular state or with the religious state?”

Translating this question into reality created two teams: the team of “the fold of the Ministry of Culture,” and the team of “Islamic groups and the Brotherhood.” What is strange is that the communists sided with “Mubarak’s circle,” and considered themselves to be on a sacred mission, and saw that “standing with Mubarak” was “standing with” Democracy, secularism and patriotism.”

The model of the "independent intellectual, who must defend freedom, justice, and noble values" ended, and the situation remains - to this day - and the Egyptian intellectuals forgot the word "independence" and turned into "peddlers" knocking on the doors of "cooked houses" and begging for "a meal." And they sell their minds and pens to whoever pays, according to what Najib Sorour said: “And the caravans of the hungry wander from sidewalk to sidewalk, searching for a loaf of bread.”

The intellectual is no longer a voice of conscience, and the intellectual is no longer the conscience of the homeland and the nation. This perception has ended, and thanks go to the “July 23” state, which made the “intellectual” an employee who receives his salary in exchange for selling his pen, thought, and mind. This led to the current scene, the scene of the general death of intellectuals, and the imbalance Concepts and loss of boundaries.

The intellectuals who rejected “Camp David,” rejected Israel’s participation in the Cairo Book Fair, and organized “demonstrations” in support of the Palestinian cause, are busy these days with awards, honors, travel, grants, and donations, and the Palestinian resistance faces the armies of America and Europe alone.

The intellectuals did nothing.

The only one who cried and supported the resistance and called for victory and strength in his prayers was the “ordinary citizen,” whom the intellectuals look down upon and consider to be the least aware and the lowest-minded. He is the most humane and noblest of all the intellectuals in the air-conditioned rooms and equipped studios.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.