Promoting ignorance
an article by the jordanian writer abdul razzaq bani hani appeared on the internet about the lecture he attended in 1976 about ‘science of ignorance’. “i did not believe what i heard,” he said, “until i met an american friend working for the rand corporation, who told me that there are some western governments which specialize in industrializing ignorance and then market it on our planet.” he added, those who consume ignorance, according to his friend are the poor, social and religious minorities, municipal w o r k e r s , rural people, farm w o r k e r s , m i l i t a r y personnel, s c h o o l t e a c h e r s and university professors, who form almost 90% of the population from most countries. the second category is religious people and those who have the responsibility infusing ignorance into as many people as possible. the ‘fools’ make the third category — fools who are in government service in poor countries and technocrats who advise decision-makers in their countries. they are trained to promote ignorance and justify it under the name of theory and science concerned with political and economic affairs, whose tasks are limited to spreading the spirit of despair in the heart of decisionmakers about the impossibility of reform and make them lie to the public and instill these lies in their minds as facts which they must defend and so on. although many believe that this talk is true, its contradictions lead me to say the opposite, but the reactions that i have received from many, especially those who hold phd degrees, have led me to doubt my position and believe that there is already a systematic movement in our societies to promote ignorance, because our people are like that. the friend said he opposes the use of foreign expertise, and that it is regrettable to bring foreign football coaches, as if there is no one in kuwait who can do this job, but my friend forgets that football is a huge international art and industry that generates billions for the owners of football clubs. so it is not a shame to hire foreign coaches. the real madrid football club, for example and dozens of other clubs, have hired a french coach of algerian origin to train one of the greatest spanish teams. even the uk, the home of banking industry, did not hesitate to appoint a canadian as governor of the bank of england, the most sensitive position in the world of finance and economics. my question to those who oppose me: what do they do, for example, if they have a serious illness? will they resort to the best doctors of the world, of any nationality, or will they go to the doctor of their own country whatever the sickness. the answer is well-known. therefore, why don’t we want our homeland for ourselves? the interesting thing is that all those who are jealous about the foreigners and want to ‘kuwaitize’ jobs do not have the slightest desire or interest to replace ‘foreigners’, and work as nurses, barbers, butchers, cleaners, guards, retailers, even imams, muezzins or take thousands of other technical and practical jobs. these people offer solutions as if they are experts and specialists but when it comes to doing the job although they feel confident, they often do not know how to go about their business. we conclude our article by saying in the event there are western governments which are working to promote ignorance in our societies, we ask them to save their money.
