Mirrors of the Mirage: Deconstructing Arab political consciousness

There is a beautiful word in the English language that unfortunately has no direct equivalent in our Arabic language. This word in the noun form is (disillusionment), and in the adjective form (disillusioned), and it means in the best possible direct translation: liberation from illusion. Upon closer examination, the translation of the word reveals that this desired liberation does not happen in the blink of an eye or in an instant; rather, it is primarily dependent on the occurrence of a long-term "process," whose ignition is contingent upon taking an initiating action, followed by certain resistance that creates a conflict. These four pillars of the process—the action, resistance, conflict, and liberation—are the core of every human progress, and indeed they are the law of human civilization as a whole. The beginnings of this process usually start with cognitive anxiety followed by fertile doubt, then pass through a stage of thinking and questioning, which is succeeded by research, reading, and the interaction of the mind with ideas, until finally, a ray of light emerges from the darkness, freeing the dazzling light of truth, which passes with confidence and strength like a sharp blade, freeing the observer from the lingering illusion. Author: Nael Shama Number of pages: 328