Civilized hibernation By Hossam Badrawi

Civilized hibernation
By
Hossam Badrawi
The difference between sleep and hibernation lies in the physiological nature, duration, and vital goals of each. Sleep is defined as a daily, periodic state that a living organism enters to restore physical and mental activity.

Sleep occurs regularly and automatically, and includes multiple stages (light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid eye movement sleep).

As for hibernation, it is a long-term state of decreased activity that the organism enters in harsh environmental conditions such as cold or food shortages that may last for weeks or months, adapting to harsh environmental conditions.

In the future, this may happen voluntarily, as in science fiction films, or as it may have happened in the past in myths and stories such as the People of the Cave and others.

That is, sleep is a necessary daily process to regulate the functions of the body and brain, while hibernation is a survival strategy used by some living organisms to adapt to harsh environments

that requires saving energy for long periods..

Sleep is considered a change in the state of consciousness and not a loss of it, as in the case of Anesthesia or coma. We spend about a third of our lives asleep, and many complex activities occur during sleep at the level of the brain and body in general. Some vital functions are more active during sleep, and in the language of the mobile phone that humans invented, it is as if it is a stage that the human body needs to charge its battery and energies, and during which some functions are downloaded and digital programs are renewed in the brain, liver, tissues, cells, etc.

In hibernation, all vital functions that stagnate without renewal or activity reside.

All of this happens to individuals, and science monitors it, and the question here is can this happen to groups, peoples, and nations?

A nation’s failure to realize an imminent danger despite its clarity and everyone’s recognition of it can be described in a metaphorical concept close to “collective sleep”.

In this context, collective sleep does not refer to a biological or physiological state, but to a collective mental state of negligence or shared disregard for a clear and dangerous fact, but for a period of time in which the nation returns to wakefulness. But if the period is prolonged and extended, then describing it as hibernation may be closer to the truth.

The characteristics that make this description appropriate are collective indifference. Just as sleepers sink into a state of unconsciousness of the outside world, a nation can sink into a state of collective oblivion towards danger.

Sleep usually comes in comfortable conditions, and the metaphorical “collective sleep” may also result from a false sense of security or reliance on others to bear responsibility.

In “collective sleep,” a nation may be under the influence of psychological, political, or media pressures that make it unable to face reality, despite its individuals’ awareness of the danger on an individual level.

Mass hypnosis can also put people in a state of shared belief in a certain reality. A nation may be exposed to influences that make it convince itself that things are under control or that the danger is far away.

There are rational and scientific reasons for the metaphorical “collective sleep,” including the deliberate disregard for dangers. Individuals or institutions may avoid facing the painful reality because acknowledging it requires painful changes or strenuous efforts, the most important of which are: Lack of conscious leadership because the absence of wise leadership capable of directing the nation towards recognizing and addressing risks is one of the foundations of success because leadership is the mind of the nation.

The media or misleading propaganda contributes to diverting attention from real dangers and preoccupying people with trivial matters. Science says that when crises become recurring, people may get used to them and become indifferent to their risks.

What I am describing here is closer to slumber than sleep, as the literary and philosophical description of the state of collective negligence is considered an element of “civilizational hibernation”, where the nation is in a state of intellectual and emotional stagnation, despite living amidst clear signs of deterioration or danger. This concept is linked to the loss of the collective will to bring about change or resistance, which leads to disastrous results if this state is not broken.

A nation that lives in collective slumber does not open its eyes despite repeated warning cries, and does not rise up despite the shaking of the ground under its feet.

Civilizational hibernation is a profound concept linked to the state of stagnation and decline that afflicts a society or nation, leading to the disruption of its intellectual and creative capabilities, and the decline of its role in global influence or achieving progress. This hibernation can be the result of multiple factors, some internal and some external, and in all cases it is considered a “collective civilizational sleep” in which collective awareness of the responsibilities of renaissance and the dangers of collapse is absent.

There are dimensions to civilizational hibernation, the most important of which is the intellectual dimension with the absence of intellectual innovation and the prevalence of tradition or intellectual stagnation.
The most powerful of these is the weakness of educational and scientific research institutions, which limits the production of knowledge.

This is accompanied by the spread of superstition and unscientific concepts that weaken critical thinking.

Social cohesion is weakened by class or sectarian conflicts and the spread of a culture of surrender and submission instead of a culture of change and responsibility and the decline of positive values ​​such as teamwork and creativity.

There is a political dimension to civilizational hibernation, which is the tyranny of ruling regimes and the marginalization of the role of peoples in decision-making and the absence of strategic plans and future visions among leaders with a focus on individual or factional interests at the expense of public interests.

My words do not ignore the economic dimension, which is gradually being made a way of life, which is reliance on a consumerist economic model instead of production and creativity. In the absence of economic justice, this leads to increasing poverty and inequality. The weakness of economic independence, excessive dependence on external powers and debts are the reason for nations to remain in a permanent cultural slumber. I add with faith that the deterioration of cultural identity due to cultural alienation or intellectual isolation and the weak role of arts and literature in expressing societal issues, and the spread of triviality and the culture of entertainment at the expense of purposeful culture is a common pattern for nations to remain in a deep slumber.

The reasons for cultural hibernation can be overcome, in my view, because many of them are internal reasons that are understood by those who have not yet slept and have resisted hibernation.

The features of a nation in a state of cultural hibernation are summarized in the absence of major goals, as there is no clear vision for the future or national goals that motivate peoples to work together.

The nation loses its ability to influence global and regional issues or leadership in scientific and cultural fields.

I add that preoccupation with the past and focusing on past achievements without working to build the present and future.

When interaction with variables weakens and the nation becomes unable to adapt to technological, economic or political changes, cultural hibernation is established.

One of the results of cultural hibernation is the loss of international status and the nation’s decline on the global stage, becoming vulnerable to hegemony or exploitation.

One of the results of cultural hibernation is the continuation of internal decline, as social, economic and political crises worsen, and there is a loss of confidence in the future and the spread of frustration and despair among individuals, which deepens stagnation.

I am a man of initiative and optimism by nature, mind and experience, and I know that the Egyptian nation, from within the state of Arab hibernation, is qualified To wake everyone up, how can the nation wake up?

There are historical examples of cultural hibernation, such as Europe in the Middle Ages, which suffered from a state of scientific and intellectual stagnation due to the control of the Church and its intellectual stagnation, but it emerged from this hibernation with the Renaissance, which revived philosophy, science, and the arts and emerged from the tyranny of absolute rule.

Likewise, the Islamic world entered into ages of decline after a golden age of Islamic civilization, in which nations declined due to political corruption, internal conflicts, and sectarian wars, and there are still those who call for the caliphate, which in our era is a single-authority system without circulation in the name of God.

Japan suffered from long isolation and economic and intellectual decline, but it quickly rose from its hibernation after adopting reform policies in the Meiji era (1868).

Cultural hibernation is not an inevitable fate; rather, it is a stage that can be overcome with awareness, will, and hard work.

Awakening from hibernation begins with a deep understanding of the causes, identifying weaknesses, and then mobilizing individual and collective energies to build a new future. Every nation has the ingredients for renaissance if it is able to get rid of its negligence and realize that change begins from within before it is imposed from without. I see Egypt as qualified and capable, with its youth, greatness, history and present, to lead a reawakening for the entire Middle East, and even Africa. We must not underestimate the capabilities of our children and youth. Let us pave the way for them and not stand as an obstacle to their creativity by suppressing their freedoms. Freedom and justice within the framework of a non-selective law is the way.