Anyone following the Arab media today, whether written or visual, will quickly realize that we Arabs have a very serious problem. The problem is that we have an almost pathological aversion to accepting any responsibility for our present condition. Never before have we been so weak or irrelevant. We blame all and sundry for this. It is a Zionist plot or an American plan or, an increasingly popular excuse this, the repressive regimes who rule most Arab countries. A stranger to the Arab world who was listening to us would come to believe that we are innocent victims of international hatred and contempt.
This suits us very well for it absolves us of any and all responsibility for our own problems and the necessity for any action on our part to address them.
The constant and desperate search by the Arabs for a superman, a hero who will rise up and lead them to glory such as Nasser or — until recently — Saddam are symptoms of this serious illness. For it is upon the shoulders of such men that the Arabs want to lay responsibility. If these men succeed then well and good, but if they fail, then the Arabs can easily disown them and wash their collective hands of them. They can then continue to moan and wail about how they are never given a chance.
I am reminded of a scene often repeated in the Arab world where two Arabs are having a fight and one of them suddenly grabs a bystander and clutching him cries, “Let me go! Let me at him and I will rend him limb from limb!” Of course this ridiculous behavior is just for show and he will probably do nothing. The Arabs are constantly crying “Let me at him!” while calmly sitting down to play cards or watch Star Academy.
You see, dear readers, the Arabs are perfectly satisfied with their situation. We lack so much confidence in ourselves and have such a fear of failure that we would rather find people and things to blame instead of taking our destiny in our hands and facing our problems. We would rather live like dogs instead of risking the possibility of dying like lions.
