NO CLEAR TITLE !!

A people -  Syrian or most of the Arab peoples-  is a living thing, except of course when it's dead. One sign of it's being alive is that it is changing all the time,  and it is an absolute commandment that no change must be interfered with.

For , on the one hand, political change cannot be resisted and, on the other , to repress change would block and oppose life. History cannot be stopped when it suites a governing oligarch.

When the ruling authorities of all Arab states including those of Syria and not excluding those of the Gulf-states, address the general public, they always speak with contempt, disdain  and derision thinking to guide or straighten out a situation or whole segments of the population. They also tend to deny that during the life of a nation it is at times better , more uniform and flexible, than at other times, for whatever happens to it at other more turbulent times is not disorder and decay but necessary evolution .

I'm here playing two roles . As an observer who  refuses to utter absolute judgements and final verdicts, and as a person who lived and still is connected to those countries ; I'm saying : " Hands off , enough."

It is not for the ruler to decide for his subjects the idea and notions of wright and wrong , enforcing it by cruel genocide most of the time, rather , these new evolutionary changes will be forced, and not taken from such rulers.

It is time for such oligarchies and rulers to retire and fade away in history no matter how against human nature such behavior sounds.




my usual gratitude for your time and patience, salamat. 

THOUGHTS FROM AN ELECTION YEAR !!!

IT used to be that unassuming listeners and the general public cultivated their minds through periods of elections, more so in a general election year, with it's heated debates, which feeds curiosity, and furnish imagination.

Good politics, moreover, are part of the general culture, morals and literature. Today that source of culture has dried up, as well ; it has been delegated, and professional politicians no longer write or debate for the public or the citizen but for one another.

Lately their narrow subjects and bickeries have ceased to be of any real interest to most. Such topics are not expected to attract the general citizenry.

The great questions about being and becoming, the test of truth, and the contradictions  of common sense, have not lost their fascination among most of the populace, but politicians and their related media  professionals no longer write for or address the intelligent, only their fellow politicians and professional media collaborators.

The elaboration of modern politics and governance go far beyond assertion and counter assertion on such simple matters of merit and quality of this or that politician candidate.

WE should have no wish to reprove any honest use of the intellect. Our aim should only be to contrast implicit claims with actual results, rhetorical slogans with performance, and to ascribe discrepancy not to individual fault but to the temper of the world and the deceitful march of our times.

WE are mistaken when we believe that culture, the humanities and our economical welfare are being served by politicians, their debates, and their election machines.




Thanks for your time and patience in a year of elections.

PARALLELISM AND CONFORMITY

A technical definition of Fascism as a political philosophy, and the characterization of political systems that are widely described as Fascist would certainly include two current models,  Islamic/theocratic movements or monarchies and autocratic/ despotic regimes. Both either aspiring to govern or actually in power.

IT'S proved by the fact that Fascism as well as our two models have created a living faith, and that this faith is very powerful in the minds of men devoted to them, it is demonstrated by those who have suffered and died for them as much as a result of them.

This Fascism under both faces is a political philosophy that is avowedly authoritarian, and seeks the supremacy of it's own, over others through the institution of absolute power. In the use of Fascist as a pejorative description, the term can apply to individuals and sub-states groups and actual reigning regimes.

In such regimes - as the Assad's regime in Syria, or any theocracy for that matter, Bahrain and it's neighbors for example - whether existing or aspiring to govern. There is not much use for , or presence of democracy, civil liberties, or due legal process. Human rights are arbitrarily at best and extensively violated, summary arrests, detentions without trials, and capital punishment for offences which include dogmatic, theocratic or political opposition and dissent to any rule, whether by the established regime or an aspiring and forming power trying to over throw an existing regime.

IF there are any elections they will be a sham, rigged, or influenced by various forms of coercion.  Close control of the media and extensive censorship is the rule, and it's shared religiously by both types of governance. Typically such regimes are conservative economically and morally, favoring business and business-owners over working people, outlawing  trade-unions,  and entertaining continuous suspicion of intellectuals, writers, artists and academics, all types of free thinkers are unwelcome and not tolerated.

These common  characteristics and tendencies so typical of both types of  absolute and despotic rules , define them both as Fascists. these two models of existing or aspiring forces, are unfortunately the only models fighting it out nowadays in the Arab arena  and beyond, in most of the Islamic world. The lack of a third , secular and democratic alternative is very disappointing and alarming.





Many thanks to Mr. Grayling for his insightful notes in defining  aspects of classical Fascism, and as usual to my readers for their patience and time, salamat.