The Way We Have Become

Against a background of a white marker board with nothing written on it in Park Hall, Professor Ihab Hassan explained how American culture has become a culture of nothingness, yet a nothing is always a something.

In other, more intellectual words- “If you look at the number 0 you see nothing. But look through it & you will see the world,” Hassan said, “How many of us can see the world through nothing?”

Ihab Hassan is a literary scholar. Hassan’s lecture, entitled The Way We Have Become, was sponsored by the Wilson Center for Humanities and Arts. He is a Wilson Center visiting artist, an honor voted for every year by faculty regarding the most creative and widely appealing scholar.

Steve Corey of The Georgia Review nominated Hassan and, during his introduction, told the audience of about 70 students and teachers: “his [Hassan’s] three books were groundbreaking works, examinations of new writings.”

Hassan began his speech by warning his examination of America and its “tyranny of appearances” might be harsh, but that “themes have hummed and buzzed in my mind lately, like bees…[but] bees buzz and also sting.”

Among those stinging bees is Hassan’s concern that America seems to only be interested in the shallow truths, and will most often settle for lies in exchange for the laziness accommodating a people with no will to examine themselves. “We have perceptions all the time but without substance,” he said.

Without such substance, Hassan believes the media is free to play any role in our lives they wish, marketing our “own” beliefs, politics, and tastes directly to us.

In fact, Hassan stated there is a large discrepancy between whom we should trust and whom we do trust. According to Hassan, “We credit what demands nothing from us. We trust those who can empty themselves of their needs…you trust the person who wants nothing from you.”

Yet in addition to trusting those who have nothing to gain from assisting us, a large portion of Americans trust the media. In Hassan’s opinion, politics is not so much about the issues between the candidates as it is about the issues of perception.

“State craft is stage craft,” Hassan said, meaning that politics is nothing more than a dramatic play set on a national stage. “Perception is all and the method is magic,” he said, “practiced at the cutting edge of technology.”

“I thought his views on politics were very interesting, especially coming off such a heated and historical election,” said Lauren Andrews, a senior history major, “there is no denying that both candidates tried to play to the cynicism of the voters. I think it is an issue that will be studied for awhile.”

Technology is another huge aspect of American culture that has turned America into shallow, cynical beings. With the introduction of social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace the need to get out and socialize gave way to the need to stay in and socialize. “On these sites a person of any age, race, gender, sexual orientation, or class can have not ten but one hundred friends,” said Hassan. Such an opportunity has flung open many doors but in the process it has slammed the important ones as well.

Hassan stated a worry for the absence of time a person spends along, reflecting. A relationship with the self is vital to a person’s identity and understanding, yet today one can have constant companionship in a number of different formats.

“The urge to socialize becomes the urge to be perceived to be socializing,” he said, “and in the process you alienate yourself from yourself.”

Hassan said that technology will continue to be a powerful tool in our ever-changing culture, “The internet is here. It will not just stay, it will evolve.”

With no true identity or sense of self, what do today’s Americans have to instill in tomorrow’s Americans? Hassan said that societies only survive by transmitting its values from one generation to the next. So, for the continued success of American society, today’s generation must decide what is important to their own lives in order to encourage such behaviors in future generations.

One such value important to Hassan, an immigrant originally from Egypt, can be found in The Constitution. It is more important to him than the typical American dream of money or fame. Yet it reflects an ideal that is quintessentially American. “I believe in the pursuit of happiness...richer, stronger than the dream of riches,” he said.


America has faced many challenges and changes throughout its history. Hassan is unsure about the future of American culture. However, his view on change did hint he has not entirely given up on the American innocence of the past or of the notion that all changes America is undergoing are bad. That maybe the change is just a way of sorting out what America actually needs from all the choices it has.

“Meaningful change,” Hassan said, “always preserves as it destroys.”