Discussion
The Egyptian culture is powerful, for it withstood thousands of years of constant and sometimes radical social and historical changes which indicates its flexibility and the ever evolving nature of its people; but this culture is now being negatively influenced by surrounding popular trends of western origin more than ever before. This poses a great threat that should be immediately studied and addressed. This research paper aimed to study westernization in Egypt through determining whether or not the military invokes and supports the spread of western trends for its personal interests that don’t include the benefit of the people, Considering the marvelous long list of contributions, the Egyptian culture and society has given to the world, the world would be in a devastating condition if the Egyptian culture were to extinct, for it would be extremely agonizing to loose cultural diversity that would in turn limit the human scopes and perspectives(Gavin, 2014).
Evidence were collected to test this hypothesis trough conducting surveys and online interviews. The results obtained from the survey give a close look at the extent to which western trends have affected Egyptian youths specifically aged between 15- 26 years old, and how this targeted audience felt about such effect. 85% of survey participants have finished pursuing elementary education( Figure 3); therefore, it safe to assume that they have well understood the topic and questions of the survey and gave reliable and accurate answers to what they personally felt or experienced. The survey questions were divided into three main parts and were written in an ascending manner, starting with some specific questions then moving to the general ones. The survey was designed in such way that guaranteed that the results obtained are based on logical and systematic approach.
Investigating Degree of influence of western trends on the Egyptian culture
The first part was from question 4 to question 7 which is concerned with the extent to which the participants felt the influence of western trends. As Figures 4 suggests, most people experience tangible effect of western trends on their work ethics. which greatly indicates that western trends have swept through Egypt to the degree that they reached the roots of the culture and affected most people’s basic functions such as working. Figure 5 further supports the conclusion drawn from figure 4. because when participants were asked about the extent to which they felt western trends affect their daily lives, more than 85% reported that they at least feel a little affect of western trends on their daily lives. This shows that western trends are not only adapted in some limited cultural respects such as work, but also, they extend like an octopus to cover all aspects of daily lives of those participants. Interviews with the three professionals further solidify the idea of the impeding of western trends in the daily cultural aspects of Egyptians, As interviewee1 observed with changes of the clothes pattern of the Egyptian young adults that involved tighter and more revealing clothes in some social classes. Additionally, most participants don’t simply view the spread of western trends in Egypt as a simple spread of ideas, but as a replacing process, where western trends are taking the place of the Egyptian culture (Figure 7). These findings are in contradiction with Mr. Sabah’s remarks in the online interview. Since he preferred to describe this replacing process as a process of Fusion which doesn’t convey any threatening or endangering aspects. Because most of those participants somewhat objected this replacement, it is logical assume that they see it as threatening to their culture.
Investigating the involvement of western agendas in exporting western trends to Egypt
The second part of the survey aimed to find out whether or not Egyptians think the spread of western trends in Egypt is somehow motivated by the west’s colonial agendas, which is presented trough question 8. Majority of participants don’t see the spread of western trends as a threatening behavior by the west which eliminates the idea that the west in trying to impose some form of mind colonization discussed earlier(Mavrinac, 2019; Chulu, 2015).Interviewee 3 confidently agreed that the west has limited Egypt’s economic power to impose its good on the Egyptian people. Interviewee1, further consolidated this idea, as she recalled historical events that clearly show the colonial intentions therefore pointing out the threatening nature of their actions. The remarks of interviewee1and 3 disagree with the responses of participants of the survey and agree Mr. Sabah. This could be due to the fact that most participants of the survey are of different age groups than interviewee1 and 3. This demonstrates that although younger generations realize the danger imposed by the replacement of the Egyptian culture by western trends, they don’t think the west is involved in further motivating the process.
Investigating Egyptian for party/ parties that admit western trends in Egypt
For western ideas and trends to be adapted by society, they have to be admitted or brought by individuals or institutions in the first place. The third part of the survey and interviews is concerned with finding those individuals and institutions, as it aimed to investigate if the role introduced above was occupied by either multimedia platforms or the military or by both. Questions 9 and 11 were designed to ask survey percipients about their views on the extent of involvement of each of the military and multimedia platforms separately. The percentage of participants who agreed that multimedia platforms are at least somewhat responsible to spread western trends were 90%(Figure 9). On the other hand, the percentage of those who agreed that the military is at least somewhat responsible to spread western trends was 30%, which is significantly lower compared to the percentage of those who agreed on the role of multimedia platforms(Figure 11). To further verify this observation, participants were later asked in question 13 to state which of the presented institutions/ individuals were most involved in admitting western ideas to Egypt. Comparting the results of those who chose multimedia and military only, drastically more participants put more responsibility on multimedia platforms than the military. But overall, majority of participants communicated almost equal responsibility on multimedia platforms and the Egyptian people. Not all responses obtained from the interviews comply with those obtained from the survey. Interviewee1 for instance considered the inactive and inexplicit role of the military to have an influence on the matter; therefore, indirectly admitting western trends. Mr. Sabah, however, agreed that the Egyptian people are the institutions/ individuals that welcome western; though, he claimed them to be oblivious to their large role they play. Considering the age difference between Mr. Sabah and interviewee1 and the closeness of Mr. Sabah’s age to most of survey participants, it can be observed that individuals’ opinions on who welcomes western trends in Egypt are somewhat influenced by their age range. The younger a participant is, the more likely he is to report that the military doesn’t welcome western trends most as initially hypothesized in this research paper. This trend could be explained in part by results displayed in Figure 10. While about 70% of survey participants acknowledged the military to at least have some involvement in the Egyptian politics, those young participants didn’t associate this involvement with the spread of western trends.
Future survival of the Egyptian culture
The last part of the evidence gathering was concerned with the future survival of the Egyptian culture. Survey participants were asked if the Egyptian culture must adapt western trends to survive the digital era. Most of those participants anticipated that the Egyptian culture would have to adapt some western ideas to survive. Interviewee3 concurred with the previous statement and elaborated that the Egyptian culture will have to adapt positive western ideologies of work environment such as punctuality and productivity. Interviewee1, however, expected that mot all aspects of the Egyptian culture are likely to survive. Mr. Sabah expressed his optimism with the hope that the Egyptian culture will survive, as he considered other cultures like Hongkong’s went through a similar experience, and it managed to survive and adapt to the digital era.
Conclusion
After carefully analyzing the results obtained from the research methods that included a survey and three interviews, the researcher of this paper concluded that her initial Hypothesis of the involvement of the Egyptian military in admitting and welcoming the spread of western trends into Egypt is indeed wrong, as other more prominent sources such as multimedia platforms and the Egyptian people proved to have more influence among young generations. The researcher also observed that the age range of the participants played a huge role in the results, for there was clear difference between reported answers that complied with differences in age range. As the younger participant were more likely to dismiss the military’s involvement in the spread of western trends in Egypt. the researcher found out that there is a prevailing feeling of concern by the general public towards the replacing of the Egyptian culture by western trends. Lastly, more research is needed to further study the influence of multimedia and the Egyptian people on the permittance of western rends into Egyptian lands in the near future.
Recommendations
A possible method to guarantee the survival of the Egyptian culture and to limit the influence of western trends is to improve the educational system of the country, both academic and the vocational one, as good academic education would give the people the opportunity to think critically; therefore, limit any possible influence from any outsiders. Additionally, the improvement of vocational training would mean that Egypt could fully rely on trained crafts men and trained employees to limit any economic dependency on outsiders.