Functional communities
Functional Communities are small human groups entrusted by society with various functions often deemed challenging or unacceptable by the majority.
These functions can encompass roles ranging from those considered morally objectionable to those recognized as distinguished and vital. These communities serve as intermediaries, bridging the gap between societal needs and capacities, and may also take on sensitive and security-related responsibilities. The roles held by members of these communities can be simultaneously viewed as both stigmatized and esteemed.[1]
Terminology
Abdel Wahab El-Messiri introduced the term 'Functional Communities' and conducted an extensive examination in his renowned scholarly work, 'The Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism, and Zionism.' Within his scholarly exposition, he stated:
"The functional Communities are small human groups to which classical society assigns different functions, which members of the society see that, for one reason or another, they cannot do themselves. These functions may be degrading from the point of view of the society and are not viewed with reverence in its value system (such as astrology, prostitution, and Usury), but may also be important and prominent (such as medicine, especially for the ruling family, and fighting). These functions may require a great deal of neutrality and keeping to agreements due to the need of the society to stick to its holiness and higher values. The society might use the human functional member to fill a gap that might come up between its needs and its ability to fulfill these needs (such as the need for new settlers in rural areas, rare experiences, and the need for capital).[2] Furthermore, societies may entrust members of functional communities with functions of particular sensitivity and security significance (such as royal guards, physicians, ambassadors, and spies). The roles assigned to members of functional communities can simultaneously be considered both degrading and distinguished and possess an inherent sensitivity.
Moreover, immigrants often transform into Functional Communities (in the initial stages of settling in their new homeland) because basic roles are typically already occupied by members of the host community. Colonial powers consistently attempt to mold minority members into Functional Communities responsible for specific roles, offering advantages in exchange for their loyalty. Members of Functional Communities pass down their expertise in their occupational field through generations, consolidating their knowledge. Ultimately, they derive their identity and self-perception from this process. This is a process facilitated by the majority society, as a member of a Functional Community is defined by their role, rather than their holistic humanity, reducing their identity to this dimension."[3]
Core characteristics of Functional Communities
Functional Communities are characterized by several fundamental traits, including:
1- Utilitarian Contractual Relationship:
Members of the host society engage in a lucid, rational, and mutually beneficial contractual association with members of the Functional Community, characterized by transparency and a lack of ambiguity. Within this relationship, each party regards the other as a means to an end, perceiving them as a valuable resource. Interactions are based on the utility that each party provides.[3]
2- Isolation, alienation and the feeling of impotence:
Members of the host society and members of the Functional Community uphold a deliberate separation between them. The host society isolates members of the Functional Community, leading to a profound sense of estrangement among the latter. Invariably, members of the Functional Community gravitate toward the governing elite, displaying a profound allegiance to it. The elite imports them as instruments for controlling the masses and for absorbing accumulated wealth and surpluses. It secures their perpetuation. However, it refrains from engaging them in positions of authority, rendering them without a foundation within the populace and devoid of a basis for wielding power. They persist in a state of perpetual apprehension, consequently refraining from aspiring to participate in governance due to their tenuous status. The loyalty of Functional Community members to the governing elite may intensify to the extent that they frequently evolve into a subservient Functional Community.[3]
3- Isolation from time and space, and a false feeling of identity.:
This situation leads to the detachment of Functional Community members from the place and time they reside in. Consequently, members of the Functional Community often form an emotional connection with their original homeland (e.g., Zion, China, tribe, or family). This becomes the object of their loyalty, affection, and cherished emotions, and they perceive themselves as part of its history and heritage. Their sense of estrangement from the host society deepens, and they live within it without truly being part of it. They develop a profound sense of their independent identity (the chosen people in exile or the excluded organic community). However, the Functional Community and its role are the actual and direct basis of the identity of its members. In reality, the cultural lexicon of Functional Community members does not differ significantly from that of the majority society, except in certain specific details. They are instruments without a homeland or a name. However, they genuinely live within the host society, performing their role daily. As a result, their identity becomes fictitious.[3]
4- Ambivalence and relativism in ethics:
Each party in the relationship (members of the Functional Community and the host society) holds a dual ethical perspective. What applies to one party in terms of absolute ethics does not apply to the other. The other is considered outside the sphere of moral prohibitions and absolutes, with the Functional Community often viewed as a chosen people, seeking to maximize its own benefit and pleasure at the expense of the other.[3]
5- Movability:
Functional Community members are notably characterized by their high degree of movability. This quality stems from their role as a valuable resource and a flexible tool that can be readily relocated to different locations.[3]
6- Self-Centeredness and Subject-Centeredness: This situation gives rise to a marked oscillation between self-centeredness, where the Functional Community is considered the self and identity, and subject-centeredness, where the Functional Community is viewed as a service performed for the society. The continuation of the beneficial role becomes a justification for the persistence of the Functional Community in fulfilling its role. If the role ceases to be beneficial, the Functional Community may transform into a marginalized group. Functional Community members may be members of a chosen people, but they are also tools in the hands of the society (self-centeredness and subject-centeredness). This dilemma is accompanied by a deep sense of inevitability.[3]
Functional communities exist in most traditional societies. However, we have observed that Western civilization tends to transform humans into mere means, crystallizing the phenomenon of Functional Communities. Jewish communities have played the role of Functional Communities, where the Jew has become the functional individual. This is the foundation of animosity toward Jews and Judaism. The situation worsened during the Renaissance in the West when Jewish Functional Communities began to lose their functional role.
The Functional State
The concept of the functional community is closely tied to the concept of the functional state. The functional state is a state that establishes or reshapes its orientation, or the orientation of its ruling elite, to undertake a specific function, with this function becoming its core. The functional state is a modern reiteration of the role of the functional community in contemporary times. It is argued that the modern state, after its expansion, and with the increasing power of its security apparatus and the pleasure sector, assimilates all citizens. They become something akin to members of the functional community, performing a function and playing a role, rather than being multidimensional human beings who believe in an ethical system, experience freedom, and shoulder responsibility. It can be said that the functional community always constitutes an excluded organic people, present in society but not of it.[2]
The Functional Zionist State
The functional Zionist state exhibits all the characteristics of the functional community. It enters utilitarian contractual relations with the West (service of Western interests in exchange for Western protection). It is an isolated citadel, viewing itself as separate from time and place, and possessing a deep sense of its superiority and sacred mission. It adopts a dual moral code in its relations with itself and others.
References
- ↑ عبد الوهاب المسيري، موسوعة اليهود واليهودية والصهيونية، ص390،386
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Professor Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri". Philosophers of the Arabs.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 المسيري, عبدالوهاب (2003). موسوعة اليهود واليهودية والصهيونية الموجزة (in Arabic) (8 ed.). القاهرة: دار الشروق. pp. 28–29. ISBN 978-977-09-3635-1.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link) Search this book on
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