By Abdul Saboor Sitez

The questions of why we are unstable, where social crises come from, and what cultural and cognitive contexts give direction to our beliefs and attitudes are significant. Another question is, what can we do? What would we have been doing if we had not been here? The answer to these questions and other serious and important questions may be beyond the length of a note, but some points are mentioned to raise the issue and think about these questions and concerns.

Ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity and pluralism are relatively common and general in the whole world. The interpretation of religion in connection with these differences is the recognition of humans from each other. These differences are considered social capital in many societies from a social and political point of view. However, this multiplicity has always been a source of disagreement and conflict in Afghanistan.

Since its creation, contemporary Afghanistan has been involved in the crisis of ethnicity, identity, and legitimacy. Linking and communicating between variations and transformations is capital and social privilege for a nation, of course, if managed correctly.

Our society's first epistemological error in terms of structure was that it did not see these variations and did not try to see them at all.

Many reasons can be listed from its political aspect and political structure, but intellectual and cultural layers are discussed in this note. Because our society did not see these differences, it faced differences and problems in management and planning. The currents have not been adequately identified, and no matter how much effort has been made to get help from foreign-made to get help from foreign models and theories, it has yet to yield results. All these conflicts that we have witnessed in the short history of Afghanistan are the result of this mistake made in recognizing these differences and pluralism.

Epistemic and cultural errors caused by a lack of Knowledge and awareness have always existed in most parts of Afghanistan. Without science and Knowledge, political rationality is not formed either. So, short-sightedness and ideologies become the product of stupidity, the output of which is mass and vulgar behavior. Political activism, combined with citizens' awareness and rationality, has never been experienced in the history of Afghanistan in its social and political life. So, what we have at the level of political activism is a collection of emotional forces whose logic is derived from a particular tribe or nation. This has led to the formation of certain ethnic and political ideologies that do not see the other and, on the other hand, wear holy clothes. In these ideological poles, no stream or institution knows the historical and social developments of the society; in other words, it does not know the logic of facing changes.

According to "Hegel," our society lives in a historical unconsciousness; in this unconsciousness, historical determinism determines historical and social developments. Only when history becomes self-aware will the logic of developments be known. Because history and the repetition of developments are not caused by self-awareness, we have grown up by repeating it. In this unknown space, Knowledge and universities do not have methods, and studies do not have methods. Distance has caused our studies not even to provide suitable raw materials.

Our history is dead. That is why no science or university can recognize the problems of our society.

In other countries, there is much entanglement between human sciences and historical and social developments, But in Afghanistan, no one pays attention to humanities, and maybe they are against it. In the countries of the first world, the most genius people study humanities, but in our country, they introduce the weakest people to humanities; this means that studying humanities is the last option here. It is for this reason that we need more active and informed activists. In this situation, humanities cannot contribute to society's self-awareness.

In Afghanistan, the human sciences and its people need to have the necessary strength and power. They cannot be a flow maker and establish the wisdom and awareness of developments. So, our history and our society have no eyes and are blind. He has lost his sense of good and evil. The role and function of the humanities in society are intellect, mind, and language.

 In Afghanistan, all efforts have been made to build the organization rather than the institution. Organizations with an attitude focused on power and wealth and external projects have nothing to do with internal social changes and transformations. We have faced two types of society: the first is an organization whose problem is power and politics, and the second is society's problems, which are living and comforting. The first society does not understand the language of the second society, does not see it in its plans, and has no understanding of it. Therefore, there has been no social will to solve it. This is where rationality has not been formed. Society is permanently deprived of emotional resources and facilities, conflict arises, and violence in political actions is formed due to these deprivations. Inefficiency arises, society becomes rebellious, and the minorest actions become riotous and subversive.

The product of this situation is a challenge that either ultimately lowers the level of satisfaction and participation or subverts the sharing. The root of this situation is the ideological view. Ideologically, the expectations are high, and when they are not implemented, they create a disaster, and society becomes radicalized.

In such a view, emotions rule instead of reason. From this situation, the logic of change and transformation falls to military agents.

Another epistemic element on which our historical insight is formed is mysticism and Sufism. This element is poetic, imaginative, and almost abstract. Since we do not have philosophers either, philosophy and rationality make a meaningful system for a society. We have had many mystics and poets. Our meaning system is emotional; therefore, we look at power and politics as evil and hateful elements and do not participate in them.

We are facing chaos and a crisis of political rationality. A political order cannot be formed from the heart of a mystical and poetic system, so we lack meaning. This is why we do not know what to do in times of crisis. Except for repression and violence, if our semantic system were something else, we would not have these problems. Our history is a memory, and this means crisis and inefficiency.

Afghan society has always been tense and violent. This has strengthened emotions and feelings, and this situation has caused the continuation of ignorance. We are still alien to many cultural concepts and rules, which is the heart of this ignorance. We do not compromise with art; we consider music blasphemy and do not interact with Knowledge and awareness; that is why our society is unstable. There is no cultural or social issue in it. Now, our society is security-police and full of conflicts.

Discussing what can be done in this unknown and conflicting environment is challenging.

In such an unclear situation, intellectuals, elites, and people of humanities are responsible for drawing a path toward a bright future and promoting it.

Abdul Saboor Sitez, is a writer and expert on International Relations. His articles have appeared in publications, such as: Hasht - e - Subh, Etilaat Roz, Subh - e - Kabul, Afghan Women's Voices, Zan - e Rooz.

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The article does not reflect the official opinion of the AISS.