Amin Maalouf once noted that President Gamal Abdel Nasser suffered from a lack of culture. This, in addition to his personal character, prevented him from pushing Egypt and the entire region down the road of further democracy, peace, and advancement. In his book “The Dissolution of World Orders" published several years ago, Maalouf made a comparison between the signs sent by the leader of the South African liberation movement, Nelson Mandela, when he got out of jail and called for reconciliation and for relinquishing vengeance and violence; and those signs sent by Abdel Nasser who reverted to imprisoning and mistreating his opponents. As he made this comparison, Maalouf noted the major differences in the circumstances surrounding the two men, their time, and their respective societies. However, the individual circumstances that consist of Abdel Nasser's poor historic and personal culture (according to Maalouf) played a major part, along with objective circumstances, in destroying the Nasser experience. Today, there seems to be an imperative need to refer to our politicians' cultural and cognitive baggage in light of tragic scenes, including armed clashes such as the ones that took place in Saida two days ago and that actually only represent the tip of the iceberg. For a long while, we have neglected to question the identity of the politicians who are able to address people's lowest and most basic instincts; and those politicians who are seeking power posts at the expense of their own people's blood as well as the blood of the others. When we say identity, we don't mean those politicians' pedigree but rather their background in terms of culture, ethics, and intellect. The Lebanese are no longer paying attention to the speeches that go beyond intolerance and extremism. They are not aware of the politicians' ridiculous backgrounds in these ugly times, and their poor knowledge, experiences and contact with the world's laws and essence. Because of the mass media outlets – where the people in charge compete with the politicians on who is pettier – we now have to listen to the live transmissions of speeches of hatred, darkness, and death. We have to listen to a void represented in words tossed to our children who receive them like a sacred truth and repeat them in school playgrounds. We have to listen to lies covering the old and new historic truths, and to victories that are nothing but illusions in the mind of their authors. We now have to see a bunch of ill-minded people become inspiring leaders capable of changing the course of history with a simple sign. Their decisions are not based on rational calculations and the analysis of the tangible reality but rather on some abstract signs, heroes, and saints. All this shows no contradiction with the surrounding circumstances. Every new generation of such politicians – who accessed power through bequeathal and “self efforts" – seems to be worse than the preceding generation. They are the product of the collapsing Lebanese educational system both in schools and universities and the control of the sects over this system. They are the children of the closed sectarian and tribal ghettos that emerged during the civil war. They are also the fruit of the shallow media, and commercial arts, and vain intellect. Unfortunately, the new generation is drinking at the same source and quenching its natural thirst for knowledge from poisoned fountains. Continuing to listen to the cheap sectarian and religious incitement now comes at a hefty price. Phenomena like Ahmad al-Assir, the armed groups in Tripoli and their counterparts from other sects who are as bad as they are despite all their slogans, are nothing but indications to the impossibility of living within the current Lebanese national unity and the need to seriously look into a new structure for the Lebanese political system. Certainly, looking for solutions for the Lebanese system today before the fall of the Syrian regime is less costly than trying to repair the Lebanese structure under fire. The worrisome question remains: what kind of culture will our citizens be reverting to as they look for a settlement to prevent them from killing each other?
