‘We Are Not Going Anywhere’

‘Who controls the past controls the future.’
‘Where does the past exist, if at all?’
‘In records. It is written down.’
‘In records. And-?’
‘In the mind. In human memories.’
‘In memory. Very well, then. We, the Party, control all records, and we control all memories.’

– George Orwell, 1984.

Killing the narrative and distorting the truth is essential to control minds.
In our Arab world, strategies begin in the education system, where the state controls every word in history books, telling the narrative that serves it or, in the case of Lebanon, erases the civil war altogether. Young people lack resources and knowledge that can help them observe the past so that they can better shape the future. Instead of promoting freedom and self-accomplishment, oppressive regimes provide education that focuses on disinformation and forms for servitude.

To master the war on truth, oppressive systems never fail to use their tour de force mechanism: erasing the memory. Once the civil war was over in Lebanon and warlords moved from fronts to luxurious offices in order to rule forever, it was essential to make us forget who they really were. So they decided to rebuild society into their own new image. They buried their war uniforms with their victims – whose families are still waiting for them – in mass graves under the city. And then, they buried the city and built a new one on top of it.
Downtown Beirut, the capital’s center, with its buildings, souks, produce markets, plazas, and variety, was completely erased. Buildings and stores were brought down, and new ones were built for millionaires and ghosts. All traces of war were erased, all traces of humanity were erased, and instead, a lifesize cardboard diorama was set up to go with their new polished hairdos and shiny shoes.

Beirut airport was renovated (and later given a new name), and a massive highway leading to the new downtown – now referred to by some enterprise name – was elevated 20 meters from the ground in such a way as to see nothing but the sky until you arrive at Barbie Town. The whole city under that highway road was discarded with all its people, its culture, and its economy.

The war on traditional houses and buildings then started, erasing culture and replacing it with tall buildings benefiting a few governing money sharks. And whoever tried to resist and refused to be bought off had their views shut, their entrances blocked, their infrastructure tampered, and their air cut off until the working class was pushed out of the capital.
They want to reinvent history as they please and make it theirs. They want to steal our past. And when we try our best to heal from our traumas, we are told that in order to accomplish that, we have to deal with our past. But how are we to do so when the past keeps going on in the present? When the hostilities never stop, and we have no choice but to overcome them and be prepared for the next?
Tyranny can only survive through constant acts of terror to keep the subject population fearful and subdued. We have indeed developed an outstanding mastery of survival skills. Disaster has happened so often and for so long that it has become normal, yet another life event. We need to remind ourselves that this is not life being life. Those horrors are being inflicted on us. Our anxieties, insecurities, and illnesses are all manufactured by sadistic rulers in order to control our minds and souls. So why do we accept to forget? Is it because we want to be “normal”? Because submission becomes equal to sanity, and we want to remain sane? Perhaps. But as we said before, there will be no healing without justice. And resilience in the face of tyranny is nothing but abuse. Despite the grief it has caused, perhaps the explosion of the Beirut airport has finally brought the Lebanese people to realize that, leading to groundbreaking election results. It is true that the path to tangible change remains long and requires patience, but that new ray of light will keep us moving.
The brutality of the global capitalist system is destroying our societies, our heritage, and our culture, neutralizing common places and city squares where people get together regardless of their backgrounds or where they come from. We need to make it our mission to take back those places, to remind each other and everybody else that they are ours. This is where we all blend. This is where we become one. In these places.
Did they really think they could kill the memory?

In this place, there once was truth;
In this place, there once were dreams;
In this place, there once was soul.

They may be able to destroy buildings, but they cannot erase the truth, the dreams, and the soul unless we let go.

And we are never going to let go.
We are never going to forget.

To put it in Shireen Abu Akleh’s words:

‘We are not going anywhere.’