“The Times They Are
A-Changin’”
Editorial Note Who hasn’t heard phrases like “time is money,” or “time flies,” as we seek to ground this immense thing called Time into a notion we can comprehend. What we ignore is the relentless and wisdom of time, with its eternal measurement on all aspects of life in relation to how we perceive it. We decided to shed light on the disparities of humans with respect to time. The perceptions of time are drastically different, from political history to the arts. Inspired by Bob Dylan’s famous The Times They Are a-Changin’, we sought to venture into Time, that we may bear witness to its changes.
Editor in Chief Youssef Fahmy Managing Director Mariam Said Associate Managing Director Farida Tarek Operations Director Abdurrahman Radwan Graphic Designer Head Fatma Farrag Photography Head Yasmine El Nawawi Social Media Manager Seif ELDein Ahmed Managing Editor Laila El Refaie Associate Managing Editors Jonas Rowan Mahmoud Fadel
Graphic Designers Alhussain Shaker Amr Remah Rawan Shaheen Photographers Nada Mohamed Editors Asmaa El Nagar Habiba ElHadidy Hana Shama Jonas Rowan Laila El Refaie Mahmoud Fadel Youssef Fahmy
Writers Habiba El Hadidy Jonas Rowan Laila El Refaie Mahmoud Fadel Nour El Captan Omar Auf Yumna Omar Faculty Advisor Dr.Sanaa Makhlouf OSL Advisor Rania Nafie
Table of Contents Art & Time The Times They Are a-Changin’ --- 4 If It Ain’t Baroque, Don’t Fix It --- 8 Time Flies—and We Give It Wings --- 12
Eternity Time, Eternity, and the Divine --- 16 Why Do You Write Like You’re Running Out of Time? --- 20
History Does History Repeat Itself? --- 24 The Lost Truth --- 28
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THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' Writer: Mahmoud Fadel
Editor: Youssef Fahmy
Mahmoud is an editor and an engineering student who’s interested in politics, history, music, and cinema; probably anything but engineering.
The complexities of history are not come to mind—all of them known for cautioning usually amenable to hasty characterizations and about impending change. The first verse provides us generalizations. Nonetheless, we cannot help but with a handle on the relationship between speaker sequence snapshots of the past into one thematically and listener, or rather the prophet and the masses, as unified motion picture or song. Most of the time, the biblical archetypal backdrop of the Great Flood, even an honest and rigorous look at any given like that of Noah, infuses the rhetorical situation with historical moment will produce competing and even a prophetic urgency. However, the main difference contradictory notions of what happened and what between the song’s speaker and the aforementioned we have learned from it. Even by any contemporary prophets is that the speaker prophesies without account, whether in art or history books, confusion preaching. Prophets tell people what to do in order and uncertainty surrounding events is what we will to escape the wrath or the impending doom, but find. Bob Dylan, who was considered to be the voice Bob Dylan’s speaker is only saying that the winds of the United States’ political dissent in the sixties of change are coming. He is saying that we cannot and seventies, wrote the song The Times They Are do anything about it but accept the “new order,” or a-Changin’ in late 1963, at a time which could be else we will drown and perish. We are not told what considered the most pubescent in American history. this new order comprises, or what is wrong with the Dylan’s treatment of the times is more abstract and present or ‘old’ order. We are only told to get out philosophical than political or spiritual; and the of the way, or rather more metaphorically speaking, specifics of his era are irrelevant, as the concept of swim to escape the rising tide. Such a worldview change he analyzes is continuous throughout history. forces us to find which way the wind is blowing and For more than 50 years, the song has been able to act accordingly. In the same sense, the following embody the highly abstract concept of change; that verse applies this notion to politicians and what they is why any attempt to analyze it must focus on the should do to adapt to the winds of change: song’s layers of metaphorical representation, instead of speculating on what Dylan might have been Come senators, congressmen There’s a battle outside foretelling in this or that line. Please heed the call And it is ragin’ Come gather ‘round people If your time to you Wherever you roam, Is worth savin’, And admit that the waters Then you better start swimmin’, Around you have grown, Or you’ll sink like a stone, And accept it that soon For the times they are a-Changin’. You’ll be drenched to the bone.
Narrative, or rather narration, are an often used tool in the pantheon of modern folk music, and Dylan excels at creating a speaker far more compelling and imperative than he is. The speaker’s tone in the song resembles that of a Biblical Prophet warning his people of incoming change. Prophets like Noah, Isaiah, and John the Baptist (known in Islam as Yahya),
Don’t stand in the doorway It’ll soon shake your windows Don’t block up the hall And rattle your walls For he that gets hurt For the times they are a-Changin Will be he who has stalled
Dylan continues to explore the idea of change using heavier political overtones with the ‘prophet’ speaking truth to power, subjecting politicians to a call that must be heeded. Change is emphasized in the verses as an amoral, arbitrary, and destructive force, in order to stand equal to the political process with all of its might. Meanwhile, the house in the middle of the battlefield seems like a metaphor for the idea of the status quo, and the battle outside is Change
shaking windows and rattling walls. But looking more closely into the metaphor, we will find that the status quo is the well-structured and stable element, while change is chaotic, disruptive, and dangerous; for example, there is no indication that the battle is being waged by freedom fighters, while those in the house are corrupt bureaucrats. This could stand as the most versatile idea in the entire song, as for more than 50 years since its release, the world has witnessed all kinds of change. We have seen this in the Arab Spring which tectonically shifted, and continues to shift, the already failing political bedrock upon which the Middle East helplessly stands. As this present decade comes to an end, we can see how it echoes the turmoil of Dylan’s sixties where, in a period of only 10 years, the United States was exposed to hippie counterculture, the war on poverty, the Vietnam War with its protests, the Civil Rights Movement, the Cold War, the space race, and a second wave of feminism. One could spout off Wikipedia subheadings all day long, but what is certain is that change and insurgency are always just around the corner, wherever and whenever we take a certain notion in society to be granted. There are vast differences between the circumstances and outcomes in both regions and both times, but they still manage to reflect human nature because no matter the time, geography, belief, or culture, the metaphor still stands.
The line it is drawn The order is Rapidly fadin’ The curse it is cast And the first one now The slow one now Will later be last Will later be fast For the times they are a-changin’. As the present now Will later be past
There is a world of difference between telling someone that they should embrace change because it is good, and telling them that they should embrace change because it is inevitable. Change may be inevitable, but that does not mean that all change is good. Goodness and inevitability are not mutually exclusive. From an idealistic perspective, change and progress are inherently entwined and that the development of ideas over time is the fundamental change that causes overall improvement. It could also be argued that a tension within human nature itself is the source of change. But if we take a literal look into the lyrics of the song, not to the context in which it was written, we can see the pragmatism in Dylan, or rather his prophet, who is more concerned by what is true than with what ought to be true.
Come mothers and fathers Your old road is rapidly agin’ Throughout the land Please get out of the new one And don’t criticize If you can’t lend your hand What you can’t understand For the times they are a-changin’ Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command
There is no indication or guarantee that the new road will pave over injustice, inequality, or any other grievances that revolutions are meant to address. The speaker doesn’t necessarily imply that sons and daughters somehow have a better understanding of life, and that the older generations should gleefully disengage their parental locks out of some great moral imperative. The message isn’t explicitly to lend a hand to lay the new road, but to at least get out of the way if you don’t want to be run over. This change and conflict, in intergenerational terms, is still happening to this day. Just as parents criticized their children’s music and fashion in the sixties, elders continue to criticise the youth’s politics, beliefs, and life choices. This is evidently relevant nowadays— especially in Egypt and the Middle East—because of the new generation’s Western-influenced culture and lifestyle, compared to their parents’ vastly different conservative and mostly religious-based ideals.
Sources: -Brandon, Stephen. “Bob Dylan: The Prophet of Social Change in the 1960s” 2017. -Cossu, Andrea. “It Ain’t Me Babe : Bob Dylan and the Performance of Authenticity” 2012. -Edwards, Christopher. “Down the Foggy Ruins of Time: Bob Dylan and the Concept of Evidence” 2010.
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Writer: Jonas Rowan Editor: Laila El Refaie
Jonas Rowan is an American exchange student studying physics and Arabic, and with interests in world politics, economics, and philosophy Musical discourse is rife with notions of pretentiousness. Even a cursory glance at Rolling Stone Magazine’s infamous “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” serves to prove that. The fact that 75% of the list was comprised almost entirely of Anglo rock artists from between 1960 and 1989, reveals that the list is nowhere near as inclusive as it claims to be. How did we get to the point that a 2003 survey hardly included any contemporary music, or even any Classical masterpieces? It’s a simple answer, but reveals much about society; people tend to think of their own music taste as “the best,” and thereby discount other forms of music as inferior. Such musical pretension is not the cause, but is a remarkable symptom, of many of the divides in society. With all the fuss about Rolling Stone Magazine’s list, it is easy to assume that the generational differences in music taste came about recently, but this is not the case. Even as early as the 1700’s, as popular music shifted from the prolific harmonies of the Baroque period to the extended melodic lines of the Classical period, contemporaries derided the older form. JeanJacques Rousseau defined Baroque in his Dictionnaire de Musique as music “in which harmony is confused, charged with… dissonances, in which the melody is harsh and little natural, intonation difficult and the movement constrained”—very strong words for what previous contemporaries considered the highest art form. Those people, and the subsequent generations, arguably had evidence to support their claim that it “isn’t real music”: the new forms’ structures had strayed radically far from their accepted definition of music.
With each iteration, the older generations typically held firm to their beliefs that their music was far more complex and musical than that of their successors, while the youth tended to think of the old culture as pretentious and unrepresentative of what music “should be”. These attitudes stay with the generation as they grow older, and help them fall into the same trap as their parents when faced with their children’s iteration of popular music. Both views are correct; the apparent contradiction springs from the varying definitions held by each. An excellent, if fictional, example can be found in the 1985 film Back to the Future, in which a timetraveling Marty McFly plays a heavy guitar solo 30 years too early, and after seeing the audience stunned reactions, declares “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet… but your kids are gonna love it.” These divisions in opinions are present from any direction one views society, not just from the intergenerational angle. As long as there are two distinct groups with distinct cultures, there will be two different tastes in music. A clear manifestation of these distinctions lies in the US’s long tradition of racism, which has inevitably produced separate tastes in music. From the age of slavery to the mid-19th century, African music was mostly pushed to the periphery of the mainstream. Around the turn of the 20th century, the invention of the Ragtime genre—a blend of the traditional march style with African polyrhythms— was almost a social phenomenon. However, its uneven texture and ragged rhythms put off many White connoisseurs of music, who used its
unconventional sound as an excuse to support the segregation of Black music. A few years later, Jazz took to center stage, with more of an emphasis on syncopated rhythms and led mostly by Black artists. The barrier between most of Black music and the mainstream persisted until artists like Elvis Presley and Eric Clapton brought White versions to the public’s ears. Despite his public adoration for originators like Chuck Berry and Fats Domino, Elvis was the reason Rock n’ Roll entered popularity, while Clapton helped do the same for Blues—another traditionally Black art form. By the 1980’s, a new type of music had emerged again from a rising generation of African Americans: Hip Hop. Following the previous trends of music, it was the most rhythmheavy the West had seen, again providing an excuse for White listeners to declare it less than musical. It’s because of the variety of cultures that all these styles were able to emerge to begin with. Over time, these differences in cultures never disappeared, but the music associated with them changed. Music may be just one facet of culture, but it is certainly one of the main outlets for rebellious spirit. This is not just due to provocative lyrics, like those exemplified by Bob Dylan or the Rolling Stones, but rather the structure of the music itself. As less attention was paid to harmonies and then melodies—and more to melodies and then rhythm— music reinvented itself in each iteration. Abandoning the stiff Victorian values of the 19th century, the postWWI youth lived a relatively scandalous lifestyle, embracing the swinging rhythms of Jazz, regularly gathering at jazz clubs to dance the night away. Later, the Big Band Jazz sound was replaced by the even more rhythmic Rock n’ Roll, whose leading artists promoted an even looser society with more wild dancing and a further abandonment of traditional societal values. The new youth would sing and popularize love songs with openly sexual connotations, like the Rolling Stones’ Let’s Spend the Night Together, or songs that openly criticize the intergenerational conflict, like the Who’s My Generation. Music even formed a large part of the civil rights conflict, with protest songs like those of Bob Dylan which drew anger to the condition of racism, or the gospel song We Shall Overcome, which served as a key anthem of the Civil Rights movement. Why is music a more telling symbol of rebellion than other forms of art? One reason is definitely its availability; not many people had the ability,
or even the desire, to go to art galleries often, whereas newly-introduced radios and vinyl records provided endless music anywhere. Combined with its accessibility, the structure of music made it more synonymous with popular culture. Visual art is largely defined by the artist, whereas crowds dancing and singing in clubs or concerts allows them to partake in the art and make it their own. With each successive generation, music becomes less and less rigorously structured, but more and more free and defined by breaking away from older customs. Throughout history, music has certainly been one of the most defining features of culture; every major sociocultural division is reflected by a distinct musical style. Each new iteration of that style is shunned by the other faction. This is no surprise, as people tend to have a distaste for the Other. As such, when faced with a seemingly foreign style, people double down in support of their own culture. This manifests in a feeling of superiority, which in music is often just pretentiousness. As long as music is enjoyed, it succeeds in its purpose, and therefore any claim that a style is lesser in comparison to another is folly; no criteria can be applied to two forms with completely different purposes and constructions. We always tend to think our music is best, but the times are changing, and music will inevitably change with them. Perhaps we ought to listen to the winds of change.
Sources: Bennett, Andy. Popular Music and Youth Culture: Music, Identity, and Place. Palgrave, 2000. Buelow, George J.. “Music and Society in the Late Baroque Era”. The Late Baroque Era, 1993. Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington DC..“Antonin Dvorak”. Mutual Inspirations Festival, 2011. “Eric Clapton Looks Back at His Blues Roots.” NPR, 2007. Peretti, Burton W.. Lift Every Voice: The History of African American Music, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009. Rousseau, Jean Jacques. Dictionnaire de Music, 1768.
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by Nada Mohamed
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We often ask ourselves if people could truly know what it is like to be us. In an attempt to find an answer, we strive to translate our experiences into art, be it written, heard, or seen. If we could see the world through each other’s eyes, there would be no conflict. In the artistic process, we describe the five senses: what can be seen, heard, smelled, felt, and tasted. However, we neglect one of the most important elements of our experience: Time. Whether it is rushing past us, or clinging to our limbs, time governs each of our senses. Here, we must first understand how we experience time, in order to then depict it in our art. Time is a phenomenological experience—sensory, tangible, and felt. Temporality brushes over our skin just as it wraps itself around our minds. Think of yourself as the present. You are now experiencing the world around you, in all its scents and colours. The past, in the form of your memories, defines how you interact with the present. Take a simple example: the smell of lavender reminds you of your grandmother’s perfume. Your senses are enveloped in warmth, and you experience the scent differently. The future then comes into play. When you see a flash of lightning, you immediately anticipate the rumble of thunder. That expectation can cause you to jump at the visual cue of lightning, as if you’ve already heard the thunder. This synthesis of past, present, and future works to define your entire sensory experience all the time. This formula then translates into our every thought process. We think in a progressive sequence that acknowledges the present, remembers the past, and anticipates the future, and it is precisely in this way that we make our every decision. Your choice to
leave your house at seven o’clock comes from your past experience of traffic, your present acknowledgement of the clock striking seven, and your anticipation that you will have to be there on time. As simple as this formula seems, it is a complex ongoing process. Maurice Merleau-Ponty emphasised the significance of this synthesis, whereby the individual—the present—acts as the anchor, beckoning notions of past and future to complement her sensory perceptions. Why is this formula so important, then? We must first return to the beginning: the translation of experience. Mark Doty put it best in World Into Word: “If it is indeed a symptom of life not having been really lived until it is narrated... a condition that winds up giving real gifts to others. The pleasure of recognising a described world is no small thing.” We wish to immerse ourselves in films, books, and even video-games, as much as we can. This is to recognise the described world. To live it in a way that brings us closer to knowing what it’s really like to be somewhere else. In his phenomenological analyses of language, Paul Ricoeur emphasised the metaphor as a means of constructing experience, and I will argue that the metaphor is not only in literature. The metre of a melody and the scene structure of a film is a metaphor for the emotions we attach to an array of sounds or images, be it anxiety or peace. Some of these are deliberate processes, but many neglect the importance of truly incorporating time in the metaphor. It is therefore of insurmountable significance to the maintenance of our artistic mission that we learn to incorporate temporality in our metaphors. Otherwise, we deny each other the pleasure of recognition.
In poetry and music, metre and syncopation work to incorporate temporality into the sensory experience. Here, the present mingles with the past. The patterns in which syllables are stressed in a poem construct different temporal atmospheres. Much in the same way, as a song’s rhythm shifts, the listener recalls different notions to associate with the sound, and their mood shifts to that which the music evokes. In films, shifts in camera angles, and shifts between scenes, will work to give a realistic, felt feeling to the scene. For example, an adrenaline rush during a chase scene, or a sense of eerie caution in anticipation of a demon’s attack. Like a member of the cast, the viewer is thrown into the experiences of the characters. Lastly, while the craft of writing stresses upon the importance of word choice; syntax, perspective, and tense are the core influencers of temporality. Let us take two examples here: The young girl’s imminent doom seemed inevitable, although she had little much within her capacity to do about it. She could probably run as far as her legs would take her, but there was a hopelessness about her, keeping her from moving. She knew that the threat was nearby, but she did not seem to know what to do about it, no matter how her eyes darted from right to left. As time continued to march onwards, her murderer drew closer until finally, he killed her. __ Tick. Tock. Tick. Tick. Tick. The clock is broken. I look around me, but he is nowhere to be seen. Where is he? Boom. Boom. Boom. I can hear my heartbeat echoing in my ears. Could I run? Maybe. Maybe I could run, but would he catch me? Yes he would. My legs are too small. I hear the pounding of his steps up the stairs. He’s coming. He’s coming for me. As he turns the corner before my bedroom, I scream. He’s here.
to become immersed in the scene. The fusion of HansGeorg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur’s philosophies (both based on Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception) thus resulted in these elements affecting narrative and immersion. Because I have taken deliberate care to incorporate time and temporality, the atmosphere is more clearly built, and you find the writing more immersive. Time is a key element of our experience, and we must incorporate it into our art deliberately. Do we already do so unintentionally? Certainly. But we must take special care to acknowledge temporality and embed it into our artistic processes in order to give our translation and creation of atmosphere and experience more depth. Only then will we ultimately elevate art into something far easier to be drawn into, and bestow upon each other the pleasure of recognition. Indeed, time flies, but we give it wings.
Sources: Chamberlain, Daniel. Narrative Perspective in Fiction: A Phenomenological Meditation of Reader, Text, and World, 1990 Langer, Monika M.. Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception: A Guide and Commentary, 1990 Kelly, Michael R..”The Phenomenology of Time”, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Dainton, Barry. “Temporal Consciousness”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2017 Doty, Mark. The Art of Description: World Into Word, 2010 Roholt, Tiger C.. In Praise of Ambiguity: Musical Subtlety and
Consider the two paragraphs above, but pay Merleau-Ponty, 2013 attention to a number of elements. In the first, the third person creates a long distance between you and the character, and thus detaches you from them. The usage of past-tense also maintains that distance; what’s done is done, and you cannot feel it as clearly. Your immersion is already handicapped. The longer sentences draw out time in a way that seems too mellow for the events being described. The urgency of it all just isn’t there. Now look at the second example. The sentences are short and repetitive. They make time seem like it’s going faster. Time is also anchored by both the clock and the heartbeat, and the time it takes you to read them makes you feel like they’re faster than normal. Moreover, because the paragraph is written in first person and present tense, it is easier
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Melting Men by NĂŠle Azevedo
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Back to the Future Part II (1989)
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TIME
ETERNITY
& THE DIVINE Writer: Omar Auf
Editor: Habiba Elhadidi
Omar Auf is confused. He likes skateboarding, chess, football, politics, and poetry, among other things. Omar Auf is very confused.
There are many things that our brains are good at, but fully comprehending great magnitudes isn’t one of them. That’s why we measure time in years, decades, and centuries, and not just seconds and minutes. We can all grasp what 10 seconds are, what 100 seconds are, and even a thousand. But try imagining for a moment what one million seconds are like. One million seconds is actually over 11 days. And we may never even see our three billionth second. We can still conceptualize it, though, to an extent; three billion seconds is 95 years. What about a trillion seconds, then? That’s over 300 lifetimes. Imagine living and dying 300 times. Yet a trillion is just a word we can drop off the tip of our tongues. This is all to show that unbelievably big numbers or lengths of time are simply beyond our understanding. Yet, when the trillionth second comes, there is an end. Intuitively, we get it, because our life is governed by beginnings and endings— life and death. What about when there is no end? Our life has value because it is limited, and our time because it is finite. The rarer the resource, the more valuable it is. If we lived forever, what value would life have? Every day would be just as insignificant as the last and the next. Entire lifetimes can pass in total idleness and we would not feel guilty; we would not have lost or gained anything, and we would not actually feel anything. Our experience of time is quite subjective. We don’t actually feel the past nor know how long it has been. Only the memory remains, and we use our memories and measurements of time to anchor ourselves to some sort
of reality. Does this mean time is absurd? Certainly. Yet, we are dictated by its steady, relentless march. We only feel it on our bodies and see it with the rise and fall of the sun. Imagine, though, if we were a species that does not age, and lived in a world with no night or day—would we have any possible conception of time? Perhaps time is an expression of nature’s fine ways, or maybe it is the engine of evolution. The question is, does time have a beginning or an end? It is impossible to imagine what the beginning or end of time looks like, and what would remain. By its very nature, can it be without a beginning, and if it is, then is it time, or eternity? Just because we deal in beginnings and endings does not mean that everything else is the same. Can humans exist within eternity as temporary beings? If so, then the way we reconcile these differences is an interesting question to look at. Where did we come from and where do we go? Or, in other words, can the temporary exist within the permanent? The religious answer would be yes. Putting questions of belief aside for now, assuming evolution can create the temporary from the permanent, and assuming eternity has no beginning, then evolution would be, at any given point in time, at its furthest possible stage. If there is no limit to evolution, then we would, again, at any given point in time, achieve the same permanence as that from which we sprung out. Or, at the very least, we would be in a perpetual state of approaching such a stage, always an infinitely small and infinitely shrinking step away from permanence—assuming that our nature is permanently temporary.
The most common reconciliation between the temporary and the permanent is that of the divine. The divine is the permanent, while the temporary is its creation. Even if creation becomes permanent, that permanence is different, as it hinges on the divine itself—it is a sort of temporary permanence that, first, has a beginning, and second, can have an end. The divine has no beginning, nor can it have an end. In some faiths, reincarnation is the eternal cycle of life, living and dying forever. In others, there is the promise of eternal bliss above Earth. This is the case of the monotheistic religions, but I will speak only of Islam as that is the one I am most familiar with. In Islam, those who God deems deserving are promised eternity in an inconceivably wonderful Heaven. In this sense, God is the provider of eternity and the creator of time; it is said that we do not age in heaven, and are thus liberated from time. Yet the point still stands, what does it mean to live outside time? How much is a day worth, if such a concept still exists? That is a shortcoming in our thinking; we cannot think in days and we cannot measure time the same way as we do now. If there is no day and night and no effects of time, then we can spend as long or as little as possible doing something and would not feel any difference between them. At that point, would we not be one with eternity? Yet the age-old question still remains, wouldn’t we get bored? To this there are three possible answers. The first is quite simply yes, and this is based on ‘rational’ analysis with our current framework of reference. In truth, there is no way to tell that we wouldn’t get bored. The second answer rests upon the acceptance of the divine; if one accepts that our world is divine creation, then one can understand that the divine with the power to create us out of nothing has the power to keep us content for eternity. The third answer looks at the dynamics of time and eternity itself. If we don’t know the difference between a short time and a long time, then we also don’t know the difference between a very short time and a very long time, or any sort of time at that. In a place with no change and no conception of time, we would just be. We would simply do without having done and think without thinking about thinking. Past, present, and future would merge into one and we would be free from everything but pure existence. We would be trapped in the great and terrifying eternity of nothing and everything that is.
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And it is terrifying. Absolutely, unequivocally, breathtakingly terrifying. When I just try to imagine what it is like to exist knowing there is no end, being for the sake of being, it is then that I truly understand what it means when we say in Islam that we are ‘Ibad Allah’ (the worshippers of God). One of the more memorable conversations from my time studying on the seaside of the beautiful Côte d’Azur is one I had with my Turkish friend Azem. Azem was grappling with nihilist ideas and told me that I was lucky I believed in God— that I was “safe.” I completely understood and appreciated this notion. Though, while I did have an anchor of purpose to keep me sane and free from typical existential dread, it seems that I could not escape the contemplations of life outside time, and the fear of just considering eternity.
Sources: Deng, Natalja, “Eternity in Christian Thought” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Helm, Paul, “Eternity” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Leftow, B. (1990). “Boethius on Eternity” History of Philosophy Quarterly, 7(2), 123-142. Lizzini, Olga, “Ibn Sina’s Metaphysics” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
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by Nada Mohamed
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The idea of running out of time, no matter in which context, is daunting. On a smaller scale, we have all experienced the tension of the last seconds in an exam, or the sheer panic of the final minutes before a deadline. But these are shortlived anxieties, lasting brief moments before they are relieved. Having a fear of death, however, is constant. One of the reasons people might fear dying— amongst numerous others such as a fear Writer: Nour El Captan Editor: Hana Shama of suffering, divine punishment, and leaving loved ones behind—is a fear of not Nour El Captan is an author with interests in leaving a legacy behind. A famous model creative writing, movies, musical theatre, and that is used to put time into perspective FC Barcelona condenses the history of Earth into a single 24-hour day. In this model, humans It is rare to find someone who does not enjoy have existed for just a mere seventy-seven seconds. a good cry over a sad story. There is something The model puts the triviality and inconsequentiality enthralling about tragedies that makes us unable of life into quantitative terms, and it can help us see to look away. The amount of heartbreaking why some people might grow obsessed with leaving themes that can be explored are endless, but a legacy. Just because we are only around for a there are some which stay with you long after meagre few seconds, does not necessarily dictate you first hear them. Tales which echo the stories that our names cannot live on for much longer. of untimely deaths, of lives which ended right The need to leave a legacy has possessed before they can truly begin. Among those stories is humans for centuries. What is considered as the the one regarding the death of Jonathan Larson. oldest story in the world, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Jonathan Larson was the writer and brains heavily revolves around the protagonist’s need for behind a number of iconic musicals, the most immortality. When he fails, he settles for a more famous of which is the groundbreaking show—Rent. symbolic alternative: to become a good ruler to his This particular musical follows the lives of a group people. In doing so, he is fondly remembered long of New Yorkers during the AIDS epidemic in the after his death. That way, he becomes immortal. late 1980s, and details their relationship struggles, This can be seen as one of the first examples of life ambitions, and existential crises. Because of its ‘symbolic immortality’, a term which refers to unique songs and subject matter, it was set to blow everything that we leave behind after our deaths. the world away with Larson on the way to global Whether it is through having children who carry success and recognition. The show did in fact go our names, building reputations, or succeeding on to win several prestigious awards, including a in our fields, these things that we leave behind Pulitzer and four Tony Awards, and was one of the take away the anxiety of literal immortality rare pieces of theatre that were able to garner a and instead, make us metaphorically immortal. huge following. Larson, however, never saw any In an article titled “Can Creativity Beat of this. On the eve of Rent’s first preview, Larson Death?”, the lead author, Rotem Pearch, reviewed sat at the theatre and watched the first complete rehearsal of the show. Upon finishing his viewing, twelve psychological studies and came to the he made plans to meet with the show’s director conclusion that creative achievements allow people for breakfast the day after. This was a meeting to harbour less anxiety towards death. In the article, Larson never got to attend. He was found dead he quotes writer Gyorgy Fauldy saying that he hours after he had returned home from the theatre. started writing “because (he) was afraid to die.”
RunninG out of time?
21 The article shows that the fear of death motivates us to start working with the aim of making a difference. In doing so, we create something that will outlive us, and so we conquer our initial fear of decay. This notion of death as a motivator applies to every conceivable field. Doctors find immortality in their patients, architects in the foundations of their buildings, teachers in the minds of their students.
You are here for a reason so leave a legacy behind. Let it be one of ambition and passion. Make things that you can leave behind, work endlessly at what you love. Write like you’re running out of time. Mortality is a concept that humans will probably never fully comprehend. We grow anxious when we think of all the things we want to accomplish before time runs out, and just the thought of having One of the characters that Larson created in an infinite amount of it is enough to make fear Rent is a musician named Roger who suffers from overcome us. But that is not the way things have AIDS. In one of the show’s most famous songs, One to be. We can create things that will outlive us; Song Glory, Roger sings about his desire to write after all, the most tragic stories are the ones that “one song to leave behind.” This line is thought to be are never told. We can love and build relationships reflective of Jonathan Larson’s own ambitions when and reputations that will keep us in the hearts of he was writing the show. So, is the story of Larson our loved ones. We can live for the present without as mortifying as it was initially depicted? There is trying to understand the infinite questions that we something heart-wrenching in the thought of a have about what happens once we stop existing. young, original writer never getting to harvest the fruits of his labour. Larson is not the only artist to find success after his death. Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Franz Kafka, and Vincent Van Gogh are just mere examples of artists who did not get to see success in their lifetimes, but nevertheless, are spiritually immortal. Do those legacies that they leave behind not turn their stories into ones of triumph? Oftentimes, instead of combating their fear of death by striving towards a legacy, people turn to religion. A significant fraction of the major religions, like Buddhism, Hinduism, and the Abrahamic religions, promise eternal life to their believers. Despite this, studies have shown that being religious does not make you any less susceptible to fearing death. A reason for this is due to the notion of there being an afterlife. Apeirophobia is the fear of everlasting life. The human brain is not fit to cope with the concept of eternity. Martin Weiner, a researcher of the neurology of time perception claims that the human brain has “no way to project ahead to forever” when thinking about the concept of eternal life. Eternal life is a movie in which the credits never roll, and that is as suffocating as the inevitability of running out of time. What is the solution, then, if both mortality and immortality frighten us? I can see no answer but to live for the present. Spend these days of living wisely. Do not worry about the material things you will achieve, but care about how you wish to be remembered.
Sources:
“Awards That Rent Has Won”, AngelFire Azarian, Robby. “Apeirophobia: The Fear of Eternity” 2016, Breuning, Loretta. “The Animal Urge to Leave a Legacy”, Psychology Today, 2011 Breyer, Melissa. “10 Famous People Who Died Before They Were Household Names”, MNN, 2013, Gregoire, Carolyn. “How Creative Achievement Eases Your Fear of Dying”. HuffPost, 2016. Lindsay, Toni. “Are You Crippled by the Fear of Leaving no Legacy Behind?”, Psych Central, 2018, Mancini, Mark. “11 Things You Should Know About Rent,” MentalFloss. Morrow, Angela. “When Your Fears About Death Are Unhealthy”, VeryWell Mind, 2019, Perach, Rotem & Wisman, Arnaud. “Can Creativity Beat Death? A Review and Evidence on the Existential Anxiety Buffering Functions of Creative Achievement”. 2016, “Symbolic Immortality”, The Legacy Project. “The Epic of Gilgamesh—The Oldest Story in the World”, Kwintessential, Urban, Tim. “Putting Time in Perspective”, Wait But Why?, 2013 Van Gelder, Lawrence. “On the Eve of a New Life, an Untimely Death”, The New York Times, 1996,
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Does History History Repeat Itself? Repeat Writer: Habiba El Hadidi Editor: Mahmoud Fadel
Habiba Elhadidi is a writer with interests in politics and history. She likes writing about political and social issues. certain patterns in history that one cannot unsee. Thus, in a metaphorical sense, history is repeated. What can better explain this notion is a quote often attributed to American writer Mark Twain: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”
“History repeats itself.” This is a statement that has been used so often that it has become a cliché. The notion has been present in almost every field from Medicine to Economics. But does history really repeat itself? Is everything we go through and experience, some other people’s past, and eventually some other people’s future? Just by reflecting on their own lifetime, one would realize that history does and does not repeat itself. It does not because no circumstances of any two people are the same; our experiences are unique, so history does not really “repeat” itself. And it does repeat itself because there are recurring themes that have taken place throughout the course of history: wars, invasions, revolutions, poverty, economic recessions, and economic growth are all in every person’s timeline. There are
The notion that similar events can be “repeated” throughout history is known as Historical Recurrence. The concept of historical recurrence is centuries old and can be traced as far back as 146 BC in Rome. Greek historian Polybius, in his documentation of the rise of Ancient Rome in The Histories, argued that history is cyclical. He explained that governments follow a certain sequence, in terms of how authoritarian they are—which can be traced. It is very similar to what Plato explained in The Republic: “wise ruler(s) give way to aristocratic rulers... who give way to wealthy rulers... [then] to democracy... [then] to tyranny… which by accident gives way to a wise tyrant starting the whole cycle again.” In 1377, Islamic scholar Ibn Khaldun wrote in his Muqaddima that when asabiyya—Arabic for “social solidarity”—unites nomadic tribes, they emerge victorious in battle due to their military prowess and solidarity. But within a few generations, the victorious tribesmen become corrupted by extravagance and leisure. The ruler, who can no longer rely on fierce warriors for his defense, will have to raise taxes to pay for other sorts of soldiers, and this in turn may lead to further problems that result in the eventual downfall of his dynasty or state. This point in the “life” of a nation is what Ibn Khaldun called “political midlife crisis.” Ibn Khaldun compares governments to people; they grow and develop until they reach an end. While every one of us is unique, we all go through the same phases in life. And if one takes a moment to reflect on the governments they witnessed, they’ll be able to understand the metaphor Ibn Khaldun used. Speaking of cyclical history, one has to bring up Nicollo Machiavelli’s The Prince. In the book, it is clear that studying history is a means of predicting the future. Machiavelli traced patterns in the events of the time by analysing similar historical events of the past. Three centuries later, Friedrich Nietzsche introduced his theory of eternal recurrence: “the idea
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that with infinite time and a finite number of events, events will recur again and again infinitely.” That belief is essentially very similar to Mark Twain’s quote: “a favorite theory of mine [is] that no occurrence is sole and solitary, but is merely a repetition of a thing which has happened before, and perhaps often.” This is definitely more philosophical and expansive, but would make sense when considering that history is “cyclical.” In other words, everything has a cycle that one has to take a moment to discern. Since we have come to conclude that there are “cycles” in politics, we can adapt the same approach in economy as well—since the two go together. The following are two examples of “recurrence” in economic history. In 1929, after great economic growth in the U.S. economy, massive sales of overpriced shares caused the stock market to crash. The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from the stock market crash of 1929 till 1939. Decades later, in 2006, banks offered massively risky loans that they couldn’t afford, which in turn led to falling housing prices; a sign of the upcoming catastrophic 2007-2008 financial crisis, later known as the Great Recession. The 2008 financial crisis pressured the Greek economy, resulting in a budget deficit of almost 13% of its GDP. As a result, Greece’s market crashed, scaring off investors, and forcing the EU to give funds provided that Greece take austerity measures. The two financial crises started in the U.S., but later spread to the remainder of the world. They caused a number of issues on political and social levels—the rise of the Nazis to power in the 1930s, or the pressure among Greece and the European Union (2007-2008) and high unemployment rates in both periods. But do these two economic crises serve as evidence that history repeats itself? The Great Depression and the Great Recession were the results of different dynamics; however, while they are slightly different, they do show that there is a pattern. One current aspect that is said to be a result of “history repeating itself” is the rise of tyrannical regimes, paving the way for injustice and inequality. Over the last few years, dictators have risen to power in many of the world’s countries. Ironically, extreme right-wing politicians and ideologies are even gaining popularity and influence on governmental decisionmaking in many world democracies. But is this really
the first time in history that people all over the world have endorsed tyrannical regimes? Anyone who lived during the early 20th century would argue differently. That period witnessed the rise of some of the world’s most dangerous authoritarian regimes and autocracies: the Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin, Italy’s Benito Mussolini, and Germany’s Adolf Hitler. Tracing back how these dictators rose to power takes us back to the late 19th century when extreme conservative parties rose to power: Russia’s Bolshevik regime paved the way to notorious dictators like Stalin. Endorsing Karl Marx’s hatred for the “bourgeoisie,” Lenin pushed that philosophy farther, exterminating the so-called “aristocracy.” In Germany, it was the Nazis who offered slogans and rhetoric that uncannily bear resemblance to today’s political arena. But then again, are those situations evident of some sort of “repetition” in history? Not quite the case; back then, Communism was the alleged magic wand that these rulers claimed would solve all the people’s problems. Nowadays, dictators are employing different tactics. If the events are not exactly what is repeated, then what is it? It seems that history repeats itself because we repeat our actions. We prefer going with our emotions, even though we have a centuries-old history to reflect upon. If we do not learn from our predecessors’ mistakes, we are inevitably going to repeat them. As author George Santayana put it: “Those who cannot
remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
History offers a precedent, lessons to learn, and priceless knowledge that if we do not make use of, we would fall victims to our own ignorance. History will repeat itself, unless we learn to do things differently.
Sources: Amadeo, Kimberly. “Causes of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis”. The Balance, 2019. Amadeo, Kimberly. “Greek Debt Crisis Explained”. The Balance, 2019. Anderson, R. Lanier. “Friedrich Nietzche”. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2017. “Great Depression,” History. Issawi, Charles. “Ibn Khaldun | Muslim Historian”. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019. Richardson, Benjamin W. “On the Phenomena of Historical Repetition: A Study of the Relation of Historical to Scientific Research”. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 1877. Trompf, G.W. Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought: From Antiquity to the Reformation Wallerstein, Immanuel. “A Theory of Economic History in Place of Economic Theory?”. Revue économique, 1991.
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Photographed by Nada Mohamed Original drawing by Khalil Gibran Implemented by Mariam Ismail
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The Lost
Truth
Writer:Yumna Omar
Editor: Asmaa Elnaggar
Yumna Omar is just another writer trying to be a writer.
“Tomorrow is a mystery and yesterday is history,” or is it? Contrary to Master Oogway, I believe yesterday is the real mystery. Under the light of historical revisionism, new evidence can always be pieced together in a different way to give or deny a different truth. Not to mention that history, first and foremost, is a narrative that varies our perception of the past based on who is writing it. The true past is tarnished both deliberately and indeliberately due to unintentional subjectivity being a by-product of a historian’s background, tone, and perception, and
it is often easy to differentiate from fact. The danger is in deliberate human intervention because it alters history from a study looking for truth of the past to a means controlling reality through alternating/writing history to fit their own narrative. Alternative history is often what we use to indicate a genre of speculative fiction in literature or pop culture, but how much of our history can we truly acknowledge as true? If certain events or elements of the present had been exaggerated, wiped out, or fabricated in documentation, what would the future tell of our present? A false past directly affects the notion of reality. It would be extremely immoral, and even illogical, to rob someone of the truth about their past, except when a nation believes it to be useful; that is when propaganda and historical denialism swoop in. Historical denialism, or refusal to accept a past event as reality, usually occurs due to the emergence of new historical evidence that contradicts what a person already knows about their own history, thus giving them room to interpret an event differently or deny its existence altogether. New evidence, however, can be very misleading. Records written in the past, for example, constitute historical evidence. But the problem with these records is that they were written and published by people who hold power, meaning that these records were were used to spread their version of the truth. Since such things were regulated by the government, it had to be in line with their ideals. That’s why, when Winston Churchill said “history is written by the victors”, he was speaking the truth—a truth that “matters”. All records of the past are later taught in schools as “history”. Schooling ensures that
29 desirable knowledge is passed down. For that reason, all history books are biased. They uplift successes and downgrade shameful pasts. As each country comes up with its own history books, history strays further away from absolute truth and draws closer to the mainstream narrative truth of the country in which you live. This conflict was evident between two accounts on the Nanking Massacre, in which Chinese history and most world history describes it as an episode of mass murder and rape caused by the Japanese invation of the Chinese city of Nanjing. The Japanese, on the other hand and contrary to the world, don’t even acknowledge it; so much so that Japanese writer Masaaki Tanaka claims the massacre never really existed, and that several of the crimes of rape and killing were committed by the Chinese themselves against each other. This creates an even worse problem—a distinction between the truth on geographical and cultural accounts—which renders the absolute truth a hope rather than a goal.
The eradication of parts of history is another tool that was used to help protect the reputations of glorious past leaders. For example, King Thutmose III of Ancient Egypt initiated a campaign to eradicate Hatshepsut’s legacy. He ordered the defacement of her monuments, the erasure of many of her inscriptions, and the construction of a wall around her obelisks. He believed this was necessary to not ruin the prestige of leadership by attributing it to a woman, so that no woman would take the throne from his son. Thankfully, he didn’t succeed, but what if he had? He—as her successor—would have been credited for all her achievements, deemed a better king, and the power of the throne and reputation of the king’s lineage would not have been “tarnished” by a woman. The eradication of parts of the past is terrifyingly powerful. Such alteration, if used frequently, would transfer credit from one king to the next, or allow one to declare himself the only king there ever was by eradicating all evidence Following the example of the Nanking pointing to the contrary. While this would not be Massacre, Iris Chang in her book, The Rape of Nanking, accepted as factual truth, it would make him the claims that “an estimated 20,000-80,000 women only known king of an era. were raped,” while Japanese writers Takemoto and Ohara Yasuo in The Alleged Nanking ‘Massacre’: To conclude, there are many things that Japan’s Rebuttal to China’s Forged Claims, claim that cease to make history factual. The subjectivity of only 361 rape incidents took place. Because statistics historians, different narratives of the same incidents, from testimonies varied, the number was attained missing statistics, and power struggles make the by sample size. Out of 1700 surviving women, 44 past seem more mysterious than the future. The were rape victims (approximately 2.5%); sampling it concept of alternative history is very plausible. to the female population in Nanking concluded that However, like common history, it lacks sufficient there were approximately 12,500 rape cases. These evidence—though that is partly because it looks for were later found to be approximately 37,500 cases, real factual evidence, of which there is very little. because each woman was targeted by a group The “truth” is that we may never be certain of of males or the same male repeatedly. Proof of what the past really looked like, The past may be number—especially when it comes to people—may lost in a burnt record or an altered book, but the be difficult to track, but is a powerful justification for present is ours. The present is yet to be lived, even if compensation, be it financial or symbolic. Numbers it goes untold. The greatest respect man could give serve a purpose, a narrative goal. Exaggeration can to time is action, and the greatest loss passivity; prove useful in making any event more ruthless, for the past may already be lost, exaggerated, or any ruler more significant, or providing any minority faked but the present isn’t hopeless. with a more oppressed historical background. Because statistics vary, there is no real way to Sources: Burchett, George. “Denialism: The Historical Denialism of Japan’s Crimes Against 2018. extract a clear number or percentage. That is not Humanity”, Crosson, Dan. ““The Fabrication”: Japanese Denialism of the Nanking Massacre”. Critical to say the the act of rape is moral or acceptable if Reading and Analysis in History, 2017. El Ghandour, Ahmed. “ ثانية1602 ”الدحيح—الفراعنة يفAJ+, 2019. done fewer times, but it does decrease the horror “Evaluating Contradictory Data and Claims”, Writing on History. Biography, 2019. of a massacre to an assault of a few, and maybe “Hatshepsut.” “Revisionism, Denialism, and Negationism in History”. Critical Reading and Analysis in in another storyline alter the definition of genocide. History, 2017.
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Melting Men by NĂŠle Azevedo
