Media and Intellectual Nihilism: A Poison for Public Debate in Morocco 4782
For some time now, a worrying phenomenon has been spreading in the Moroccan public space: the rise of a nihilistic discourse, sometimes fatalistic and in some aspects anarchistic, propagated by influencers, a certain football audience, journalists, some academics, and even political leaders. This discourse, marked by a radical rejection of any perspective or the multiple tangible signs of progress, reflects a troubling intellectual and civic drift. Instead of stimulating collective reflection and citizen engagement, it fosters distrust, resignation, and disenchantment with the country's future, its institutions, and perhaps even its mode of operation. The prevailing impression is that of a pessimistic trap with no exit.
This nihilism expresses itself through rhetoric saturated with despair and defeatism. Themes of health and education are overused as if they were completely at a standstill. Yet, tens of thousands of Moroccans are successfully treated daily in public hospitals, and all children attend school, many achieving spectacular success that draws admiration internationally.
The discourse reduces Morocco to a state of chronic failure, trapped by political, economic, and social blockages, condemned never to progress. Yet, such a radical and caricatural view obscures the real advances the country has made over recent decades: modern infrastructure, stability in a troubled region, and steady, even impressive, improvements in all social indicators.
Admittedly, these improvements remain insufficient and sometimes unevenly distributed, but outright denial amounts to ignoring the complexity of development, which no model—economic, societal, or political—has managed to resolve perfectly.
Unfortunately, voices spreading these views gain an audience and create a toxic climate for society. Mixed with ideology and unhealthy negativity, they often present religion as a political solution to all problems, while international experience disproves this.
The dissemination of such discourse has consequences. It fuels collective powerlessness and weakens trust in institutions. By instilling the idea that any reform effort is doomed to fail, it encourages social resignation and lays fertile ground for latent, undefined, and immeasurable anger. This context favors demagogic excess, media escalation, and the systematic rejection of any political initiative.
Ultimately, instead of awakening consciences, this nihilism plunges minds into ideological paralysis.
Young people are particularly threatened by this, already facing immense challenges like unemployment, limited access to opportunities, and the quest for social recognition. They are especially exposed to such disorienting messages. Deprived of positive role models, they are tempted toward fatalism, losing confidence in the future and renouncing any form of civic engagement. Yet, a society that despairs of its youth condemns itself to stagnation and decline.
Official media, hampered by lethargy, disconnection from reality, or an unjustified fear of taking risks—both from their leaders and journalists—do little to impose or at least propose an alternative discourse of lucidity and hope.
This is not to deny Morocco’s real challenges: corruption, social inequalities, incompatibility of the education system with modernity, unproductive universities in knowledge and innovation, health system exclusions in some regions, lack of effective governance in many sectors, excessive administrative weight, among others. But these challenges cannot justify an exclusively bleak interpretation of reality.
The responsibility of intellectuals, journalists, and media figures is to propose a critical but constructive vision.
The urgency is to rehabilitate a discourse of balanced lucidity, which recognizes blockages while valuing progress margins. A discourse that denounces failures without annihilating hope. A discourse that highlights shortcomings but also offers solutions. A discourse that holds citizens responsible, that critiques their initiatives and behaviors, that highlights their rights but above all their duties and obligations.
The prevailing nihilism that settles in parts of Moroccan public debate is a slow but dangerous poison. It undermines trust, deepens social fractures, and diverts youth from constructive action and responsibility. Morocco needs critical but responsible voices capable of nurturing a collective project founded on trust, innovation, and the will to build. Without this, society risks locking itself in a vicious circle where cynicism suffocates imagination and inertia becomes inevitable.
Long ago, some were convinced the country was bankrupt; they spoke of an imminent "heart attack." Nothing of the sort happened. On the contrary, the country has advanced, continually progressing, modernizing, and developing. Morocco is increasingly asserting itself in economic emergence and social development, which must not be denied.
