Sometimes I question, why there are imaginary heroes like Superman, Spiderman, Batman and so on in our times? Why we can’t have real life heroes in our time? Answers immediately follow without much thinking. It is because modern men do not have set of values that they could identify themselves with and those who stand for them become their heroes. One group’s heroes are other groups’ demons. It is not that there is total lack of values but instead because the values have reduced into tools of power struggle. In modern language, it is called, “Soft Power”. Now, power is not something promising for everybody but instead, the control of few over others. Let me dare to say, it is pleasing to convince ourselves as men of conscious and conscience standing for humanistic values but the fact is that, we are mere docile laborers of Soft Power.
Anybody who has watched “Troy”
that is based on the Homer’s Iliad, can’t forget the contrasting characters;
Hector and Achilles who were symbols of honor and bravery versus characters of
France and Agamemnon, the first one is representing lust of beauty and pleasure
and second one representing lust of power, with both having a common selfish
feature of putting their personal drives above everything else resulting in a
lengthy war that had cost countless deaths and total destruction of the Troy. Horace writes it,
“All because Paris loved
another’s wife,
Greeks and barbarians clashed in
baneful strife”
 |
| Archaeological layers in the ruins of Troy |
Here, I do not intend to tell,
why Homer’s Iliad is appealing to people of all ages and still fascinates people of modern age as it is common knowledge
that human nature has not changed despite of advances that humans made. Like
all times, Agamemnons still sacrifice Achilleses and Hectors for their personal
drives. I remembered Troy and its characters because these days, almost every
day, the news of Syrian civil war is making headlines. It is amusing to see the
Cold War Scenario is back and the rivalry is played around the character of
President Assad. To a layman like me, President Assad is presented as France
who is destroying the Troy (Syria) for his personal drive. If it was ancient
Greek times, where the only narrative available was those of victorious Greeks,
spiced up with legends of dramatic events, people would celebrate Agamemnons as
Heroes. However, in the age of information technology, the roles of the Saudi
and Qatari Sheikhs are like Agamemnons that do not have any values whatsoever and their
only drives are their personal lusts; lusts for power and pleasure at the costs
of lives and freedoms of the whole Middle Eastern people. It is just their luck
that they have found niche for their lusts due to global rivalries. I don’t
know, how global players expect people would get fooled, that it is just a
single person’s arrogance and lust that is limiting people’s freedom. I don’t know
what kind of freedoms Saudi, Qatari and Al-Qaida Sheikhs are standing for that
fit perfectly with UN charters and Western countries’ values? Back in the 1980’s,
the West and Arab Sheikhs made an alliance against Soviet Union that gave birth
to Taliban, Al-Qaida and affiliated groups that not only attacked West but are
proudly killing innocent people in South Asia, Central Asia, Middle East and
North Africa.
I am just sacred and feel sorry
for coming generation as the new alliance of West and Arab Sheikhs to hijack
Arab Spring for creating a Cold War scenario to contain Russian and Chinese
economic power (While US and Europe’s economies are in trouble) are grooming an
upgraded version of Al-Qaida and Taliban that will be more lethal as they are
getting equipped with much sophisticated technologies and strategies (not to
forget the basket full of experiences that were gained from three decade long
terrorist operations). The naïve citizen are still believing that they are
standing for democracies and Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa
while ignoring the ideologies and motivations of those people who are fighting
on the ground and their backers. How short are the memory of modern men that
have forgotten the 9/11 attack and “war on terror” that are still taking
victims on daily basis.
There is a Persian saying,
“Victims of snake bites fear black and white ropes”. I don’t care if Assad
stays in power or not but I do care about the militants who fought in Libya,
fighting in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and are preparing the ground in Egypt. Arab
Spring was promising at the beginning when youths stood for democracy but now
it seems that the season has changed and the Arab Summer has started. I fear
that, sand storms of the Arab Summer cross Atlantic and Indian Oceans. From
what is happening, I feel that, just like our generation, the coming generation
will enjoy (more) the Taliban and Al-Qaida’s upgraded version. I can just tell
them, Have Fun; You will never get bored as all their shows are thrilling J
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