Imad al-Rasheed: In Syria we need a revolution in our heads
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/14/syria-revolution-in-our-heads
Imad al-Rasheed criticizes Syrian intellectuals for their lack of
creative imagination throughout the repressive reign of the Assads. At
the same time he rejoices in the fact that the bravery and vigour of
the people of Syria has brought about a new situation even for the
intellectuals – and a remarkable redistribution of the roles.
“The people are taking the initiative, leaving the intellectuals to
follow. It places before all Arab intellectuals the task of
reassessing the ideas that underpin their ideas of dictatorship.” A
revolution of the mind is on the agenda.
The greening of the new era was quickly sensed by Adonis, the Syrian
poet and essay-writer who has been nominated several times for the
Nobel prize. In an open letter to the Lebanese daily As Safir he
issued the following diatribe against president Assad: ”The Socialist
Baath Party has not remained in power this long because of the
strength of its ideology, but because of the power of its iron fist.”
And directly to president Assad: “It seems your destiny is to
sacrifice yourself for your mistakes and give back voice to the people
and let them decide.”
But it is not just Syria that needs a revolution of the mind. I hate
to hurt the feelings of people deceived by mendacious governments into
believing, still for a short while, that North America and Europe are
free democracies, but I must insist that it is not just the Arab world
that is/was dominated by dictatorial regimes. America and Europe are
too.
In the Northern societies, North America, Europe, Russia and East
Asia, the intellectuals, e.g. editors and journalists at newspapers,
radio and tv stations, the so-called fourth power (!), have by and
large remained silent for 50 years about the rising electromagnetic
mind control dictatorships, among others because they profit from,
sympathize and act in collusion with these Orwellian tyrannies being
fully cognizant of the ongoing electromagnetic assault including
internal supervision around the clock, comprehensive sexual assault on
and extensive torture of the civilian citizens in their private
homes. These societies are sometimes euphemistically called
‘controlled, managed or regulated democracies’. Maybe you can convince
me that ‘controlled democracy’ is a bona-fide, easy-to-understand
concept ?
We certainly need a revolution of the mind in the Northern mind
control tyrannies too, but the approaching Northern revolution will
even include, necessarily, a much more dramatic showdown with the host
of disgracefully collusional intellectuals.
In ‘Revolution, Rebellion, Resistance’ issued in 2010, the American
revolution theorist Eric Selbin has described a process he calls
revolutionary mimesis, a deliberately adapted imitation of preceding
revolutions. One year later, we have seen exactly such a revolutionary
mimetic wave slowly, but relentlessly rolling from Tunisia to Libya,
from Libya to Egypt, and from Egypt to Syria. Where will it stop ?
Everything seems to indicate that if the government of Syria falls,
Iran will be next.
We can imagine a similar Northern mimetic wave rolling from North
America and Europe to Russia and East Asia. Relevant questions are,
whether the Arab wave and the Northern wave may interconnect ? If so,
could this mean a fulfilment of the Arab revolutions which might not
otherwise occur – or only supervene at a much later time ? Can we
discern any interface or other similarities – beyond the concurrent
malfunction of the intellectuals ? Can we prognosticate any joining
event(s), Doomsday for instance ? Will these two mimetic waves spread
to other parts of the planet and, in the affirmative, how fast ?
Steen Hjortsoe,
Copenhagen