4 - 10 January 2001
Issue No.515
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 4 - 10 January 2001 Issue No.515 |
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The future question
At the end of every year -- certainly at the end of every century -- the question of the future emerges in full force. It is a question of destiny, identity, consciousness and the will to participate in history making. First and foremost, it is a question of culture, which I define as "the critical presence of the future in the present." But the vision of the future is often blurred in our lives, and can even turn into its exact opposite.
Perhaps the linguistic structure of the words for future in Arabic and French (al-mustaqbal and l'avenir, respectively) suggests a passive, receptive stance that (willingly or reluctantly) accepts developments, rather than bringing them about. This implies a tendency to view reception as the principal source of knowledge, value and behaviour. The future may be conceived of as depending on a deeply rooted belief in destiny, or on the authority of traditional frames of reference. In either case, the future becomes an empty set of givens forced upon us by destiny, the past or the Other.
What the question of the future really posits is how our present might be constantly inhabited by the future in the creative sense. Is this not ultimately the meaning and value of the Palestinian Intifada? Through consciousness and sacrifice, the Intifada struggles to create a new future for Arab reality as a whole. We in turn must create our future in it through acts of solidarity and participation.
*This week's Soapbox speaker is a literary critic and writer on philosophy and politics.
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