By Abdullah Alkabir, political writer and commentator
Deceivers and their illusions
Deceivers, pretenders of knowledge and culture, through media outlets and platforms, are promoting the myth of security and safety in areas controlled by gangs that have practised all types of crime, murder, bringing in mercenaries, starting wars, smuggling, displacing people, counterfeiting currency, and other crimes that cannot be taking-stock of in this space.
Just like slaves, deceivers do not realize the value of freedom, because they did not enjoy. Otherwise, they would have upheld it vigorously, and sacrificed their lives for it, against anyone who dared to try to take it away.
Deceivers do not abandon their selfishness, and for the sake of a handful of crumbs, they create speeches and poems to promote lies, falsehood, anaesthetize and slander with illusions of safety and security, while the truth is exactly the opposite. What security will there be for people with the spread of fear? This fear was spread by criminal gangs, through killing in streets, and throwing bodies in garbage dumps and on road corners, by arresting anyone who publishes an opinion that does not include explicit support for the leader of criminals and his gangs, as prisons are crowded with thousands in extremely bad conditions.
There is no security, if it is not available to everyone, and it becomes a natural value parallel to freedom, and it does not require all this cheering, screaming, and hypocrisy practised by the deceivers. There is no security at all if death squads are prepared to violate the sanctity of homes, and kill a woman who expressed her opinion calmly, and in a benign language, without offending anyone, and not on the platforms of opponents or enemies, but on the television of criminal gangs themselves.
Where is safety, yet killing is carried out in streets in daylight? Where is safety if a gang of killers raids a well-known cultural forum which was held in public, not secret? The symposium was held that is open to everyone to attend and participate? It arrested an over sixty-elderly man, who only had his voice and his pen, along with his fellow activists. Then, it killed one of them and claimed in its statement that he died as he attempted to escape!
Security is achieved through justice, not through injustice and oppression, through freedom, the loss of which for a free person means the loss of dignity and pride, the loss of voice and free speech, turning a human being into a distorted being, with no humanity other than the outer appearance.
Through oppression and injustice, a person turns into a drum that the criminal authority beats to promote its lies, and loses all his feelings, constants, beliefs and principles. He is not aroused by the sight of dozens being killed in cold blood at the hands of a hired killer, and the infection of transformation easily spreads to simple people. So, they turn into duplicate copies, not differing from each other in anything. One flock following the shepherd, what the authority decides is the truth and everyone must accept without discussion.
Just as what happened to a small town in the play Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco, its residents turned into rhinoceros, in dramatic scenes of transformation that affected everyone, revealing the ease with which people abandon their values and principles, and surrender to lies, illusions of leadership, and promises of the coming paradise, except for one person who steadfastly stood up for his humanity, rejecting with all force the transformation, to rhinoceros.
Under the weight of a constant sense of danger due to a word, a position, an opinion, or a slander, a person cannot feel safe. Generating this feeling in minds requires principles reinforced by law, and not by the mood and arrogance of the ruler. There is no safety with the chronic fear of arrest, imprisonment, torture, and liquidation, with proof of loyalty and submission of obedience duties on every occasion. Here the person finds himself between two choices. Either migrate and flee for his freedom, voice, and dignity from the party of deceivers and their delusions, or turn into a rhinoceros and join the herd, and accept lies as unquestionable truth. Thereby, showing loyalty and absolute support for the leader, a situation brilliantly summarized by the poet Abu Al-Ala Al-Ma’arri in a famous poem;
They sharpened their sword, uttered nonsense and said are we true? We said yes.
It is said in Chinese heritage, that the sage Confucius passed close to Mount Tai and saw a woman crying at a grave. He sent one of his students to inquire, and the woman said: The tiger has preyed on my husband, and in the past, it preyed on my father-in-law. He asked her: Why don't you leave? She replied: There is no unjust government here. Confucius turned to his disciples and said to them: Did you see? Remember well what she said; an unjust government is more brutal than a predatory tiger.
Yes, indeed one thousand of ‘yes’, the forest with its all predators is very much less severe than an unjust authority and deceivers who promote its lies, falsehood and deception.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Libya Observer
