Fawaz Haddad:
The book “The System of Triviality” by Canadian author Alain Dono has gained a good reputation in our country. In it, we can find many factors in the decline of politics and culture, the reasons for what we suffer from, not only because triviality is so high in our societies, but also because of its prevalence. It has become a widespread disease in all Western societies and countries as well, as if it were an additional characteristic of the era. Most clearly revealed in what it has been, is the social media, which is wide open to everyone without discrimination, allowing the greatest and most extensive display of triviality. The good thing is that it is not without its opposite, which seeks to confront it, perhaps to overcome it. These media are not evil, as long as they allow battles to be waged on their arenas.
It is clear that triviality is prevalent at all levels, without being restricted to a particular class, stratum, or individual, whether it is manifested by a high-ranking official or a man from the street. In a sense, the democracy of triviality brings together different inclinations. If we limit ourselves to educated people of the cultured type, it is because the percentage is increasing, while in other circles it is low in comparison to them, that is, ordinary people who are accustomed to acting simply, without masks, and who do not allow the effort and sweat they expend to be based on anything that would waste their efforts.
The trivial support each other, and their power is constantly inflated.
We can easily distinguish the frivolous from the serious and kind person, and the intelligent from the foolish, while the cultured are a completely different matter. Frivolity is fortified with a great deal of compliments, hypocrisy, duplicity and sycophancy, and is armed with sayings with heavy doses of idealism and morality, framed by a cultural charisma claimed by idle talk, carrying a lot of deceit and evasion, appearing as a refined behavior that reflects nobility and elevation. Those who lie lie knowingly, and even when they practice frivolity, it is not arbitrarily, but rather out of authenticity, and they issue it as one of the values that are the latest fashion of the age, and they do not always lack something new.
Alain Dono draws our attention to an observation that indicates that their proliferation, as well as their mutual support, is not random but rather the result of a penetrating self-interested insight. This is no surprise when he says: “The trivial have assumed positions of power, meaning that their efforts bear fruit by occupying important positions in society and the state.” He then asks: “What is the essence of the trivial person’s competence?” This question carries the possibility of the trivial being exposed and disgraced, and the reason for his persistence and the expansion of his dominance, even if he is in an environment where his presence is difficult. The answer is not difficult: it lies in his ability to recognize a trivial person like himself, that is, to form a trivial cultural axis in an environment that should not contain trivial people, who may, over time, become a center of gravity within it.
The trivial support each other, each elevating the other, so that power falls into the hands of an ever-increasing group that has acquired a status. This creates a society that repels those with values, knowledge, and opinions, as they have no place among them. The false prevents the true, just as the degenerate prevents the moral.
What confirms that no one who is insignificant works alone is that it is impossible for a person with insignificant authority to gather around him only those like him. So we do not say that the authority or the head of an authority is innocent of insignificance, while those around it are insignificant. Rather, the bad entourage gathers around a insignificant tyrant.
The false prevents the real, just as the degenerate prevents the moral.