The Woes of a Sedated Nation
The nationwide protests that gripped Lebanon in October 17, 2019 have become the stuff of legend. Not many still remember what the first days of the Revolution stood for, and fewer still maintain the patriotic passion of that time.
In October 2019, the winds of change rocked the Lebanese status quo for the first time in decades through a popular movement that became known by the Lebanese as the “Thawra,” or Revolution. That is evidently quite hyperbolic, but I digress.
The Thawra, despite its failure in enacting any tangible political change, was a period of political and social awakening that opened the eyes of many disenchanted Lebanese, including myself. Many share my rather warm yearning for the Thawra, yet I, like many others too, can’t help but ask myself if this movement was in vain. Months of peaceful protests resulted in little to no change, what was it all for?
Indeed, we Lebanese live today in circumstances that are drastically worse than those that sparked the Thawra in October 2019, yet there is no movement among the people. The people are sedated.
What I have come to conclude is that the Lebanese people, myself included, are a people that are overly eager for the sedation of ignorance. Ignorance is bliss for the Lebanese, so it is little wonder that we are better at partying in nightclubs than we are at building a nation. This is not something intrinsic, of course: it is the direct result of decades of social conditioning that has marginalized every individual calling for transparent political discourse and has glorified all those weaponizing pseudo-religious rhetoric. The people lie tranquilized. The people are sedated.
The Sedation of a People
What is fascinating in the Lebanese is precisely how vulnerable we are to the loaded speeches of our dear leaders. The very same leaders that have driven this country down the road of apathy and decline. Yes, indeed, these are the leaders whose voices resonate on the evening news in the households of millions. Well, if the generator mafias are so generous as to provide said households with electricity, and if the households can afford to pay the generously priced generator bills.
This is a worldwide problem, of course. All electorates are prone to manipulation by charged rhetoric, but the Lebanese variety of said rhetoric tends to be more violent and vile and hateful. This does not come as a surprise when the many civil conflicts that have transpired in Lebanon are a direct result of the colorful rhetoric of our dear leaders.
How colorful, you ask? Well, the dear leaders have a tendency to color their words with the slightest touch of religious fanaticism that no religion would sanely approve of. Lebanon is a case study of how highly eloquent leaders have weaponized religion and used it to vilify anyone who disagrees with their beliefs. It is obvious though that religion itself has nothing to do with the “conflict” within Lebanon’s ruling class; rather, it serves as a neat front that galvanizes and divides the people along confessional lines while providing a convenient justification for the selfishness of the warlords.
Yes, self interest is the source of all conflict, and all that remains is to convince the people they are fighting for some glorious cause. This is a basic principle for the Machiavellian Prince, of whom any Lebanese warlord is a faithful emulation.
And the Lebanese layperson soaks it all up. The Lebanese layperson, as if being disabled from thinking independently or critically or rationally, accepts the propaganda he is being fed. The Lebanese layperson is a man that is tranquilized, a man that is sedated.
Sedated by an endless barrage of rhetoric and propaganda to which he surrenders so peacefully…
A Spark of Hope
If the ruling class is the master chaining the beast of the working class, then every once in a while the beast snaps back at its master, causing little harm, but sending a shiver down the master’s spine.
Unfortunately, the Thawra is not much more than the snap of a beast at its master before being whipped back into submission. However, it is also the beast suddenly realizing that it can snap back, and it should do so when it is in pain. Perhaps, even, it could unleash its fury and murder its master, decisively freeing itself from slavery… perhaps. Is it still sedated?
The Thawra did not cause direct political change, no, but it awakened in the people a sense of involvement; a sense of power and righteousness. We realized finally that our glorious cause is not the defense of Christians in the East, or the union of the Sunnis with the Arabs, or the battle of the Shias against the West. Our glorious cause, our profoundly Lebanese cause, is the unity of the Lebanese nation…
My Lebanese readers will boldly laugh at this statement. They will say there is no hope. Unity is a lie. Lebanon is France’s little mistake in the Middle East. Shattering the country into a federation is the only hope.
Sure. If division and disunity are your dreams, if warlord-governed princedoms (Machiavellian in every sense) are your dreams, if the erasure of the Lebanese identity is your dream. Then so be it. Reflect only on the Lebanese Civil War; carnage and death as a result of division and disunity.
This is your solution to the Lebanese question? I think not. This is the solution designed and desired by warlords and the Princes to consolidate local influence. Then again, even without federalization, the Princes still govern their Princedoms with the Lebanese government sidelined as an ineffective and corrupt figurehead holding no real power.
To Revolution!
And still… there is a feeling that — somehow — something in Lebanese thought has changed. It may have changed silently for now, but concrete actions always result from abstract ideas. It is these very ideas that the Thawra has changed. I do not think the October 2019 movement is a revolution in the traditional sense, but it did give birth to the idea of a Revolution, a Great Revolution.
Ideas are dangerous to the ruling elite. Thus, they will try to use their control over media, education, and services to nip revolutionary thoughts in the bud. However, thoughts are difficult to police, especially for a failed state, so the thought of a Great Revolution must germinate in the hearts of the Lebanese if they are to take their country back from the fangs of greed.
Once the beast realizes its power,
It is only a matter of time,
Before it rips off its chains,
And turns its hungry eyes,
To the slaver that kept it a slave,
Thinking of the carnage about to come.
Hey there. Thank you for reading through to the very end. The October 2019 Revolution was a unique time on which I reflect quite fondly, and nothing I can write could give it the surreal and cathartic depiction it deserves. Nevertheless, this was my take. If you enjoyed this article, do consider clapping, sharing, and subscribing for more!
