Restoring souls in a dehumanizing age

Having just turned 50, I have been reflecting on the principles I have tried to pass on to my son — lessons from idioms, aphorisms and the like, including “what goes around, comes around,” “happiness is an inside-out process,” and “the grass is not always greener on the other side.”

Life has revealed to me the deeper meanings of these sayings. It has taught me the difference between relevance and presence — between being seen and truly being here. Between personality and personal reality; between human beings and being human.

Slogans or not, at the center of them all is the humanity that lives inside each of us. The layers of experience built up over years, with their trials and tribulations, must not conceal our inner core of being. That realization compelled me to share this reflection.

We are indeed witnessing a global process of dehumanization — people becoming detached from meaning, empathy and genuine connection.

Everywhere, the signs are visible: in the way we speak, interact and even dream. The world has become increasingly transactional.

Conversations are replaced by notifications, relationships by networks, feelings by emojis and emotions by data.

The human being, once at the center of existence, has become a background process in a system designed for speed, output and profit.

Markets have replaced morals, algorithms have replaced intuition, and the pursuit of efficiency has stripped away our capacity to be truly present.

The solution cannot be merely political or economic; it must be deeply human. No policy reform or technological breakthrough can restore what has been lost if the human heart remains detached.

What is needed is not a revolution of systems but a restoration of souls. There should be a deliberate, conscious effort to bring ethics, empathy, and emotional intelligence back into the public sphere.

Politics may organize us, economics may sustain us, but only humanity can dignify us.

“There should be a deliberate, conscious effort to bring ethics, empathy, and emotional intelligence back into the public sphere.”

Ibrahim S. Saad

We need to recenter human connections to remind ourselves that empathy and humanity are the infrastructure and core of civilization.

Empathy is not weakness; it is wisdom. It is the invisible architecture that holds societies together when institutions falter.

A civilization without empathy may advance scientifically, but it regresses morally.

Rebuilding that emotional infrastructure begins with the smallest gestures: listening to understand, disagreeing with respect and seeing in others not opponents, but mirrors.

Reconnecting people through shared experience, dialogue, respect, ethics and dignity is imperative for survival, not just a sentimental idea.

The future of humanity will not be determined only by artificial intelligence, geopolitics or economic systems, but by whether we remember how to feel and how to connect.

To remain human in an age of machines is the greatest act of resistance. To practice compassion in a time of cynicism is a form of rebellion.

Re-humanization must become our collective project — in schools, workplaces, governance and digital spaces alike.

Only when human beings see one another again — not as consumers, voters or data points, but as reflections of the same fragile human — can the world begin to heal.

The task before us is simple: to look again, to listen again and to feel again. Our salvation will not come from the screen but from the gaze; not from algorithms, but from the heart.

The healing of the world begins with the recovery of our shared humanity, in remembering that what truly connects us has no price, no code and no market value.

• Ibrahim S. Saad is a family man, business leader and coach.