"Returning to one's roots" or "rediscovering local identity" — the subject I addressed in previous articles — is not merely an ordinary topic written to fill space, nor is it a random choice at this particular moment. All the indicators surrounding us, all the events shaking the region, and all the aspirations and illusions filling the minds of those who dream of and plan the reprogramming of peoples, the redrawing of maps, and the shuffling of human beings across geographies in order to dissolve the idea of rootedness, belonging, and identity — all of this has become plain to see. Those pursuing these goals fight fiercely at times, and through soft diplomatic means at others, to reach their malicious ends. Yet those ends have never been, and never will be, shattered except on the rock of reality: the reality of the person who believes in his identity, holds fast to his roots, and refuses to dissolve into other languages, other clothes, other customs, traditions, arts, and sentiments that belong to other peoples.
In addition to these wars — small and large, hidden and declared, successful and failed, short-lived and long-drawn — which are among the reasons for the powerful return to roots and the rediscovery of the cultural identity reserves of the region's peoples, there are other reasons as well. We began with the first of them in the previous article. The second of these motivations is that the distinctiveness of identity grants the individual clear meaning in the face of fluid and undefined meanings in a rapidly changing world. The faster the world's transformations accelerate, the greater a person's need for a fixed point and a deep, defined reference in which to believe and to which to hold. In this regard, the Egyptian and the Irish, the Emirati and the Japanese, the Moroccan and the Norwegian — and so on — are all alike.
The paradox, however, lies in the role of social media. These platforms were intended to dissolve differences and merge peoples, yet they have helped revive identities in ways no one expected.
The very tool once believed would unify the world has instead helped highlight difference. Any individual, community, or group can now broadcast its folk dances, the distinctive qualities and possibilities of its cuisine, the particularity of its foods, its dialects, arts, music, clothing, geography, and history — transforming these elements into a source of pride, a means of gathering a scattered diaspora, and a claim to uniqueness.