Excursions on the Middle East, politics, the Levant, Islam in politics, civil society, and courage in the face of unbridled, otherwise unchecked power.
I love to read the comments of sanctimonious journalists and blinkered arabists, ever ready with the hard on for Lebanon's "sectarian" system. No loss for words when it comes to criticizing sectarianism's --call me crazy, but I, as does Lipjhardt, simply call it consociationalism-- failings... What's ironic is that they all criticize it from the premise of their own obsolete theoceracies, kleptocracies, and feigned "secular" Arabism (Bin thinkin' seculars of the Saddam, Assad, and Mubarak persuasion.)
I understand your frustration, but I would not underestimate the durabilty of the "old order". I remember when the shooting stopped in Lebanon, more than a decade and a half ago, so many younger people talked a good game but so many of them either left or were co-opted into sectarian realities.
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I love to read the comments of sanctimonious journalists and blinkered arabists, ever ready with the hard on for Lebanon's "sectarian" system. No loss for words when it comes to criticizing sectarianism's --call me crazy, but I, as does Lipjhardt, simply call it consociationalism-- failings... What's ironic is that they all criticize it from the premise of their own obsolete theoceracies, kleptocracies, and feigned "secular" Arabism (Bin thinkin' seculars of the Saddam, Assad, and Mubarak persuasion.)
I understand your frustration, but I would not underestimate the durabilty of the "old order". I remember when the shooting stopped in Lebanon, more than a decade and a half ago, so many younger people talked a good game but so many of them either left or were co-opted into sectarian realities.
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