With their proclivity for bragging, and even as they're up to their eyeballs in garbage, corruption, religious voodooism, backwardness and ignorance, the Lebanese make gigantic claims about their country. Here are some examples from the mouths of political, religious and social personalities:
"homeland of culture and enlightenment" - وطن الثقافة والتنوير
"homeland of culture, art and literature" - وطن الثقافة والفن والادب
"homeland of culture, learning/science, and freedom" - وطن الثقافة والعلم والحرية
These statements might have had some relative veracity perhaps 50 years ago when Lebanon was at the vanguard of the Middle East in bridging east and west and adopting liberal social norms. Even conservatives were open to, and tolerant of, evolving ideas in matters of personal freedoms, even though some barbarian feudals pretending to be progressives, like Kamal Jumblatt, were banning rock music groups from landing at Beirut Airport in the 1960s. Imagine how deep in backwardness he must have been to think of rock music as some kind of threat to public decency. You can argue that those were the times and their norms. But how about today and its norms?
Like Don Quixote on his horse with his grandiose illusions, the West today leads the human herd in a constant battle against the windmills of established norms. It is as though the West, thanks to Voltaire, Rousseau and Charles Darwin among others, no longer believes in a stagnant human civilization and is convinced that boundaries must constantly be pushed. What may have been perfect or acceptable has become imperfect or unacceptable a generation down the line. What may be have been seen as indecent has become normal and encouraged. Issues like slavery, colonialism, the oppression of women, racism, persecution of homosexuality, etc. were standard norms a few generations ago, but now the West has upended all of them and is promoting equality, non-discrimination, women's rights, and gender diversity, despite the opposition of reactionary conservative movements on display around the world.
The striking thing is that most people view their world and their norms as immutable, like a one millisecond snapshot in an hours-long rolling movie. They do not understand that theirs is a constantly changing world with a history, a present and a future. By ignoring their history (where their journey has been), people are stuck in the present and cannot imagine and try to shape their future. But in this interconnected world, underdeveloped societies like Lebanon's are akin to Sancho Panza, riding their donkeys and trailing behind Don Quixote by a few decades.
For example, New Zealand was the first country to give women the right to vote in 1893, but it took the US another two decades (1920) to grant them that right, and Lebanon several more decades (1952). With every social and political development that was pioneered by a western country, less developed nations start by rejecting it as a manifestation of a decadent west on its decline. Then, once the "new" norm proves itself in the west to be harmless or even beneficial on the ground, it is imported to our countries by expatriates and younger people (and today via social media) back to their country of origin, and after minor objections it becomes accepted and laws are passed. After the revolutions in the US (1776) and France (1789), democracy was initially rejected by virtually all countries around the world, including Europe itself. Nowadays, even the staunchest monarchies feel guilty and conflicted about their role in the world and have become constitutional monarchies. Other autocratic regimes and dictatorships embark on developing fake forms of democracy (e.g. with pseudo-elections) with which to maintain their dominion: Egypt, Russia, China, Myanmar etc. - come to mind.
Perhaps trailing societies need time to digest and adapt to new developments coming from leading societies. But when I hear government officials proclaiming their steadfast opposition against cultural incursions from the West, even as 95% of their lives are directed by the West (communications, industrialization, commerce, fashion, etc.), I cannot but feel derision at their arrogance, imbecility and ignorance. For example, the current Acting Minister of Interior and Municipalities in Lebanon, Mr. Bassam Maulaui, who oversees a defective universe of corruption, filth, garbage, polluted rivers and ocean front, etc. - not of his making of course since he inherited the cesspool - is pontificating about how he is protecting his otherwise deeply bigoted people against the new international norm of homosexual rights. In this, he joins the former Iranian president Ahmadinejad who once declared emphatically that there were no homosexuals in Iran. Or the scientifically-moronic Chinese ruling Communist Party who is fighting Covid-19 one virus at a time. To wit:
[English translation. Arabic original below]:
The Acting Minister of Interior and Municipalities in the caretaker government, Mr. Bassam Maulaui, met with a delegation of representatives of independent rights associations and activists, and discussed with them the matter of conferences and gatherings promoting homosexuality.
The delegation thanked the Minister for his positions and demanded that he "takes dissuasive measures against this phenomenon before it spreads, with the objective of ensuring the security of society, just as the Minister is keen on the country's security and enforcing the laws pertaining to public decency".
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