CHAPTER SIX — Modern Possibilities

Modern Possibilities intellectuals took no interest in anything beyond Arabic language and literature. Later, when Europe discovered machine-power and, in consequence, acquired industrial superiority, leadership in thought passed from the Muslims to European nations. Intellectual leadership always follows material advancement. Western Europe, and in particular, Britain, retained this leadership from the seventeenth century till the Second World War (1939-1945). During this period European nations became the academic focal point for all students all over the world. It took the Second World War to shift the material leadership from Europe to America. At present the U.S.A. is the accredited leader in world thought. This can be inferred from the fact that the majority of the books used in research in any field today are written by American scholars. There is ample evidence to prove, however, that the secret of western leadership had a twofold basis: colonisation and cheap fuel oil, the latter’s sources being astonishingly located in eastern countries. Colonisation ended forever as a result of the conditions that came into being after the Second World War. The foundations of American leadership have likewise been badly shaken by the circumstances of the latter part of the twentieth century. Two happenings in 1973—The American defeat in the 10-year old Vietnam war and the devaluation of the dollar—indicated that the U.S.A. no longer had a monopoly over military and economic affairs. Another unpleasant fact—indeed, one of the greatest problems of this modern age—has come to cast its shadow across the face of America, namely, modern man’s loss of faith in the industrial culture. This culture has failed to provide man with the real basis of life; it has rather created many such complex problems as would appear to have no solution. War, economic exploitation, pollution, crime, the disruption of family life and other such problems are the product of an industrial culture which fails lo provide solutions in modern civilisation. It is this failure which has driven modern man into scepticism. The general feeling now is that man needs a