Ten years ago we moved to Lebanon. There was a culture clash.
In this post I’ll explain why some locals go on destructive paths.
We all know generalizations have the nasty effect of activating justice warriors.
My intention is not to trigger rage, generalizations are what they are: a
resonance of the state of mind we are living in.
While everyone is not going to read this post and take value out of it
I still wish for it to be a wake up call. For those awake that can’t
raise their voices; this is for you.
PS: Do not judge this post if you haven’t read it entirely.
On the facade
Childhood is all about preparation. A child’s vision of the world is shaped by peers and environment. When everyone’s vision is manipulated and blocked by the media it gives rise to misinformation and biases. Biases are psychological responses meant as protections. In our paranoia we feel safe and protected.
Where are turbans, camels, and dromedaries?
Where’s the sand, where’s the desert?
Burka, hijab?
Are those people married with their cousins?
You are stepping on landmine?
You are going to get sword stabbed!
Before leaving, my friends, my teachers, everyone were asking me how I was going to live… In the desert. Call it mis-education, I find “media sensational craving” more accurate. Over the years they were fed with this image of Lebanon: the war zone in a desert. All they could see were the terrorists — the trash, the disgusting. Why look under the cover? Who are they, culture fans, tourists? Then it hit me!
After my first summer in Lebanon my ideas changed: I wanted to stay. What was supposed to be a simple vacation turned into a life changing event. There was no desert, I was presented with a wonderful mountain chains. I would spend my days at the beach with pretty girls in bikini and people having an enjoyable time. I couldn’t notice the “high” amount of inter-family marriages, the women in burka or hijab. I only encountered veils when going to Tripoli, they were wearing them with their own charms, a place resembling Alibaba’s cavern, full of hidden treasures and merchants. My visit to historical sites were fabulous, a travel through time. At the diner table we ate like kings the most tasty and healthy food I’ve ever tasted. The generosity of the portions and the amount of vegetables served were surprisingly abundant.
In sum, the country was paradise… At least from the eyes of a tourist.
The country GDP is driven by tourism, it’s what Lebanon is built on, the history, the culture, the diversity. Spending some time here makes you rediscover the meaning of the sentence: Enjoying the little things.
Ever since, I kept wondering what could have led outsiders to their view. I opened my eyes to see beyond the facade: reality. The first moments I spent in the country did not involve interaction with people. After years of living in Lebanon, I can understand the dark side of the country. The things that others are afraid to spell out loud. It needs to be said without euphemism for the sake of change.
Lebanese have a rotting and destructive mentality.
The Lebanese mentality
In a virtual hunter-gatherer society there would come a time when hunters wouldn’t be able to hunt anymore and would fight for the food reserves. Abusers are born and others leave for new places. In those wild places they can’t hunt and so settle as farmers. They learn to wait, to nurture, to build, to grow, and to be patient.
The way I see Lebanon is in the middle of the transition. There are people leaving but the majority are here to stay as “Impatient opportunistic exploiter”. This is characterized throughout the interaction with their environment.
Superiority Complex
In the presumptuous superiority of their attitudes they find fulfilment. Their benign accomplishments raise to their brains, shutting down all access. When you confront them with a contradictory opinion, they activate the inhibiting process. REJECTION!
In laws, they find no purpose, they are above them. After all, they are way too important, they don’t need leaders. They’ll trick the system and their actions will not be repressed.
Now pack a bunch of them and watch the chaos it entails. A fight over delusion. A fight for the front row of a roller coaster hitting the wall at full speed and that derails.
Greed and envy are the result of unfriendly competition.
Their jealousy turns them into copy machines, copying the behavior of the persons they seem to find the most successful, a distorted view of success. And if they can’t follow the pace they’ll, once again, cheat. After a while there will only be war criminals, thieves, and crooks to look up to. How can an honest individual shine in the minds of a brainwashed country. Those self-proclaimed leaders are strong; they bring destruction and misery. Alongside, everyone is rushing after them — They are the definition of great beings. Gods among plebeians, and they are treated as such… And this leaks in all aspects of our society.
While they could put those crazy ideals aside, they cling to the broken
illusion and keep pushing the dream, utopia, and reverie.
It’s weird, but not surprising, that deranged persons would
treat immigrants as slaves. In their quest of confirmation
bias they’re the
masters of other races.
Disdain is directed at out-groups, reinforcing the hypocrite in-group bias. This is an attempt to shut down their consciousness, their own places.
When this bubble explodes there is rampage! Words will never defend the
side without reason.
It is basic human instinct to feel the need to intervene against
morals that seem to go against yours, even when the other group does
not engage in any interaction. However, this is insanity when the group
is chaotic. Insane to do those things when you are slave to your own
dementia.
Do or Die
From birth and onward they are brought into dysfunctional adults. Stress raises aggressive persons who don’t want to follow orders but instead praise cults. Parents force their children to become the next perpetrator by using violence. They carve their children’s minds through mental and physical scars. Individuals grow up numb; bumping from one life event to another — as they were brought to. They constantly look for what could possibly make them happy, comparing themselves, stacking the material, stacking the dollars. Subsequently, they are driven to pursue those impulses and only find unhappiness. They dig their own graves, and it’s their own fault.
Poor people spend much more time trying to raise their status.
Daily actions they initiate reflect the thirst to appear important on
their virtual social scale. Over time, they feel discomfort. To appease
it they resort to little nudges called addictions. They also find relief
in fantasy worlds — the feeling of belonging to a group has faded so
much that they have to embrace obedience to feel it — as they were
brought to.
If you launch a rational attack to those last sources of pleasure they
are emotionally affected, in denial. You are attacking their insecurity —
it’s a personal attack. A fear that they could be wrong, that alternatives
exist. As soon as options rise, they’ll want to counteract.
Outside
Lebanese are fierce entrepreneurs. However, this happens when they compete outside their territory. There are explanations such as: Only the smartest leaving the country, or that the way of living, as an abuser, works well against other cultures — intimidating provocateurs.
Every Lebanese students glimmer of hope is to study and work in another
country. Strange, isn’t it, that we’ve created an environment where the
youth sees a bunch of saboteurs and not future.
Nothing left to extract from their homeland. All values have been stolen:
a failure.
Segregation
We’ve managed to build imaginary and, more importantly, real walls
between the citizens of our land. Segregation, repression, racism,
and sectarianism are our daily meal. They are held hostages when their
intention was just to blend.
Lebanon is smashed to pieces by sects which control its dynamics. Blindly,
the masses vote and follow as they were taught to. The cycle repeats
itself; enough to make you ill. Furthermore, religion is absorbed
materialistically, it has even taken the form of fists; tools of
war and manipulation. After all, beliefs of afterlife are supposed to
bring the realization that time on earth means nothing; a disrespect for
the beauty of nature and for innovation. There’s no heaven nor hell.
If you want happiness you need to realize this: Respect your life and
others, you only have one, and so do they.
And still they fall for the dirty hate — the puppet masters, using their
coward fear of ostracism, make them dance to their medley.
Another fracture is the usual divisions that every third world country falls
to: The powerful and the insignificant, the rich and the poor, the educated
and the ignorants.
Additionally, sexual repression and stricter social rules have been shown,
through studies, to be correlated with violence, the way people express
themselves, and the number of personality types. Not surprising that in
a place where pleasure is “forbidden” we have debilitated tribes.
Differences grow, and no cooperation is in sight. You bring the matter to the eyes and are looked at as arrogant. Are you condescending or is it their reflections on the moon of the darkest of nights.
The Situation
Consumed by a whirlwind of politico-military carnages, juggling with
the Middle East. Our population of 5.5 millions suffer an influx
of 1.5 millions Syrian refugees, leaving their country because of
extreme Islamists. Corruptions and mafioso have lead their empire to
be an anarchy, no president since 2014. After all, the people prefer
their priests. Their sects and archaic beliefs make them quarrel over
insignificant matters.
They can’t get over it, they can’t be altruists. Criminals are running
free, but we still turn our heads and blame Zionists.
Stinking garbages have been piling up on our streets. For months, the
citizens have shown their displease, finally raising activists.
Change
Spending time with crazy and dangerous people. Their personality are socially transmited diseases. Most of us turn into or remain whoever we surround ourselves with. We can change our tribe, but we cannot change that our tribe is our destiny.
As you’ve noticed through the paragraphs, the ideologies are flowing in the blood.
The genes hold the gun, the person pulls the trigger.
You cannot have an open discussion with them, cannot talk to the persons they preach, cannot change the mob. They can’t take information, they just react with emotions. What percentage of your life should be spent to share virtue. Integrity at the moment is extremely costly. Who should you reach? It is a waste to spend your time blaming or trying to make people understand when they don’t even have the curiosity nor ability.
However… You’ve managed to read to here [x].
Reader, you are the change. You are someone that doesn’t adhere! You
might have lost your voice, you might have lost your pride. Soon enough
the tyranny will stop, it’ll be put aside. Because everything comes
back to stability, we’ll be liberated from this paralysis. There’s no
one left to abuse, there will be a crisis.
It’s the realization that we’re deep down. The moment of wake up call. We
had corruption, wars, a garbage crisis, what has it brought — revolt,
hate, awakening. What do we have now: “recycling”; This is our birth,
not our downfall! In those events we can transition. We’ll give hope to
our youth, our failed history will be their education.
I see pain and suffering as an opportunity. People see that what they were
doing isn’t doing much; that it is the time to stand up for themselves
and to take responsibility. The truth is, most of this post is wrong: It
wasn’t a generalization. Only a small amount of Lebanese are contributing
to the destruction. Even though most lost their voices, behind the scene
they are waiting. They don’t have any other option.
Today it’s different. This is the moment of our emancipation!
Change is Possible.
Attributions:
Frederic Edwin Church / Public domain
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