Scholar Speaks of The Way We Have Become

ATHENS- Ihab Hassan, a post-modernism scholar, spoke to a crowd of 70 professors and students in Park Hall on Tuesday afternoon about “the way we, as Americans, have become in this current age. The way that things must seem, not be.” Sponsored by the Wilson Center for Humanities and Arts, this American literary theorist offered his deep, intellectual criticism of the current conception of truth, American politics, economics, celebrities, the mind, and the arts.

Hassan has written numerous books on the idea of truth and post-modernism, and is a very prolific critic. Born in Egypt, Hassan made his way to the United States and became incredibly successful as a writer and scholar. His works include “A Plague of Mendacity: A Plea for Truth, Trust, Altruism,” “From Postmodernism to Postmodernity: the Local/Global Context,” and “The Eagle, the Olive Branch, and the Dream: Changing Perceptions of America in the World.”

Steve Corey, a professor in English at the University, introduced the speaker. “I have known Hassan for forty years, and just met him today,” said Corey. Corey highlighted some of Hassan’s accomplishments and ended his introduction by stating, “There is no such thing as an idea too large.”

Dressed nicely in a suit and tie, Hassan took the stage and began his lecture by comparing his feelings about the world to the “incessant buzzing of bees.” He forwarded the speech by stating that this was a work of testimony and personal criticism.

Trust, Hassan said, has deep historical roots. It relates back to the great philosophers such as Locke, Hume, and Kant, who had a benevolent view of trust, with regards to human sympathy. Truth in the past was considered a leap of faith, something spiritual. Yet today, the definition of truth has changed.
To Hassan, “Truth is now cognitive dissonance. We credit what demands nothing of us.”

“We have perceptions all of the time, but without substance,” said Hassan. He then went on to expand on this idea by focusing on different aspects of society today.
First, he discussed politics and economics. “Stagecraft is stagecraft,” he said, with regards to politics. He then went on to theorize that we perceive merely through appearance. “If appearances is all there are to see why speak at all?”
Marketing is now, as he refers to it, “the grip of an insidious hand outstretched.” He theorized that we even “sell by pretending not to sell.” He highlighted the fact that spam and the web have transformed marketing.

Facebook and MySpace are new innovative social media tactics used by many people today. Yet with reference to the mind, Hassan questioned the quality of the friendships based on these sites, and if this was a redefinition of self.
“The urge to socialize becomes the urge to be perceived as socialized. You alienate yourself in yourself,” said Hassan.

With more regards to Facebook and MySpace, Hassan expressed a concern: “The concern is thinning of self when perception becomes reality.” He offers the idea that this may be a generation of change, but also highlights that despite this, a society that cannot transmit values ceases to exist. Meaning, the generation is lost.

The “missing beam” in America for Hassan is the Arts. He made a point to distinguish the “American popular arts that are the gold utensil of entertainment” with literature, to which he attributed much greater a value. Hassan stressed that one should “trust the novel, not the novelist.” He also quoted C.S. Lewis, with which he once said “My own eyes are not enough for me.” Meaning, to see is to see through the eyes of other people. This is an “imaginative” trust.

Hassan made a true statement in his speech, which is that America has lost its sense of reality, truth, and the importance of true literature.

“Nothing is the best way to look at things,” said Hassan. “Like 30 spokes that share a wheel’s hub, but it is the hole that provides the usefulness.”

“Naked we see the reality at last.” He concluded.

University of Georgia English student, Jackie Daane, attended the lecture. Her reaction to the speech was that it provided her with insight that she had not thought about before. “I had never really considered my definition of truth and my perception of it,” Jackie said. “He presented a very interesting point when he wrote about how Facebook thins a person’s sense of self. We all use this social network too often, diminishing the foundation of what a true friendship is.”

According to the English department, a version of Hassan’s work will be published in The Georgia Review sometime in 2009, the ninth of his essays to appear in the journal during the past three decades.