Politicized in Lebanon: Playing with the black mud or looking for an escape hatch?

Everyone is politicized in Lebanon, absolutely everyone, the old, the young and even (and I’m not exaggerating here) the pre-schooler. The fact that we consume politics without moderation is an undisputable one, and if we want to get closer to the truth and be more pertinent to reality, we’ll look at it the other way around; politics, actually, are consuming us and draining us. And what makes things worse is this deplorable situation where it’s all going to no avail, there’s neither an objective nor a destination for all this political activity in which we’re pouring so much energy on a daily basis.

It’s a serious question to be asked, why are we so consumed by politics? And specifically the young generation, what are we trying to achieve by inheriting the political rhetoric of the previous generation, as is, while we have at least 30 years of history to show us where it led us and what were the results of such an approach to doing politics in our daily lives. So in simple words, what’s the point? Is it pointless like an addiction? A useless hobby? A bad habit? Or is it a manifestation of a serious concern by citizens who are looking to improve their whole situation on all levels?

Anyone who’s been keen on following social media websites, blogs, and news outlets on the web with an objective eye, and for a long while will tell you, guilt free, that in Lebanon politics among the young generations is a “bashing sport”. Young people in Lebanon are full of inherited grudge, and the only thing they repetitively do is to take it out on each other in every possible way without having any objective other than, and here’s the ugly truth, consolidating their conviction that the other Lebanese are the lowest breed of human beings on the face of the planet; no one seeks to understand the other and no one has the courage to make a simple fact checking to verify how much truth there is in his/her version of reality.

Politics has become a big swamp of black dark mud, and everyday we’re sinking in it aimlessly. And there isn’t even a single person trying to find an escape hatch, this precious escape hatch that lies in breaking the evil cycle and withdrawing out of it.
It’s simple, if you want to criticize, start by yourself and by the side you support. The other Lebanese, they’re not your partners in Lebanon as the lame, low life Lebanese politicians keep on repeating. No they’re not because Lebanon is a country and it's not a company enlisted in the Beirut Stock Exchange in which each side owns a bunch of stocks. Lebanon is a country with a rich history and the other Lebanese they’re your people, they belong to you and you belong to them, and most of Lebanese families have branched into different sects and religions but we still all share the same origin, the same history, the same culture, the same fate, the same future and the same DNA.

If you think that you hold the absolute truth, think twice, because it doesn’t exist. The Lebanese who are on the opposite political side have their fears, their concerns and their aspirations, and if you put yourself in their place and think of it you’ll find that there’s a great deal of legitimacy in what they’re voicing.

That’s why we need to get rid of the egocentric views, the selfish attitude and to start thinking about making a room for each other in our country. We need to take steps towards each other because politics and political identities in Lebanon are not a biological feature, they’re not in our DNA, they’re just ideologies, stories from the past, fears, hatred, concerns engraved consciously and subconsciously in our minds, they’re abstract entities, they’re not in our DNA and we’re not condemned to carry them forever. We can get rid of these vices that are poisoning our lives and our future if we think a little bit, rationalize our prejudices and fears, and think more intensely about the common objective that should be our primary concern, the main objective of building our country and building a bright future for us and for our children. 

We’ve all had enough from humiliation, from wars, from corruption, from being governed by the same rotten political class for over than 4 decades, from losing our brightest minds to other countries, from young and old Lebanese dying day after day on all fronts to keep a little bit of that ever so elusive dignity that keeps on slipping from our hands.

So it’s about time that we wake up and refrain from making that self-inflicted wound even deeper, we need to focus on coherence, solidarity and mutual respect, and on building a brighter future for us and our children.

Time is running and the more it runs the more we sink in the vicious aimless vortex of Lebanese politics, we need to get out of the “black mud swamp” way of politics and actively look for that escape hatch because the price to pay is getting heftier by the second, and because it’s the only way to reach what we, all the Lebanese, so dearly want: a homeland, a civilized country and a better future.