Experience shows the Leviathan can be tamed

By Raja Abou Hassan

March/April 2004

WASHINGTON DC - Some of the most common and serious mistakes emanate from the assumptions we make. In a debate, everyone assumes that the other individuals share (to a certain degree) the same basic notions. It is from that base that the discussion then ‘takes off’ and, if lucky, arrives at some conclusions.

Such a practice is encouraged not only by its facilitating nature but also by our educators. For, in some cases, you yourself will come to the realization that there are certain concepts that were defined in the classroom, which on second thought simply do not make sense. You assumed you knew all there was to know because you were instructed about it in the classroom.

Throughout my study at the Political Science Department of the American University of Beirut, different professors gave their unique definitions of the ‘state’. The state was defined, assigned tasks and functions, even categorized; but never once was its existence questioned. It was presented as a given, a fact of life, and most importantly, a positive development in human history.

Although the fact that the state was created by the barbarians of Europe who were constantly searching for new ways to annihilate one another was alluded to, it was never framed as such. What we were told was “had there been no war, the state would not have been created” – hmmm.

Were we explicitly informed that the state’s raison d‘être was to provide whomever controlled it with the most efficient and ruthless war-fighting machine? No!

Were we ever informed that by accepting the state as a necessity and reality in life, we would be conceding to bigotry and a state of constant warfare? No. We were left to deduce that for ourselves.

The biggest ‘secret’ that lies just under our very noses is that the state organizes (for those who are ruthless enough to control it) society into the fuel that sustains it! The reason for our existence becomes sustaining the state through taxation – and, in so doing, sustaining war! (Well what do you know? Matrix does make sense!)

Maybe the reason we don’t see or feel this reality in Lebanon is that there really is no state to talk about. Walid Jumblatt, Suleiman Franjieh and the rest know that a powerful state, if not in their hands, can be used to crush them – so they’d rather live without it.

The question now: Can an entity created for the sole purpose of organizing society into the most efficient fuel for warfare be reformed? I suppose that proponents of such a cause may look at Switzerland and the countries of Scandinavia for hope. But unless we have the courage and insight to seriously discuss this issue, those five or six countries will remain anomalies for all of us to look at in awe and confusion.

Raja Abou Hassan is a Lebanese resident in Washington DC. He wrote this article for Alternative.