Arabs have all sorts of aspirations, ranging from the liberation of Palestine to Arab unity from the "roaring ocean to the rebelling Gulf," a slogan popularised in the 1960s.
The Islamic State (IS) harboured ambitions to conquer Rome; others call to rectify the "big mistake" of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's abolition of the Muslim caliphate, as evidenced by a banner recently spotted in a European capital that said, "The caliphate is the solution", according to The European Conservative.
It's not wrong to strive toward utopia. In fact, it is comforting to believe that a better and brighter future—away from a grim, challenging, and monotonous present—is possible.
Indeed, many political ideologies have had a profound impact throughout human history. But it is also important to be realistic and understand that historically, such "promised paradises" often culminate in disaster and suffering.
From the Third Reich, who vowed to secure peace and happiness for the German people "for a thousand years" through the occupation of Lebensraum, deemed essential for its ambitions, to the forced relocation of Cambodians to the countryside by the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot to Mao Zedong's "Great Leap Forward"—none ended well.
The problem is when people misunderstand the forces influencing present-day events, This skews perceptions of what can realistically be achieved.
As German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel famously noted, history plays a "cunning" role in this process. It conceals major surprises and upheavals behind the monotony of expected events and the dull succession of countless days devoid of anything new.
This can lead people to believe that nothing will change unless radical and swift action is taken without understanding their full consequences and impact.
