An Unfortunate Trait!

The way leftist intellectual continue to think in Syria baffles me. External support for them is acceptable if it came from Europe, but not if it came from the US. Why? Is Europe any less supportive of Israel? Or are European countries any less willing to push us around when their interests demand that they do so? If so, how can we interpret France’s attitude vis-à-vis the Syrian regime at this stage? How do we interpret their intervention in the Ivory Coast, for that matter, which was, by the way, quite unilateral?

Frankly, there is simply a lot of ideological naivety here. Sometimes, the leftist intellectuals remind of their Islamist counterparts: they envy the Americans, they cover what America has and could offer, but they still reserve the right to hate America, so they can remain true to their particular ideologies.

No, I am not trying here to imply that America is a saint. For in truth, we are all sinners – it’s just that the Americans are better sinners than we are, and we don’t seem to have a way of outdoing them at this stage. I say let’s work with them then, we might learn a few things.

But hating the successful and fearing the ambitious are deep-seated psycho-cultural traits for those who suffer from massive inferiority complexes. Hence the old Syrian saying that goes something like this: “If he’s more handsome than I, this is how God created him, but if he is just better than I, then I’d want his blood.”

I’d want his blood, not I’ll work even harder and learn a few more skills and tricks to be able to compete. No, I’d want his blood. It’s all about leveling, about making everybody equal regardless of consideration of talents, know-how and skills.

Now that’s very Syrian.

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On a different note, I have just launched an Arabic Blog called Zandaqa, an old Perso-Arab word meaning Heresy. I think it’s about bloody time, don’t you?