Rana Magdy. Public Domain. To understand how power functions,
one needs to examine how it penetrates and controls the daily lives of the
citizenry on the micro rather than macro level.
Of course, there are common indicators of
how repressive a society is, such as freedom of the press, treatment of
minorities, and the level of violence practiced by the state on its citizenry.
However, this approach misses an important aspect of power, namely, how the masses
are kept in line without the need to resort to mass violence.
Ideological domination is the tool used; it
is accepted by the masses as an essential component of their social reality, leaving
no room for cognitive dissonance.
In autocratic polities, one of the most
critical notions of the ideology of power is lack of control, where one’s
ability to influence one’s life and surroundings remains constrained and
limited as an ideological construct and a fact of life.
The mass of the populace hold the belief
that their ability to affect change, even in their own personal lives, is
severely limited and constrained by external powers.
The masses accept their repression and lack
of freedom as a natural condition of their existence, and any defiant members
become quickly ostracized and repressed by their fellows because they risk
creating uncomfortable levels of mass cognitive dissonance.
As a result, on behalf of the ruling
elites, there is no need for direct intervention by the state as the populace
engages in a process of self-regulation and repression.
The role of religion
As a student of the Egyptian polity, one of
the most important ideological pillars of repression is the use of a religious
construct that promotes apathy. The divine is constructed as an ever-present
force in daily life.
Decisions related to work, children and
marriage, for example, are constructed as part of a pre-ordained plan by the
divine, as such, one is fated to have a certain job or a certain number of children.
Abysmal social conditions are also
projected onto a divine power that is both just and above comprehension. These
critical decisions are considered to be outside the realm of human control.
This coping mechanism is adopted by the
vast majority, especially with the increasingly worsening conditions in Egypt.
If one, for example, suffers from prolonged
bouts of unemployment, one appeals to the divine or believes that his/her
suffering is part of a divine plan that is just, and that one will be rewarded
later on in life or in the afterlife.
Suffering for redemption
The second lag of this religious construct
is the deep-seated belief in the importance of suffering as a tool for redemption,
where one’s bad deeds are erased as he/she suffers injustice in this life.
In cases of injustice, for example,
patience and prayer are advised rather than active resistance. There is also a
religious notion that when a person has been unjustly treated, there is a
direct connection to the divine, where their prayer will surely be answered
with the usual caveat that the response might be delayed until the time is
right.
Additionally, there is a direct
connection made between suffering and the goodness of one’s soul, where the
true believer is thought to always be inflicted by suffering as a test of
fortitude by the divine.
This ideological construct is also coupled
with a conception of the divine as a force that is arbitrary and beyond
comprehension, while at the same time directly involved in the details of daily
life. Thus, it is not unusual that Egyptians attribute small events, like
catching a bus or a train, to the direct workings of the divine.
This sense of loss of control manifests
itself in the concrete belief in magic and other super natural forces. For
example, it is not unusual to hold different forms of amulets and blessed items
to ward off evil spirits or even to affect the behaviour of one’s superiors.
This is also reflected in the widespread belief in dreams, fortune tellers and
magic.
Even Sisi himself is reported to have had a
dream that he was destined to become the president of Egypt, claiming to have
seen late President Sadat, an Omega watch, and a red sword.
This ideological construct has a number of
obvious implications on social and political behaviour at both the micro and
macro levels.
Collective apathy
The primary impact is that it converts the
populace from subjects to objects with little control over their lives. A sense
of collective apathy sets in as one suffers from self-alienation and loss of
control over one’s fate. This directly leads to the acceptance of social
injustices as a form of divine ordinance, rather than a manmade phenomenon that
should and can be resisted and changed through acts of individual and
collective resistance.
Individual agency is replaced by reliance
on the intervention of the divine that is bound to correct social ills at an
undetermined time in the future.
Another direct impact is the dulling of the
ability to connect between issues that one faces with the broader social
context. For example, deteriorating health conditions many Egyptians face are
connected to a divine test rather than rising environmental degradation,
poverty, malnutrition and lack of funding in public health.
Then there is self-repression that the
citizenry practice against individuals who rebel against these conditions or
show signs of resentment, since this is seen as a rebellion against the divine.
The end result is that the masses are
persistently engaged in a process of self-repression, without the state needing
to intervene.
Survival
This does not mean that the issue resides solely
in religious doctrines per say, nor does it lie in a legacy of brutalization
and violence practiced by successive autocratic regimes. It does not even lie
in poverty and superstition, which are wide spread in Egypt, it rather lies in
the social conditions that make the belief in this construct a necessity for
survival.
Even though this belief system might appear
irrational to the western reader, it is perfectly rational if one places it in
the proper social context of mass repression, deprivation and violence. It is
accepted by the general populace as a necessity for survival, otherwise life would
become unbearable. Thus, this ideological construct is a coping mechanism.
This is a necessary construct for the mass
of Egyptians to accept their social reality. Focussing on the afterlife and the
rewards of heaven for the just, and hell for the unjust, is what keeps the masses in-check.
In order for social change to occur, a
process of change in popular beliefs needs to take place in a manner that would
resonate and have social meaning for the popular classes. Empowering changes in
the popular belief system and the surrounding religious construct are essential
for the revival of political life in Egypt in the time of autocracy.