Iraqi Culture and the Intellectual in Light of Political and Social Transformations "The 1960s Generation as a Model"

Abstract

The century-long journey of the modern Iraqi state ended in extreme authoritarianism and despotism, leading to isolation, disintegration, and civil war. The country emerged exposed and vulnerable. After all that transpired, politics alone is blamed for bringing the country back to square one: statelessness, a primitive state, and fragmented identity. If history is a "lesson," as Ibn Khaldun said, then invoking the past is essential for understanding the present and shaping the future. The present is preoccupied with reproducing the political and cultural past, and intellectuals are key partners in political and social transformations. Studying the "spirit of the age" and the intellectual's perspective on these transformations is of paramount importance, yet these are often neglected aspects of study. The intellectual generation of the 1960s represents the clearest example of the contradictions and divisions within 20th-century Iraqi cultural history—a generation that witnessed, participated in, and was a partner in these transformations.