(R)EVOLUTION – RAVELUTION – REVOLUTION
Posted on November 15, 2019On the night of the 17th of October, 2019; A long lasting Lebanese dream hit the streets. It was the start of the revolution.
To give you a brief history: for the past thirty years Lebanon was governed by the same political parties that ended up bringing the country to a failing economy due to unacceptable amounts of corruption and created unbearable living situations. The political leaders fed their people false truth, taught them to hate one another (Christians and Muslims) and controlled them by fear and threat, all while creating the perception of the “political leaders” as saviors. This didn’t allow to mark an end to the Lebanese civil war, and created tensions for more than 30 years. The master plan behind it all was to distract the citizens by making them fight with one another to protect each leader’s vision, and forget about asking for their basic human rights, making citizens search for alternative survival services like generators and water cistern tanks while the “elite class” steals, corrupts and abuses of its power.
In Stephen Duncombe’s, Dream: Re-imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy, he explains that ‘dreams are powerful.’ In my opinion, it depends on who holds the narrative of the dream. In the wrong hands a dream can be toxic, create blindness and brainwash. However, given the chance to dream “correctly” brings out a whole new range of possibilities.
When more than one person shares the same dream, it emerges a collective. When a collective decides to achieve the dream, it shapes a revolution. When a revolution takes the streets, it creates hope.
In Heather Anderson’s Inaugurating the end she questions “How can a constitution be legitimate if it binds generations who did not, and could not, consent to its terms at its founding?” The Lebanese constitution was amended as a result of the civil war. Making religion the main player in public employment, the formation of a government, and the selection of its legislature. This constitution fits the war generation that was traumatized by the civil war with the promise that this “distribution” would reduce the tensions between the citizens. However, the new generation (my generation), having skipped the civil war, doesn’t understand how we can still be governed by religious movements. We’re looking for technocrats, independent people, new people that never took part of the war, that never took part of a specific political party and that can get a job done. After 3 decades of constant failing, and disappointment to the people, the constitution proved itself ineffective in the hands of the corrupt leaders, who are ‘Inaugurating the End’ of human rights.
People took the streets enraged with the political figures, letting go of all of their religious differences, and trying to reach the common dream of a United Lebanon. This revolution marked the end of the civil war. The people will only leave after achieving their one goal: a new political structure. Now the question is how to build a better future? Or at least a more reliable one? 
Humor and art have always been at the center of the coping mechanism of Lebanon. For example, when the taxes were installed on WhatsApp, memes circulated among the Lebanese asking the government to not forget to also tax their intercoms. Or when a woman was going through the crowd in her car, and told the protestors that her baby son (with her in the car) is terrified, the protestors unite and start singing ‘Baby Shark’ to calm the baby boy down. (the video went viral)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNd2im6zYno
‘We believe that by speculating more, at all levels of society, and exploring alternative scenarios, reality will become more malleable and, although the future cannot be predicted, we can help set in place today factors that will increase the probability of more desirable futures happening. And equally, factors that may lead to undesirable futures can be spotted early on and addressed or at least limited.’ Speculative Everything – Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby.
The Lebanese people on the streets speculated a more livable situation in Lebanon. In one month, when the streets where in the hands of the people.
Lebanon suddenly became clean, after having suffered from a garbage crisis for more than 3 years. Citizens created activities to pick up the trash left from the revolution. 
Suddenly public spaces became spaces of debate, dance, party and art after being deprived from access to these public spaces. Whoever knows how to debate created conversation circles, whoever knows how to party, invited the crowd to dance to the beat of their music (more than 30 songs generated from the revolution) and artists decorated the streets with graffiti and illustrations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgZVQEzKJcA
The poor were finally being fed and clothed with the help of donators. Religion became secondary to everyone, hand in hand they created a human chain to connect the people from North to South the two regions previously considered enemies.
Human Chain on 170 km. Connecting North to South.
The creation of a better Lebanon happened on the streets, without any government. Showing the political party what every Lebanese wants his/her Lebanon to look like. Shaping a better future. Making the reality of their dream more palpable and reachable. Proving that what was once considered unrealizable in Lebanon can be achieved by the Lebanese. After this revolution I see every Lebanese as a designer, that can ‘Speculate Everything’ out of nothing.
NAJ