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Introduction – Understanding the “Paramagical Reason”
In The Paramagical Reason: Underdevelopment and Mentalities, Algerian psychiatrist Dr. Khaled Benmiloud identifies a deep-rooted barrier to development: a mindset he calls the paramagical reason. This is not pure irrationality, but an internal symbolic logic based on moral or religious beliefs, where causality is often attributed to external (divine, mystical, or social) forces—excluding doubt, experimentation, and individual historical responsibility.
Professor Benmiloud argues that underdevelopment is partly the product of this mental framework, and that only a deep moral and cognitive reform—prior to any economic or technical reform—can enable societies to overcome it.
But how, then, can we explain the success of nations like Japan and South Korea, whose traditional mental structures are deeply imbued with non-empirical belief systems (Shintoism, Buddhism, Confucianism)? This is where a more nuanced interpretation is needed.
Japan and South Korea: Strong Traditions, Rapid Development
1. Belief Systems That Do Not Hinder Action
Japan and Korea have long operated within a religious and philosophical framework heavily shaped by Shintoism, Zen Buddhism, and Confucianism. These systems rely little on scientific proof and more on symbolic rituals, cosmic order, respect for ancestors, and harmony.
But unlike what Professor Benmiloud refers to as “paramagical reason,” these belief systems:
Never denied human effort or individual responsibility,
Incorporated the notion of impermanence (mujo), encouraging adaptability,
Valued concrete action, artisanal learning, humility, and collective labor.
Japanese example: Shintoism accepts technological innovation as a natural extension of a harmonious relationship between humans and nature. Hence Japan’s early embrace of electricity, railways, and electronics in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Korean example: While hierarchical, Korean Neo-Confucianism promotes study, meritocracy, and the moral role of the scholar. After the Korean War, this tradition was reinvested in an extremely competitive school system, which became a driver of South Korea’s economic miracle.
2. A Deliberate and Directed Break with Mental Blocks
Starting with the Meiji era (1868), the Japanese state consciously orchestrated a mental and symbolic rupture through radical reforms:
Sending young elites to study abroad,
Abolishing harmful beliefs such as peasant fatalism,
Replacing submission to fate with the cult of continuous improvement (kaizen),
Introducing civic morality based on responsibility, not miracles.
This aligns with one of Professor Benmiloud’s key theses:“Change does not come from outside, nor from the economy alone, but from a transformation in the way the individual sees their place in society.”
Counterexamples: When the Paramagical Mindset Blocks Progress
1. Contemporary Algeria and Egypt
Despite vast human and natural resources, some Maghreb and Middle Eastern countries remain hindered by a mentality in which:
Failure is attributed to maktoûb (fate),
Individual success provokes suspicion or envy (rather than emulation),
Science is praised in discourse but not applied in daily life,
Reforms are perceived as “attacks on identity.”
Professor Benmiloud describes this as cultural immunity to doubt and circular reasoning: supernatural explanations are invoked for concrete problems (corruption, school failure, lack of innovation) instead of searching for structural causes.
2. Sub-Saharan Africa and Symbolic Power
In many societies where traditional belief systems remain deeply embedded, invisible forces (witchcraft, ancestral spirits, family curses) may carry more explanatory weight than economic or biological laws.
According to Professor Benmiloud, this leads to a society where “people endure the world rather than transform it.”
Roadmap to Bypass the Paramagical Reason
Professor Benmiloud emphasizes: it is not religion itself that blocks progress, but the failure to separate symbolic belief from rational causality.
Concrete Steps:
1. Moral Education Based on Doubt and Responsibility
Introduce a culture of questioning, debate, and contradiction in schools.
Highlight local role models: entrepreneurs, scientists, reformers.
Teach history with a focus on positive ruptures and homegrown reforms.
2. Create Heroic Narratives Anchored in Action
As Professor Benmiloud suggests, societies need “founding myths of progress”—local equivalents of Japan’s “modernizing samurai” or Korea’s scholar-entrepreneurs.
Emphasize dignity through effort, not inherited or religious status.
3. Develop a Reformist Intermediate Elite
Major reforms come not from the top (enlightened tyranny) or the bottom (popular revolts), but from a literate and reform-minded middle class that believes in collective learning.
4. Demand Local Proofs of Success
Don’t mimic foreign models. Instead, identify local microsystems (villages, businesses, schools) where rational logic has led to visible success.
5. Separate Religious Belief from Public Administration
Personal faith should not structure public services, the economy, or education. This is the prerequisite for modernization without violent identity loss.
Conclusion
The paramagical reason, as described by Dr. Khaled Benmiloud, is not destiny. It can be overcome—not by crushing local beliefs, but by redefining their role in public life, and by cultivating a parallel culture of doubt, evidence, and responsibility, as seen in East Asia.
Japan and Korea did not abolish their traditions—they domesticated them and integrated them into a modernization narrative. This alchemy between identity, civic morality, and instrumental rationality is what developing societies must now invent for themselves.
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