The culture of totalitarianism in us, and our regimes [Archives:2004/775/Viewpoint]

Editor
There is a famous saying in Arabic that goes “Those who come to rule you, are a sample of you”. With the passing of each day, I become more convinced of the truth of this saying.
It is no longer a surprise, to see that the way Arab regimes think is no different to the way the average Arab citizen does. It is in some areas so identical, to the degree I begin to think that perhaps the ruling president may even be better than many others.
Arab culture over the last half-century, or even more, has been based on the dominance of one person or family.
On a personal level, as an Editor-in-Chief and a publisher, I suffer from this mentality quite regularly. For example, when a person comes to request advertising rates, he first tries to go to the top boss – me in this case – and I have to forward him on to the marketing department. What this person thinks is that I am in total control of all issues related to advertising, especially the rates, so he attempts to approach me for a discount or a better price – bypassing all else.
It is a pity that this way of thinking had taken us from the path of institutionalization, to the path of individualization. For many Arabs, a regime is based on an individual, but for them, so is a company, a school, a newspaper, or even a government. In other words, many Arabs think that everything culminates in the decision of one man with absolute authority.
Recently, a friend of mine told me about a meeting between an Arab President and the President of the United States. He told me that he concluded after he attended the meeting, that Arab leaders still think that George Bush is the ultimate and only person to take decisions regarding oil deals, donations, financial support, etc. Those Arab Presidents may compare Bush to themselves in terms of power and dominance, but they tend to forget, or may not know from the start, that Bush is merely a President who cannot act without the support of the Senate and other bodies that need to support him in a vote. For them, it is only a matter of going back and issuing a Presidential decree regarding anything they choose, even in changing the name of the country. But for other developed countries, there are institutions which limit the control of any one person over the rest.
Hence, I concluded that in order to change the way our regimes think and act, we also need to change the culture of a whole generation.
I suspect it could happen for the elder generation, but it is wiser perhaps to start with the younger ones. We should teach them in school that it is important to share opinions, to consult, and not to take unilateral decisions.
In order to have deeply rooted cultural change, we need to start implementing a long-term strategy that may take decades to be successful.
But, we should at least start somewhere, and perhaps our children are a good starting point.
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