{"id":566,"date":"2026-04-20T15:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T15:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/?p=566"},"modified":"2026-04-20T16:12:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T16:12:28","slug":"on-the-philosophy-that-falls-before-a-drone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/ar\/on-the-philosophy-that-falls-before-a-drone\/","title":{"rendered":"On the phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy that falls before a drone and the cold of the side\u00adwalk: The Lux\u00adu\u00adry of Nau\u00adsea"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n

\n On the philosophy that falls before a drone and the cold of the sidewalk\n <\/h1>\n\n

\n A<\/span> few years ago, I was in Dubai\u2026 a per\u00adfect life par excel\u00adlence on every lev\u00adel. My life in Dubai was the embod\u00adi\u00adment of a con\u00adtem\u00adpo\u00adrary utopia. I used to think of bore\u00addom as an ene\u00admy, until I wished I could return to the bore\u00addom of Dubai\u2019s meet\u00adings while I slept next to the dogs.\n <\/p>\n\n

\n I met peo\u00adple from New York, from Swe\u00adden, and from Japan\u2026 I used to tell them that Dubai is more beau\u00adti\u00adful than most glob\u00adal cities\u2026 Some of them would tell me they came here for a new expe\u00adri\u00adence because they were fed up with their lives in their cities\u2026 a monot\u00ado\u00adnous life, they would say over there\u2026 They came to Dubai and were also suf\u00adfer\u00ading from bore\u00addom even though every\u00adthing was avail\u00adable to them\u2026 an ide\u00adal life, a leg\u00adendary month\u00adly salary, and excel\u00adlent hous\u00ading\u2026 What more do you want? And in abun\u00addance\u2026 more than one indi\u00advid\u00adual describ\u00ading their lives as bor\u00ading\u2026 I would ask them: \u201cHow so? How is your life bor\u00ading?\u201d One says: \u201cToday\u2019s meet\u00ading is bor\u00ading and tomor\u00adrow is anoth\u00ader meet\u00ading\u2026 I am bored of the com\u00adpa\u00adny man\u00adag\u00ader\u2026 I am bored of my col\u00adleague at the com\u00adpa\u00adny who wears a type of per\u00adfume I do not like.\u201d Some of them were deep\u00ader, say\u00ading: \u201cThe worst thing a human faces in his life is empti\u00adness.\u201d\n <\/p>\n\n

The Paradox of Modern Emptiness<\/h2>\n\n

\n In the words I once heard from a friend in Swe\u00adden, he was telling me he doesn\u2019t know what to do with his life, and he would ask me for advice even in his deci\u00adsions, to the point that he didn\u2019t know which major to enter and asked for my opin\u00adion on that. I did not give him any opin\u00adion; I mere\u00adly said: \u201cEnter what you want\u2026 what you love and nat\u00adu\u00adral\u00adly lean towards after you read about the rest of the majors.\u201d\n <\/p>\n\n

\n But let\u2019s return to the top\u00adic; why do they all suf\u00adfer from bore\u00addom and psy\u00adcho\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal empti\u00adness even though they are in the most pres\u00adti\u00adgious areas of the world\u2026 New York\u2026 Stock\u00adholm\u2026 Tokyo\u2026 Dubai? I began study\u00ading the lifestyle of some peo\u00adple in the most pres\u00adti\u00adgious areas of the world, for exam\u00adple, and ask\u00ading them: \u201cWhy do you feel bored?\u201d One of them says some\u00adthing about Nietzsche\u2019s nihilism and that there is no pur\u00adpose to life, and that he drowns every day in watch\u00ading movies and series; he tem\u00adporar\u00adi\u00adly for\u00adgets him\u00adself inside them, then bouts of depres\u00adsion return to him after the end of every very beau\u00adti\u00adful series, mean\u00ading he returns to real\u00adi\u00adty after com\u00ading back from the land of imag\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion.\n <\/p>\n\n

Philosophy from the Safety of Caf\u00e9s<\/h2>\n\n
\n I couldn\u2019t under\u00adstand that\u2026 I mean, why is real life so bor\u00ading in the eyes of oth\u00aders? Even Sartre\u2026 they used to cri\u00adtique life, look for exam\u00adple at his book Nau\u00adsea\u2026 you find him feign\u00ading flaws in real\u00adi\u00adty while writ\u00ading from the finest cafes of Paris, eat\u00ading the best type of fil\u00adlet steak. Hei\u00addeg\u00adger talks about anx\u00adi\u00adety to a degree that makes you actu\u00adal\u00adly feel anx\u00adious, while he is the one spend\u00ading his time in his seclud\u00aded moun\u00adtain \u201chut,\u201d con\u00adtem\u00adplat\u00ading exis\u00adtence far from any real dan\u00adger threat\u00aden\u00ading this exis\u00adtence. Aure\u00adlius\u2026 this man I respect\u2026 I do not know what he would have said to me, but he demands that we face the bore\u00addom of life. But what bore\u00addom, peo\u00adple? You do not know the par\u00adadise you are in because you have not expe\u00adri\u00adenced hell; thus spoke Par\u00admenides about dual\u00adi\u00adties, for the poles of life can\u00adnot be com\u00adpre\u00adhend\u00aded except by expe\u00adri\u00adenc\u00ading the oppo\u00adsite.\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

\n One day, every\u00adthing in my life col\u00adlapsed. I lost my home, and I slept on the cold side\u00adwalk on one of the cold\u00adest nights of Decem\u00adber, with noth\u00ading around me but the bark\u00ading of dogs. An ambu\u00adlance passed, they saw me\u2014a young man thrown on the side\u00adwalk but with life in him. The ambu\u00adlance stopped to take a look then moved away; as if to say, \u201cThis one is still alive,\u201d for ambu\u00adlances at that time did not stop except to take the dead or those on the verge of death\u2026 Nat\u00adu\u00adral\u00adly, as I am a res\u00adi\u00addent of the Mid\u00addle East, this was the prod\u00aduct of the tur\u00admoil of the events of 2023.\n <\/p>\n\n

\n And while I was on the side\u00adwalk\u2026 \u201cWas I think\u00ading about the cold?\u201d even though there was bit\u00ading cold\u2026 No. \u201cWas I think\u00ading about hunger?\u201d even though I was tru\u00adly hun\u00adgry\u2026 No. I was think\u00ading about the words of those peo\u00adple, I was think\u00ading about the philoso\u00adphies of Sartre and Aure\u00adlius. I had lost every\u00adthing, even my baby girl whom I was wait\u00ading for with pas\u00adsion and love, dream\u00ading of play\u00ading with her, but she was abort\u00aded at months old in her mother\u2019s womb because of the war.\n <\/p>\n\n

The Ambulance Does Not Stop for the Living<\/h2>\n\n

\n The ques\u00adtion wasn\u2019t: Why did I leave Dubai and go to my home\u00adland in the Mid\u00addle East? Even though the answer to this was: for the sake of my chil\u00addren. Which is what many fathers would do. But the real ques\u00adtion that was hov\u00ader\u00ading inside me in a semi-dark street with a preda\u00adto\u00adry cold and a rot\u00adting side\u00adwalk while I was stretched out there, with the red and blue lights of an ambu\u00adlance tem\u00adporar\u00adi\u00adly light\u00ading up the street every now and then: \u201cWhat else have I lost?\u201d. And that I had lost the large part of my mon\u00adey since the banks were destroyed too. The ques\u00adtion was: \u201cIs life deceiv\u00ading us? Does it make peo\u00adple think they are in bore\u00addom while they are in par\u00adadise, but because they have not lived through hell, they had no def\u00adi\u00adn\u00adi\u00adtion for the par\u00adadise they live in?\u201d Or I mean they did not real\u00adize it was par\u00adadise since things are known by their oppo\u00adsites, and that it is one of the dual\u00adi\u00adties of Par\u00admenides.\n <\/p>\n\n

Dystopia in Physical Form<\/h2>\n\n

\n I real\u00adized the mag\u00adni\u00adtude of the com\u00adfort I was in, here every\u00adthing is dif\u00adfi\u00adcult. Even while I was think\u00ading about all that\u2026 I was hit with a severe urge to uri\u00adnate. This lit\u00ader\u00adal\u00adly hap\u00adpened while I was think\u00ading about the above\u2026 I first need\u00aded a light to see where to uri\u00adnate\u2026 Of course, I wouldn\u2019t wait for the next ambu\u00adlance to light the way\u2026 I mean, I wasn\u2019t in the Stone Age but in Decem\u00adber 2023\u2026. I want\u00aded to use my phone, my phone was off. I sighed and said lit\u00ader\u00adal\u00adly: \u201cDamn, we real\u00adly went back to the Stone Age,\u201d at least the cave\u00adman didn\u2019t have to wor\u00adry about a drone film\u00ading him while he uri\u00adnat\u00aded to decide whether he was an ene\u00admy or just a liv\u00ading crea\u00adture emp\u00adty\u00ading his blad\u00adder<\/span>. I need\u00aded a place far from the dogs or from the drones that might see me mov\u00ading at night and think I am an ene\u00admy to them from among those armed men, or I even need\u00aded to uri\u00adnate in a place where none of the armed men would see you mov\u00ading at night while you are not one of them, so he would think you are an ene\u00admy too, and it would be impos\u00adsi\u00adble to con\u00advince them oth\u00ader\u00adwise then. The urge to uri\u00adnate increased as I decid\u00aded I would stay as I am.. I didn\u2019t know what to do and real anx\u00adi\u00adety began to seep into my blood and the tips of my hands.. I was even used to clean\u00ading my hands after uri\u00adnat\u00ading, and now, there is no water.\n <\/p>\n\n

\n I was think\u00ading of those who were com\u00adplain\u00ading about the bore\u00addom of their lives, how they are sleep\u00ading now in warm beds, their wor\u00adries being the bore\u00addom of the next day. And as I drift\u00aded in my thoughts and hadn\u2019t got\u00adten up to uri\u00adnate yet, though about an hour had passed.. a dog came sniff\u00ading my hat.. it moved away when I got up star\u00adtled.. and I took anoth\u00ader look around me.. a dystopia in a phys\u00adi\u00adcal, mate\u00adri\u00adal\u00adized form before me. I knew it was a dystopia com\u00adpared to the oppo\u00adsite I used to live.\n <\/p>\n\n

\n I hadn\u2019t told any\u00adone that I trav\u00adeled to a hot zone on the plan\u00adet for the sake of my chil\u00addren\u2026 They still think Ghas\u00adsan is in his library in Dubai, com\u00adfort\u00adable\u2026 while Ghas\u00adsan was sit\u00adting in the bit\u00ading cold.. home\u00adless.. lost his child daugh\u00adter.. lost his mon\u00adey.. his house.. around him is a real dan\u00adger to his life.. he could die.. at that moment if I died the ambu\u00adlance would come because I would be an ide\u00adal corpse, and corpses are the only ones that get a free, safe ride in this city. Sud\u00adden\u00adly, as I was sigh\u00ading and clasp\u00ading my hands.. I auto\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly thought of one per\u00adson.. Edgar Allan Poe; I remem\u00adbered that he was sit\u00adting on a cold, lone\u00adly side\u00adwalk with no one ask\u00ading about him. I don\u2019t know why my thoughts inter\u00adtwined, was I at that moment liv\u00ading a trau\u00adma and my mind entered into delir\u00adi\u00adum or what.. I didn\u2019t know.\n <\/p>\n\n

The Meaning Found in Details<\/h2>\n\n

\n Lat\u00ader and after years\u2026 I mean now, I met anoth\u00ader mod\u00adel who com\u00adplains of bore\u00addom in his life and that he escapes from life by read\u00ading books because real life is bor\u00ading, nihilis\u00adtic, and caus\u00ades exis\u00adten\u00adtial anx\u00adi\u00adety. \u201cWhat exis\u00adten\u00adtial anx\u00adi\u00adety, world?\u201d. Read books on diverse top\u00adics.. watch your favorite series.. prac\u00adtice a hob\u00adby you love.. live with your chil\u00addren, play an enter\u00adtain\u00ading game with them.. walk in the street, you and your child, and tell him about every\u00adthing he has curios\u00adi\u00adty about. If you are reli\u00adgious, thank your Lord, learn new skills that suit you.. after\u00adwards do the same thing.. actu\u00adal\u00adly you won\u2019t do the lit\u00ader\u00adal same thing because you will have changed the series you watch.. and read anoth\u00ader book\u2026 and walked with your child in oth\u00ader places and explained new things to him and learned a new skill.. and this for\u00adma\u00adtion, in addi\u00adtion to the fact that life itself moves, gen\u00ader\u00adates in your life oth\u00ader diverse pat\u00adterns with oth\u00ader details.. these details of life are what cre\u00adate mean\u00ading.\n <\/p>\n\n

\n For exam\u00adple, recent\u00adly, my son and I were sit\u00adting dur\u00ading the day, and by chance, a crack in the win\u00addow cast an image onto the oppo\u00adsite wall. It was a sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant detail, and although my son is only three years old, I explained to him that the images mov\u00ading on the wall were noth\u00ading but the street and its con\u00adtents, pro\u00adject\u00aded upside down on the wall.\n\nSo, I told him, \u201cThis mag\u00adic light trick is actu\u00adal\u00adly the super secret, ancient grand\u00adfa\u00adther of the cam\u00adera in my phone! A long, long time ago, peo\u00adple saw this and fig\u00adured out how to build a box to cap\u00adture those upside-down pic\u00adtures. And that\u2019s exact\u00adly how the very first cam\u00aderas, and even the ones in our phones, were invent\u00aded!\u201d\n\n This hap\u00adpened in a dystopi\u00adan place; so what about the new options avail\u00adable in the rest of the world? We must not close our eyes and say the world is absurd and bor\u00ading. It is not the world\u2019s prob\u00adlem if you fail to see what is in it and instead deem it bor\u00ading and absurd.\n <\/p>\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the philosophy that falls before a drone and the cold of the sidewalk A few years ago, I was in Dubai… a perfect life par excellence on every level. My life in Dubai was the embodiment of a contemporary utopia. I used to think of boredom as an enemy, until I wished I could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[130,133,128,131,134,129,132],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-existential-reflections","tag-boredom","tag-dialectics-of-boredom","tag-philosophy","tag-psychology-of-war","tag-sidewalk-philosophy","tag-survival","tag-the-luxury-paradox"],"blocksy_meta":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/50ba2ed71a.jpg",1024,1024,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/50ba2ed71a-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/50ba2ed71a-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/50ba2ed71a-768x768.jpg",768,768,true],"large":["https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/50ba2ed71a.jpg",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/50ba2ed71a.jpg",1024,1024,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/50ba2ed71a.jpg",1024,1024,false],"trp-custom-language-flag":["https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/50ba2ed71a-12x12.jpg",12,12,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ghassan Nabhan","author_link":"https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/ar\/author\/g21t5000\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"On the philosophy that falls before a drone and the cold of the sidewalk A few years ago, I was in Dubai… a perfect life par excellence on every level. My life in Dubai was the embodiment of a contemporary utopia. I used to think of boredom as an enemy, until I wished I could…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":686,"href":"https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions\/686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghassannabhan.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}