Many pre-conceived thoughts and sayings and have collapsed, with the fall of the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, and with impending fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, which has become inevitable, despite the horrific massacres the regime is committing as it draws its final breaths, and the huge loss of life that it has caused, and will cause. The first of the taboos brought down by the popular movement that is appearing in various countries in the region was the barrier of fear from oppression, that was overcome during a confrontation with a machine of hellish, deeply-entrenched oppression that has lasted for decades. This machine has taken several forms, from security agencies, party organizations, thugs, militias and paramilitary groups that exist along side the armed forces of states ruled by dictators, to partisan, sectarian or tribal groups in societies. The collapse of that wall of fear - solidified by regimes relying on constant oppression and cruel means of force and used to tame and subject these regimes' peoples - has now allowed people to confront these regimes unarmed, and with a determination that was earlier unconceivable. In the case of Libya, it has produced heroes, and a huge number of martyrs. It is true that the conditions in Tunisia and Egypt differ from those in Libya. However, the determination of young people in revolt, the wider public, and social groups rebelling against the wall of fear is what prompted other forces in the two societies, and particularly the armies of the two countries, to accelerate the end of the monopoly of power. The collapse of the wall of fear in Libya has led young people in revolt and various segments of society to a stance of stubbornness as they confront the Gaddafi regime crimes and madness, which are unprecedented, except for those of his old friend, Idi Amin of Uganda. It is the bloodshed that has convinced officers and leading security officials to resign or leave the dictator's grasp, because the collapse of fear, in front of the massacres that are being committed, awoke in many people a latent spirit of defiance, as the oppression accumulated. The virus of breaking down this wall of fear has spread like wildfire, as a result of the experiences accumulated over the past years. If each country has its own conditions that determine the timing of popular upheaval, the collapse of fear has constituted, and will constitute, in coming uprisings, the common denominator among states that are primed for change. Along with fear, the collapse encompassed some pre-conceived notions that were expressed by Libyan young people on satellite stations, when they evinced pride in their revolution. They said they had changed the insulting image with which they had been viewed, as backward and idle youth who had nothing to do with civilization and modernity, and who were unworthy in terms of learning and culture, because of the dominance of a regime over their lives, with no opportunity to rebel against the insult embodied by a leader such as Gaddafi for them and their country. Libyan young people toppled these pre-conceived notions, just like young people in Tunisia and Egypt did before them; in fact, it was the feeling of humiliation that prompted them to raise the slogan of “dignity” in Tahrir Square in Cairo. The most important cadres and skilled people of these three nationalities quickly made their presence felt, whether in the Diaspora areas of displacement, or at home, which was in revolt. We have seen the fall of many pre-conceived notions that totalitarian regimes, disguised under a variety of slogans, have sought to crouch behind. There is a theory that in some regimes experiencing stability because of oppression and the dominance of “an enlightened despot,” change will lead to Islamist extremism, and al-Qaeda. Instead, it appeared that Islamists in the three revolutions are not the majority. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of them have behaved with realism and moderation, aspiring to a civil state and not a religious one. The thirst for change has toppled the fear-mongering about a transition to tribal and sectarian conflict – hegemonic regimes are using this argument to resist any modernization, or the need to respond to popular demands. On the contrary, it has become evident that the revolution in Egypt has led to a decline in differences between Copts and Muslims, and in Libya, the revolution has moved across tribes, whose contradictions the “Gaddafi regime” sought to play on. The notion that only foreign powers can root out dictatorships, as in the case of Iraq, has experienced a thunderous collapse. The revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt have proven to us how the outside world, and particularly the United States, was complicit, in varying degrees, with these regimes. We also saw how it hesitated when faced with the determination of young people on the pretext of fears over stability in the event of change – until the final moments, when the outside world joined in.
