We must all realize that cultural and intellectual diversity in any community is a necessity in this day and age of technological and economic changes. Indeed what is worth remembering is that a number of studies show the negative economic, cultural and social effects of isolation in comparison to diversity. The latter are strong because they benefit from each individual who plays his or her active role in society.
Some unfortunately see cultural diversity as threatening and dangerous to their identities and so they shield themselves from what they call “ideological invasion”. This is a concept that has been accepted and promoted by the public due to dependency on fear of “the other”. The “other” is an ideology which interprets anything differing from the accepted way of thinking as a conspiracy. Thus, these people are most likely and most often successful in convincing their passive followers to choose and turn to isolation as rejection of anything related to benefiting or learning from the other.
Isolated communities are characterized by a culture that marginalizes thought while affirming the role of imitation which is also emotionally reinforced. Persuasion is always connected to passionate letters or tearful sermons or advice masquerading as made-up stories aimed at arousing the emotions of the listener and using them ideologically to convince the person. People following this path give the mind no importance. In fact their biggest fear is represented by cause-and-effect questions that search for “hows” and “whys”. They flee all such approaches, turning to easily answered concrete questions which are suitable for most naive and ill-informed listeners. Individuals belonging to an isolated community take on shared knowledge that leads to them being almost identical in characteristics.
When it comes to the collective mind of an isolated community, it is enough to know one or two people’s minds in order to become acquainted with the rest of its people. This is the case since the individuals in it lack the characteristics of the singularity of an individual mind. They all automatically follow a unified curriculum which is dictated by an exclusive group of the “chosen ones”.
What is also encountered in an isolated community is that it is quantitative rather than qualitative. When such a community loses one of its members, the loss is a matter of space; it is materialistic. In a diverse community, the individual has his or her own intellectual characteristics as well as any other common factors shared with others. Members of a diverse community are characterized by ideological independence and are not mere replicas of each other so when the community loses a member, the loss is qualitative.
The point has to be made that diversities and differences are not simply for the sake of diversities and differences. They are not aims. Diversities and differences stem from acquired experience and knowledge and this ideological diversity is what enables individual to make a positive constructive contribution toward a better community. When I say “differences”, I mean positive correct differences and not mere rivalry or differences that spring from simply opposing anything that is not familiar or traditional. Differences must be based on thought, according to conscientious cultural values.
Our Saudi community is a community that strongly needs to accept its own cultural variety and not necessarily from the outside. There are many differences in our community when it comes to traditions, dialects, clothing, food and, most importantly, thought — which was prominent in the past and which enriched our literature and culture. Our community is in need of reviving its original characteristics of cultural diversity and variety. There was a time when having different opinions was considered to be flattering and when opposing perceptions were sources of respect. Never was any of it reason for accusations of religious infidelity nor should it be.
