Going over the history of the relationship between Lebanon’s state and society and Hezbollah, which is now over four decades long, one cannot fail to notice the upward trajectory of the costs that the militia has imposed on this state and society, and that this rising trajectory has been almost wholly uninterrupted.
Instead of fulfilling the promise of a transition from protection to liberation, and then to welfare and prosperity, we have undergone a transition toward increased exposure, more occupation, and greater misery. It is incomprehensible, by any standard, that we have ended up, all this time after the resistance and its so-called fortification of the country began, where we are today, continuing to be devoured by Israel’s savagery and its insatiable appetite for our blood and destruction.
As for the claim that this is the price of liberation, those making it have not proposed a timeframe, not even a rough estimation, for when we will achieve this promised paradise on earth, nor have they laid out a roadmap of the escalating milestones we will pass on our way up to this paradise.
That has led a majority - that is growing by the day - of the Lebanese people to two conclusions that are reinforced by a flood of contemporary developments and empirical facts: first, that the liberation in question is not a concrete objective to be achieved, but an unattainable idea fused into a way of life to be led for a lifetime (or rather the lifetimes of several generations). The second assumption is that these immense sacrifices are being made masochistically, to inflict "delicious” pain on the self, whereby we are left with less of what little remains in our hands or, eventually, nothing at all.
That is, this is something of a ritual we must serve simply because it is a ritual, without demanding that it, in turn, serves us.
Adding salt to the wound, these militias, groups that call for some national liberation or other, are tied up with foreign interests that take precedence over their own nations’ interests, if these foreign interests are not their primary and ultimate raison d’etre. This fact further undermines their inflated claims of resistance for Palestine and its cause as what lies behind the mask comes into clearer view, along with the dubious ulterior motives dictating their actions.
Indeed, no people, unless they are suffering from a collective illness, could be promised this "liberation" and be expected to desperately demand it! The profound sense of disappointment and betrayal that emerges under these circumstances are expected, naturally, to create a sense of being let down and reconsidering the enormous costs and comparing them to the non-existent benefits, and then reaching conclusions derived from these comparisons.
What Hezbollah represents in Lebanon is this militia phenomenon at what may be its most flagrant, and certainly the most prestigious of militias in the Arab Levant. However, Lebanon is not the only arena where it has carried out its disastrous actions. We find, for example, the residents of Al-Bukamal in Eastern Syria voicing their frustration with the militia and complaining that they cannot bear the rising costs imposed by its presence and activities. On a broader scale, more and more Iraqis are crying out about fears of being embroiled in lethal quagmires because of the militias’ policies.
Almost everywhere in the Levant, they have broadened their criminal activity, adding mass political discrimination, refusal to enforce any law, the aggravation of corruption, and the imposition of progressive taxes on economic life, to say nothing about their obnoxious wanton attacks on communal customs and popular traditions.
Thus, we find that the collapse of powerful militias resembles the collapse of imperial, or pseudo-imperial, regimes, as they are launching similarly broad and high-handed attacks on all aspects of life. Under such circumstances, mass skepticism coupled with merciless ridicule prevails - ridicule of everything covered by the militia’s narrative about itself and the world around it - since this narrative covers just about everything, so does the mockery. The exposure of the false promise is perilous for those who made it, and the more inflated the promise, the more spectacular and scandalous the collapse.
Among the lies that are falling apart are a false reading of history and the present that the militia had propagated and turned into the mainstream interpretation, mirroring totalitarian regimes that rewrite history, erasing from it and adding to it as they see fit. A discourse that often means the opposite of what it says collapses as well - a discourse that is adorned by quasi-pagan expressions for the entire community to repeat to ward off evil spirits in which defeat is victory and victory is defeat, strength is weakness and weakness is strength. Naturally, this narrative finds its noble guardian in a charismatic figure entrusted with leading us, with our eyes shut, toward glory and preeminence.
Suddenly however, as it all collapses like a house of cards, people speak correctly and use terms accurately, quoting numbers to support or refute opinions, and seeing things with their eyes instead of what they had been compelled to pretend to see. Overnight, people find themselves face to face with their responsibility to themselves and their countries: with how to manage without magic and magicians and without a narrative that seeks to indoctrinate them, like children, that black is white and white is black. The Arab Levant, amid enormous difficulties and exceptional hardship, might be facing this immense test of responsibility today.
