political misnomers.

i do not feel comfortable with the MSM's constant use of the pro-syrian and anti-syrian misnomers, but i understand that they don't have the time/patience/need to dwelve deeply into local dynamics in order to develop more structured analysis.

that said however, it is a shame that some of the commentators (who are familiar with the lebanese context) out there - in the blogosphere and beyond - simplistically insist on dividing all dynamics into pro-syrianism and anti-syrianism. such rhetoric is reductionalist, unconstructive, and meaningless, as it does nothing to shed light on the underlying mechanisms that intertwine the local and global scene. politics floats on several dimensions, and reducing it to a purely syrian dimension results in a loss of information; it also symbolizes the possible subconscious unwillingness (or in some cases, inability) of the said commentators to constructively and responsibly analyze internal lebanese dynamics.

mental freedom is an order of magnitude more important that just physical freedom - and as such, is also much more difficult to obtain - but this will only be achieved when the innate syrian dependence in your thought process is chipped away.

posted by Lazarus, 1:54 AM