The Age of the Hyenas!

Now that I am on the outside, I can spend more time trying to figure out what the external opposition is like. There is definitely a lot of action behind the scenes. Indeed, many in the external opposition seem convinced now that the regime’s days are numbered. So, what are they doing about it?

Well, they are doing what comes naturally in these circumstances, I guess, they are trying to speed the process along, and each group and individual is trying to carve itself a little niche, in preparations for the eventual take-over and the long-awaited settling of old scores.

Didn’t we tell you that this day will come, o so and so, just before you did this and that bad thing to us and drove us out of our homes? I am quite sure that there are a lot of people rehearsing this scene in the their minds on an almost daily basis now.

That is to be expected, of course. But it is also mundane. This is not what Syria needs. This is only what certain individuals need. Syria needs to be governed not just taken-over. It has not been governed in such a long time, it has almost forgotten how to let it happen, and people seem to have forgotten how to do it. They seem even to have forgotten how necessary governing is in the whole scheme of things, and that governing is indeed the whole point behind overthrowing the regime.

Yet, not only are opposition members not preparing themselves to govern, most are intellectually and psychologically ill-suited for that. No one is attempting to manage the transition itself, no one is thinking about managing the post-transitional trauma that usually takes place in such circumstances, and no one has so far presented himself as a credible leader, capable of galvanizing popular support, at a time when many such leaders are needed, and on all levels. Very much like the regime, the opposition remains leaderless. Mediocrity. Mediocrity, all over the place.

And what if the regime turns out to be as brittle and fragile as I think it to be, what if it collapses on us overnight? Who’s going to be there to lead? To inspire? To fill the vacuum? I know of a thousand. But they are all charlatans, and mediocre ones at that. That is the problem in times like these: there are no honest leaders to be found, but a thousand scoundrels do run about the place wringing their hands in anticipation.

The Age of the Lions sems to have effectively paved the way for the Age of the Hyenas.