How does the global economy function? Is it true that a bunch of multi billionaires are pulling the strings of the world economy from behind the scenes, controlling the media and fomenting wars in order to become richer? What is the unvoiced agenda of the CIA, Freemasons and the elders of Zion? All of these aforementioned questions push a large number of people to strongly become obsessed with conspiracy theories, which to them amount to a scapegoat, one used whenever something goes wrong with us, or we fail to achieve something. This has been for a long time one of the most controversial questions in the Arab world. Honestly speaking, I am not the right person to answer the aforementioned questions. Nevertheless, I have a point of view regarding “Arabs and conspiracy theories”, one that might enlighten the readers.
A conspiracy theory is the belief “that an unpleasant event or situation is the result of a secret plan made by powerful people or organizations,” according to the Cambridge Advanced Dictionary. To me, the question of conspiracy theories in the Arab world is of a great importance since it is taken as a pretext by Arabs for any failure, keeping them in their backwardness, and consequently leaving them staying at the tail of the list. As a matter of fact, whenever the one tries to bring forth real reasons behind the progress of the West and the deterioration of the East, voices rise up arguing that there is an enemy, one that is successfully scheming demonic and secret hindrances to prevent us from moving forward; and we, therefore, remain undeveloped.
Because this chorus has been reiterated for ages, scapegoating the west has become a canny mean in the hands of some leaders who rule with paranoia and fear. These rulers, as a result, take decisions against the choice of the masses for the sake of the supreme interest of the nation, which turns out serving only their benefits instead.
And even if we suppose that that a super enemy is conspiring against us, this should be a positive motive for us to do our best in a bet not to let our enemy accomplish his goals, not the opposite. In fact, what we must be fully aware of is that tat we are living in a world, which is downright rough, competitive and complicated with interwoven relations and benefits. Once we quit the race, we shall be lagging behind the competitors whose definite aim is to push us to give in and never think in starting the the race again.
Concisely, some wise voices see this matter from another lens. They do not deny the existence of a conspiracy, but believe it is not our real enemy. They rather believe that fear, ignorance, lack of strong willingness to make a difference and readiness to sacrifice for the sake of our posterity are the juggernaut enemy. The truth is it is quite easy to find thousands of excuses to feel relieved, yet it is hard enough to stop blaming darkness and light a kindle.
