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The Incubation of Sociological Isolation

Omar Alansari-Kreger
The nationalism of today is the tribalism of yesterday. In our world of utilitarian
modernity, we continue to struggle with ancient problems that were resolved centuries ago; yet,
we voraciously boast of conquering the known limits of our humanity! What has been the cost of
those triumphs? Have we increased the stock of our humanity or are we losing it? The subjection
of material aesthetics must be implicated in the devolution of human decency, intellect, and
morality. Our world is saturated with the ubiquity of information yet we complain about
boredom. How is the passivity of boredom possible with the finitude of time? Vanity has
consumed us in ways where we share it with each other effortlessly and universally. That
development is subjectively unprecedented to the story of the human condition.
No one knows or cares to know anymore. That has condemned the modern lot of the
world to a universe of apathetic lethargy. From there, the masses are defined by the
mindlessness of their motionlessness and vice versa. An appreciation of history is also an
appreciation of the human condition. Although, despite our sincerest efforts, nothing can derail
the process of inevitability through the passage of time. Certain things are bound to happen and
there is nothing we can do to avert such things. The materialization of humanity has condemned
its civilization to the likes of a superficial serfdom. A world where anything and everything can
be deemed as socially acceptable. The deprecation of the human condition mirrors the collective
degeneracy of civilization. In one way or another, we are all responsible which is why each
person has a role to play in its rekindling.
Civilization, in all of its comprehensive decency, is indeed a lost heritage of humankind.
The hegemony of human individuality robs us of our humanity which leads to the putrid
subjection of its materiality. By definition, civilization draws us into the world of thematic
propositions. By and large, the only true reality we appreciate is one that responds to our
constructed inhibition. It takes considerable effort to arouse interest in some of the most generic
forms of history. There is this factor of existential exceptionalism that demands exclusivity on
grounds that struggles endured yesterday are not the same as those endured today. Events that
define the horizons of their time signify the differential happenstances of a shared reality. A
nation acquires its identity through a shared history; the essence of which is not always derived
from the machinations of nationalism.
Time again, the recalibration of civilization is derived from our shared ability to define
the idea of the human condition. Is it to be treated as a nuance? Is it to be developed into a
paradigm? Is it pre-destined to serve parochial traditions? In one way or another, a civilization is
incubated by its sociological isolation from the rest of the world. Ethnocentrism reborn with a
vengeance entertains some of the worst diabolical propositions imaginable. When revenge
becomes ideologically sanctioned into the mainstream, semi-organized gangs of ethnocentrists
transform into ultra-nationalists that go on to commit atrocities without the slightest afterthought.
To restore civilization, it becomes necessary to revisit its underlying foundationalism; the latter is

overwhelmingly shrouded in vicissitudes of ambiguity. As a direct implication, we encounter

inconvenient truths which undermine sociological systems established on ideological
preconditioning. The notional civilization, similar to the nuanced nation, is based on the
precipice of an idea; the basis of which is seldom understood by the same groups of people that
proclaim to be its most voracious proponents.
Ideas last forever, but cultures, of all ideological variations, are ephemerally incubated by the
finitude of time.