The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

This editorial pulls no punches, and it illuminates, at least peripherally, a profound difference between the West (or at least some of us) and the Arab/Muslim world.

Is the Arab psyche more comfortable in an authoritarian setting? And is the driver Islam, or the Arab predisposition to authoritarianism?

Just look back at the last 100 years, and you will discover numerous instances of grassroots protests up to outright revolutions, all of which led to...authoritarianism. So while I am enjoying the trouble that the current protests in Lebanon are causing for Iran and Hezbollah, I am far too jaded to expect anything to come out of it other than a lot of death and destruction, leading to absolutely no change for the people of Lebanon.

Protests in Lebanon: A wrench in Hezbollah and Iran's plans

The fact that the protests lack a guiding hand, or any discernible leadership, not to mention any defined goals aside from vague slogans calling for "change to the system in Lebanon," is making it hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's also safe to assume that the bitterness, frustrations and anger harbored by the youth for politics and politicians, the same cohort of corrupt hedonists who have brought Lebanon to the precipice of economic ruin, will continue fuelling the protests.

He Who Serves a Revolution Plows the Sea

Are we becoming like the rest of the world? America was blissfully free of the sort of violent but pointless protest that much of the world favors. Sure, we have had our share, but for the most part, when Americans protested we had some sort of concrete goal in mind. But that seems to be changing, and the free-floating aggression that we see in most of the world has been embraced by the current crop of violent protesters. But what are they protesting? "We don't like the status quo?" Sounds rather 3rd-worldish to me.

&topic=world_news"> posted by CBD at 11:00 AM

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