George Banna, Ruba Mansour:

   And what should the Arab peoples do when the authoritarian and popular locusts devour everything in their path? Some might answer that these peoples should eliminate the locusts, We do not think that this answer is absolutely correct, especially in this region, Perhaps it is more accurate to say that they should overcome their instinct to venerate the locusts, their symbols, and the implications of locust-like behavior, Perhaps they should also overcome the tendency to attribute the worst qualities to the rulers and to despise them, which may develop into a kind of “mental habit”… How and why?

There are many ways to overcome authoritarian locusts and correct the relationship between the ruler and the ruled, Among them, as we mentioned, is overcoming the instinct of the locusts to venerate the ruler, and among them is also overcoming the instinct to attach the most heinous descriptions to the ruling locusts, The first way seems very logical and also populist, while the second way does not seem at first glance to be logical, and this may lead the reader to think that we have lost our minds, In any case, it is an unfamiliar view that requires clarification and explanation.

The persistence and addiction to denigrating the ruler is not related to whether the ruler is sacred or profane, good or bad, acceptable or competent. Rather, it is related to the transformation of denigrating the ruler into what is called a “mental habit,” A person who rejects the locusts, for example, becomes accustomed to practicing contempt, such as contempt for the ruler, Over time, contempt for the ruler transforms into a kind of contentment with what is necessary to overcome him, The ultimate goal of overcoming the ruler is to unleash one’s tongue within four walls, Here, the necessary, overwhelming revolution against the Pharaoh shrinks to merely cursing him as usual, The habit of cursing and denigrating becomes a kind of belittling of the opposition to the locusts, Thus, cursing becomes a kind of stable mood, readily available on demand. The more the locusts are unleashed to devour everything in their path, the greater the governed person’s ability to tolerate the ruler and coexist with him under the duality of cursing and gnawing, The ruler gnaws, and the opponent curses, Here, denigration transforms into a delusional revolution and a emasculated brilliance of patriotism, which instills in the ego of the opponent or the imaginary revolutionary a feeling Satisfied with his duty, he insulted and did not fall short, On the other hand, the authoritarian locusts feel relieved, because the humiliation does not effectively affect the ruler,The sultan has become accustomed to hearing the insults and has adapted to them, considering them “chatter,” Let them chatter while I eat everything in peace.

The habit of resisting the ruler exclusively through satire reduces the sensitivity of the governed to the shocks inflicted upon them by the ruler from time to time, How could the most foolish dictator in the world have established a hereditary kingdom in Syria if the Syrians had not, by virtue of habit, become a phenomenon of exclusively satirical speech, and if the Syrians had not felt the wisdom and prudence of being content with satire? This is what we observe on social media platforms, as the standard for the intensity of opposition is the intensity of satire, and thus pages are crowded with satirical posts and comments, which absorb the rest of the forms of opposition or resistance.

The most extreme form of action in 2011 was a timid demonstration that lasted for months, until it was decisively crushed by armed Islamist factions, For various reasons, the revolution was unable to escalate and develop its methods, Therefore, the authoritarian locusts were unleashed, killing, destroying, and sabotaging without the people of the revolution being able to exercise effective resistance, The necessary militarization began timidly, like the revolution, and this made it easier for the factions to attack and assassinate it, Even after the demonstration practically ended, and after the failure to build a military body capable of resisting the factions and defending itself, all other efforts failed to establish an opposition body on the ground in terms of warfare and in the minds of people in terms of thought, All of this was a manifestation of a vocal nation addicted to mental habit. 

Most aspects of the relationship between the ruler and the ruled have turned into a kind of instinct, that is, into something “natural,” into part of the “system” of nature  , especially after the oppressed learned the methods of the oppressor and were infected by his mentality, as Ibn Khaldun confirmed this phenomenon in ancient times, The transfer of the characteristics of the oppressor to the oppressed means that the Syrians have become both oppressor and oppressed at the same time, Therefore, there is no longer any urgent need for the departure of Assad regarding dictatorship and corruption and their continuation, There are millions of successors to the corrupt dictatorial predecessor, There are 23 million dictators in the likeness of Assad, And is there anyone more like Assad than Ahmed, the proponent of the “liberator decides” hypothesis!

 A normal person feels grief and sorrow when he discovers that every individual in society has turned into a dictator, and therefore the matter of replacing the dictator has become of little importance,There is no guarantee that the successor will be better than the predecessor, but on the contrary, the successor may be worse than the predecessor, And is the appointed editor better than the unappointed one?