Hassan Mashhor Alsharq Like other Arab and international societies, the Saudi society has various kinds of political, economic and social activities. It is not an exception. However, we should all realize that what we used to call the "privacy" of our society is dead. It has been virtually killed by the continuously changing times. Whether we like it or not, we will be influenced by the changes resulting from the revolution of communication and information technology, as well as the rapid growth in the field of inventions and creations. We will also be influenced by the cultural closeness and the civilizational rapprochement taking place around the world. We will be obliged to look at the cultures of other societies who, in turn, will be looking at the positive and negative aspects of our own culture. Though we are well aware of the huge changes that will come by time, we have not prepared ourselves to deal with them. We take whatever will serve our purpose and drop the rest. We will sift these changes to accept those that are not against our religion or values and discard whatever changes may be harmful to us. Instead of gearing up for the inevitable changes, we are busy dealing with trivial matters at the expense of other important issues. You will see us disagreeing on the four Muslim Caliphs or enter into controversial sectarian topics that may jeopardize our national unity. We may get busy commenting on a trivial and sarcastic tweet about the correctness of the Prophet's (peace be upon him) Hadith regarding the usefulness of drinking camel urine. Instead of slapping the tweeter, we should let the official religious authorities to reply to him. This is the time of ostentatiousness. Everybody wants to be considered the good Samaritan and to defend the trivialities, as if they were issues of vital importance to our society. Instead of boasting falsely about his role to defend society against high consumer prices, the man who does this should instead inform the Ministry of Commerce or the Consumer Protection Society about the trader who unjustifiably increases his prices. We need deeds, not idle talk. If a person offered to give an ostensible man a bribe to do him a certain favor, the man should report him to the concerned authorities, instead of just refusing to accept the bribe, because the briber may try this on another official. Did this man, who wanted others to accept him as a benevolent human being, ever prevent his neighbor from abusing his wife or children, instead of just talking or writing about domestic violence? Did any of us ever approach the directorate general to combat drugs, to inform them abut a drug smuggler or user, though we are very well aware about the destructive effects of drugs on families? These are our duties as citizens. When we give up the duties imposed on us by the citizenship, we will be relinquishing the teachings of our Islamic religion. Therefore, we should focus on important issues, not the unimportant ones. It seems that we are practicing what is called "social hypocrisy" and that our consciences are in deep slumber.
