Bussed-in Backlash

The backlash begins. In Lebanon, Syria and Hezbollah are both claiming to have organized a rally that brought huge throngs to Beirut to show their clamorous support for Syria. A few people on this site have posted comments that suggested this would happen. A few quick thoughts on this.

1- The story makes clear that Hezbollah security men are patrolling the sidelines, keeping people in order. And some of Across the Bayside's contacts in Lebanon report Hezbollah trying to force people to the rally. This is a pretty common tactic- using force to swell up the numbers. Milosevic, Kuchma, Saddam and other dictators and tyrants would always resort to this when popular protests seemed overwhelming. That said- it would be a mistake to think that the people in the pro-Establishment protests are were all led there by the barrel of a gun. There is obviously large support for Hezbollah in the Shi'ite community, who see the party as the guarantor of their status.

There is coercion and pressure in this rally, far more than in the popular anti-Establishment ones, but it is dangerous to dismiss it as mere puppetry by the Syrians. Balancing Lebanon's independence with the need to keep stability, which means making sure the Shi'ites aren't marginalized, is going to be the real trick of this revolution.

2- More on Hezbollah. Since "driving" the Israeli's out of Southern Lebanon during that hopeful first half of 2000, the Party of God has tried to gain more temporal powers, establishing themselves as a genuine political party, albeit with more machine guys and guys in hoods patrolling the streets. This is a big test for them. They don't want to be seen as recidivists, banging the drum for an atavistic and unpopular occupying force. In some ways the seeds of their dilemma were self-sown: it was after Israel's departure that many in Lebanon began to grumble about the other occupation. Hezbollah was a source of national pride when they ended Israel's occupation, but if they are seen now as the waterboys for Syria's ongoing humiliation of Lebanon, it is hard to see how they can come out ahead without regressing back into violence- an option no one wants to see played out.

3- Just a minor note: such a contrast in the pictures. This may sound petty and shallow and too, I don't know, American-centric, but I really don't care. Which rally is more pleasing to the eye? The pro-Syrian one, where women have their heads covered and are clad in shapeless black gowns, or the anti-Syrian ones where women where dressed in nice clothes, faces painted, riding on the shoulders of men, even dressing in a revealing manner? I think we all know the answer to this.

This isn't just because many Lebanese women happen to be beautiful. I am sure there were many babes at the Ukrainian rallies as well, though it was hard to tell because the temperature was (on average) 800 degrees below zero. Here the aesthetic and political merge. We can get into a long discussion about how some women choose to be veiled, or someone can bring up that obsession with material culture (Gucci bags, high heels) are also a form of bondage, or whatever. There might be cases to be made for either point, though I personally would tire of them quickly.

A picture that was in the BBC, and is now on the cover of the Weekly Standard shows a strikingly beautiful Lebanese girl, her nation's flag painted on each of her cheeks and carrying a flag in her other hand, brushing a long, loose lock of hair off her face. There is something deeply moving in the picture. There is a feeling of freedom there. This next connection is going to sound absurd, but bear with me, and don't forget the role that rock music had in Vaclev Havel's Velvet Revolution. Whenever I see that picture, I think of the McCoy's "Hang on Sloopy," which has what I consider to be the finest lyric in the history of rock (and I am exaggerating only slightly).

After the musical breakdown, a simple beat comes in, and the singer croons "Sloopy let your hair down girl, let in hang down on me." Ahh- such simple and transcendent beauty. See how the metaphorical ("relax, let your hair down, be happy") melts into a picture of physical intimacy- "let it hang down on me." It is a moment for the unnamed Lebanese girl- her hair falls down, a moment of unguarded emotion, trying to free herself from the stultifying impotence of Syrian occupation. It is only a moment, a snapshot, but revolutions are made of such moments. Her hair, her beauty, her strength, are part of the physical shock troops of Lebanese freedom. Bashar al-Asad, on the other hand, looks like an undertaker, stiff and dull, with the waxy complexion of a human bat (his father looks like the man who kept the undertaker in business). Such a contrast!

Is this shallow? I don't think so. An appreciation of desire, of conscious longing, of being able to express our wants through words and actions- this is what makes us human. This is what dictators try to suppress, especially theocratic thugs (both here and abroad). Because she lets herself be beautiful, be unguarded, be expressive, the unnamed Lebanese woman is to me the symbol of the movement.