The Heretic & the Genie!

As difficult as it is to imagine, not to mention actually conjure, there is really no reasonable course left for the Syrian people if they do want to get out from under the yoke of this endless night of lies, corruption and oppression, but civil disobedience.

If we don’t get the Street moving and along the right lines soon, the Street will eventually be moved along our infamous sectarian fault-lines. Indeed, those who continue to think that there is no real alternative to the Syrian regime miss the point completely. For the alternative is a catastrophic collapse of the last vestiges of our social order and our civil society. This alternative is already working itself onto the scene. Iraq fell long before Saddam, and so will Syria.

Calls such as One Day that Could Change Syria needs to be reiterated as often as possible, until people eventually heed them, or the whole thing comes crash in down upon us. People need to be mobilized, and corruption is the one issue that can unite most, if not all social groups. Once people fall into the habit of practicing people power, the move to a more direct opposition to the regime will follow. If time at this stage does not seem to be on our side, or if some are arguing that it is still too early or has already become too late for such moves, we should pay no kind to that, and continue to forge ahead. Because, if history has proven anything, it is that time is always on the side of those who plan and organize and forge ahead to the implementation phase, no matter what appearances tend to suggest.

The only people who might be doing something along these lines in Syria these days seem to be the Muslim Brotherhood, and other Islamist groups – not a very unifying force to say the least, and the regime might be using this fact, or over-blowing it, in order to shore itself up.

But the fear that secularists have vis-à-vis the Street and the “Masses” needs to stop. In order to undercut the influence of both the regime and the Islamists on the Street the secular opposition needs to take the initiative in appealing to it. The genie may not be easily controllable once it is out the lamp, but inside the lamp it is absolutely useless. And the genie is the only hope we have left.