Curse of the Intellectual

TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 25 May 2026

Mazin Qumsiyeh | Popular Resistance – TRANSCEND Media Service

24 May 2026 – There is a curse for a thinking person . It is a double curse if that thinking person is also afflicted with the (some would say naive) idea that he/she can help the world to a better future (less suffering, peace, sustainability etc). The activist addiction to work is the believe that he/she can change circumstances and that working towards sustainable human and natural communities is a duty (sustainable planet). Yet, it is difficult to keep consistent positive attitude knowing how close we are to an unlivable planet due to climate change, habitat destruction, pollution, over-exploitation of resources, invasive species.

This is the curse of knowledge. This is not to mention how close we are to a catastrophic global war: the US alone, the most warring nation on earth, has enough weapons to destroy humanity and is about to increase its war chest spending to $1.5 Trillion per year. In the interim, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. For me personally, the detailed knowledge and data I read on these matters (thousands of books and tens of thousands of articles just in the past 5 years) can be overwhelming.

How do we reconcile facts of genocide, ecocide, scholasticide, medicide, veriticide and indeed omnicide in the 21st century? The apathy of millions and the collusion of governments under lobbies? The relentless public relations lies and distortions dehumanizing victims and blaming them for their own misery. The easier availability of data for example via Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (with all its faults) can compound the challenge for the thinking mind. Part of the problem for us scientists is that we understand a bit about the human evolution and human frailty. People are driven by their background and upbringing including their biases, blind spots, and misdirected energy. That is why we admire people who manage to break away from damaging ideas like ideas o choosiness, racism, Zionism, colonialism, capitalistic greed and more.

We read the writings of such brave souls looking for clues as to how and why they managed to break free of the chains and bonds their society imposed on their brains. We also wonder if things are predestined to work as they have worked historically rather than our wishful thinking and actions. For example was it inevitable that some Jews moved towards humanism and some moved towards Zionism (and why the difference). Similarly, is it inevitable that some Muslims moved towards Islamism while other to humanism. Were Nazism, Capitalism, Crusaderism and Christian Nationalism inevitable human phenomena? And if we academic and intellectual activists arrive at certain logical conclusions about what is good for peace and sustainability, then how do we advocate for it?

For example, 50 years of knowledge a belief I had that religiosity (not religion), fundamentalism, and extremism are harmful to peace and coexistence. I wrote a book called “Sharing the Land of Canaan” published 2004. But how do you convince secular Israelis and secular Palestinians that their interests are to work together against Zionism and fundamentalism and towards one democratic state? And if we are unable to convince those, what hope is there for changing the fundamentalists? I with interns/volunteers wrote many research papers, some of them are relevant to this: for example we wrote papers on liberation from mental colonization (both for the oppressor population as well as the oppressed/occupied people). Some read and few change. And sometimes change is regressive: for example more and more people in Western Asia/our region have moved towards irrational religiosity and away from logic. It is not difficult also to see how Zionism and colonialism engendered religious fundamentalism.

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