The cultural history of Gulf societies has created a consumer culture that, far from bringing advances, has actually impeded progress in these societies. Priorities were reversed, and the consumer culture that arose during the oil boom didn’t take long to entrench.
Because money was plentiful, there was no need to create a culture of production — which calls for thinking, innovation, instilling a work ethic, organization and creativity. Gulf societies have become complacent about their sluggish local production and are happy to import everything else, including a materialistic culture of consumption.
We are slowly becoming aware of the problems this has created, and there are now numerous development plans aimed at moving toward productivity. But they have not been enough to allow us to move toward an alternative, mature and advanced culture. Many of our societies are still wrapped up in consumerism, seduced by the image it creates of itself on satellite television, and chase fashions faster than many of their counterparts in the West.
College graduates, soon after finding employment, will forget about their education and fall into the trap of materialism, claiming that building a culture of productivity is up to someone else. The generation before the oil boom was more concerned with culture and education. Now that we have all the means, books have become merely decorative items and education to most is something to be endured, not embraced. Can it be true that only hardship will make people work hard? Will we have to go back to the time of hardship to realize just how much of our lives we have squandered on acquisition and consumption?
At the dawn of the modern age only two naval powers ruled the seas, England and Spain. How then did England become the sole superpower of its time, leaving Spain with only a secondary role? Roughly, it was a result of England’s farsightedness and the effort it made to exploit its natural resource: Coal. Coal was the foundation of the Industrial Revolution. The Spanish had plenty of gold, but they used it to indulge themselves instead of turning it to advantage, and the “coal people” easily outstripped the “gold people” in the struggle for world domination. Productivity, in other words, defeated consumerism.
India’s Mahatma Gandhi followed the same principle in order to rise up against British colonialism. He boycotted British products and all foreign investment. Essentially, he said people should only eat what they plant and only wear what they make, thus harnessing local productivity and power. By doing so, the people of the Subcontinent were able to throw out the colonizers.
But what happened when we tried to boycott American products? One problem was that you must have viable products of your own before you can forsake those of others. If a society that doesn’t have a culture of productivity and doesn’t search, as other advanced nations have, for the formula to other nation’s success, copy and perfect it and perhaps even surpass it — as the Japanese did after World War II — then boycotts are doomed to fail. All they can do is produce a sense of helplessness in a citizenry suddenly deprived of carbonated beverages.
The spirit of productivity must be instilled in our children from the time they are very young — through the curriculum, teaching methods and activities. What is wrong with making school trips to the electricity company or a desalination plant, to oil refineries and wells? This will instill the basics of productivity.
Oil is not just about the economy — it is a national destiny, and therefore it must be taught as a field of knowledge in itself from a young age. In reality, intellectuals in oil-producing countries bear much of the responsibility for the consumerist crisis. How many studies have they produced that contain constructive criticism? How much literary or artistic work have they produced to stimulate the minds of others?
A nation that seeks self-sufficiency must move away from self-indulgent consumerism. We cannot expect to be freed completely from consumerism: The habit has become so ingrained. But a true effort to create social and cultural awareness, coupled with commitment from citizens to the steps they are taking would at least be a start.
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(Suraya Al-Shehry is a Saudi writer. She is based in Riyadh.)
