The Lebanese Ruling Class: One body, many heads and hands(ep. #4)

We have gotten used to consider the main two local political factions, March 14 and March 8, as opponents.
Let us immediately dispel that big myth: The above is a major Lie. It’s one of the Big Lies that the Ruling Class relies on to stay in existence, perhaps the biggest of them all.

(Taken from Part 2 of the book The Lebanese Disease. Full step-by-step guide on how to fight the Lebanese Ruling Class available as free PDF book)

The sectarian leaders, March 14 and March 8, and all their affiliated branches, are allies.

Collaborators, brothers in arms, accomplices, partners.
They work together to preserve their power. They’ve been pretending to be opponents for decades, but that’s for public show, to keep their base under control.
While they do argue over specific actions from time to time, they never forget their priorities and their fundamental rule: To help each other stay in power, collaborating to divide among themselves the State and country’s resources.
And when they do have a temporary disagreement, the country’s entire political and economic life freezes while we wait for them to sort it out — as if an entire country can simply be stopped like a car and not suffer immense damage in lost investment, economic progress and growth.
Moreover, once whatever childish conflict between them is eventually sorted out (and it always does, have you noticed?) they go back to the normal business of Power and wealth accumulation, under the framework of what they call the ‘National Unity’ government.
Even the very names of M14 and M8 have only existed since 2005/2006. How quickly we forget that they were invented from scratch. Within months during that period, our brains started processing local political events through the framework of the M14/8 duality, as if it was the most natural thing. Never mind that it was largely the same sectarian leaders and their parties, before and after, that remained and kept running the affairs of the country.
Same people, new name, but same core goal: Power and the accumulation of wealth.
A few new entries were added to the Ruling Class roster, true, but these newcomers entered into the same system and became part of it instead of trying to change it. It was more of the same: ‘Ana shou byetla3leh’ (what’s in it for me), ‘mesh bi 2idna, heke byemshe el sheghel’ (not in our hands, that’s how things are done).
The M14 and M8 split is an artificial division, an ongoing theater production designed to keep the Lebanese people divided and under control. You’ve seen the memes on social media of leaders of all sects shaking hands and laughing together at events or during National Unity government times. How is it that they can cause armed clashes and get citizens killed one day, and then shake hands the next? What madness is this?
It isn’t madness; it’s all an act.
‘So what?’, I hear you say. There’s nothing new here. You ask the random Lebanese on the street and they will tell you quite bluntly ‘they are all bad’ (kellon ma byeswo).
That’s true. But let’s be honest, many of us still differentiate among the leaders in M14 or M8, assuming there’s real and deep conflict between the two sides. We still feel that our side is under existential threat and that ‘our guy’ is necessary for protection, even if they have to participate in the corruption.
That’s how most of our environments (bi2a) and families and inner groups raised us, because that’s what the Ruling Class and their propaganda agents continuously fed them.
Typical statements you’d hear at a family gathering would be ‘we are under Iranian military occupation, Hezbollah is the main cause of the collapse of the country’, or ‘M14 are agents of Western/Zionist powers trying to impose an imperialist agenda on the region, forcing a siege on the country and its economy’, or some variation of the above.
Some — who like to think of themselves as intellectuals — even consider our problems the result of a ‘global neoliberal agenda’, or conversely a ‘Global Shia Axis plot’, or other nonsense.
Consider for example that the Ruling Class loves it when you believe that your problems come from outside. This means it’s not their fault your life is so bad, isn’t it? They are protecting you from the outside evil guys, so it’s ok if they steal a bit, right?
My approach is different in this book. I am telling you that most of our problems come from inside Lebanon — and thus that you have the power to fix them. No more excuses that it’s not in our hands.
Most importantly, my aim is to help you internalize the concept of the LRC as one entity, and that M14, M8 or any other label is just smoke blown into your eyes to keep you obedient.

M8 and M14 are only the façade. In reality the LRC is one body, one core, following one set of clear fundamental goals.

Think of M14 and M8 as the two arms of a criminal. Imagine you are judging the crimes committed by that person. Do you differentiate between the left and the right arm? Do you think ‘well the right arm is the one that stabbed the victim so it’s more responsible. At least the left arm didn’t do the stabbing.’
No you don’t, that wouldn’t make any sense. It’s one criminal body and one mind. The arms and the legs are just extensions. Sometimes they trip over each other, but they
have the same fundamental goal: The preservation of the existence of the body, at any cost.
Just take a look at the last 30 years. Has anyone been prosecuted by Lebanese courts? Did anyone go to prison using legal process? All your attacks on ‘those guys’, all the accusations of corruptions your leader has ‘uncovered’ against the other side, did they get you anywhere?
No, because the body protects its members. And no member is ever left behind.
More generally, is it realistically possible that one political party or sectarian leader can be individually responsible for the complete collapse of the country since 2019? One of the worst catastrophes in Lebanon’s history, caused by one side only, with the other sides not having any hand in it?
The reality is more tragic: We the people in Lebanon have been, for the past 30 years, worshipping and enabling a parasite sucking on Lebanon and its citizens’ lifeblood. And we have been drugged into accepting this parasite as inevitable, as eternal.
That parasitic body is called the Lebanese Ruling Class, and they have been wildly successful thanks to the collaboration of their various moving parts. Indeed, they would not have been able to stay in power so long had it not been for the substantial amount of coordination and linkages they’ve built with each other over the years (it’s not by accident that children of key LRC leaders intermarry so often).
And why would they not collaborate? They have become immensely wealthy and powerful as a result, worshipped by thousands, ruling for decades unchallenged. They are living like kings.

The goal of the Lebanese Ruling Class is Power — at any cost

Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. Power is not a means; it is an end. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.
- George Orwell | 1984

The above quote might as well be called LRC 101. If you were able to be a fly on the wall during private discussions among the high-level leaders of an LRC meeting, when they drop the masks reserved for ‘normal people’ like us, their speech would be similar to the above. This is also the kind of private talk that each sectarian leader gives to their son or whoever is inheriting the family business.
Unlike the superficial labels of M14 or M8, or before that anti and pro-Syrian (and maybe in 10 year pro and anti-China or some other new arrangement), the LRC is a living thing that exists beyond those thin costumes.
Like all living entities, it seeks to preserve its existence and way of life, which requires its members to acquire and retain all wealth plundered from the people, complete control over the lives of the citizens, and all the economic output of the country.

Preserving unlimited Power and wealth in Lebanon is the only goal of the Lebanese Ruling Class.

They don’t care about you, your life, your loved ones and your sect.
They don’t care about religion or morality or God.
They don’t care about the events in the region, about freeing Palestine or fighting Iran or defeating American Imperialism or imposing socialism or preserving capitalism.
They care about preserving and increasing their wealth and 100 of the Power points in Lebanon. That is all.
If they can keep that Power during peace time, fine, but if they need to start another war or some in-between sectarian clash to maintain it, no problem. If it means
bringing back the Syrian mandate, so be it. If it means bending the knee to some foreign power and visiting embassies left and right, no problem.
Whatever it takes to stay in control.
And during that time, if:

• regular citizens must starve while their money is stuck in local banks, their children out of school and their parents incapable of paying for healthcare;
• if LRC agents must turn up sectarian hatred and have citizens kill one another;
• if they leave us with no electricity, no dignity, no justice system, no economy and no hope for a better life for our children;

They’ll do it, who cares! Life is good when you are a highly-ranked member of the LRC.
No big deal how many die as long as they are regular no-name citizens. They’ll just call them ‘martyrs’ to pretend like their death was not meaningless.
Anyway, their children are outside Lebanon, and most of their money too. They’re playing Gods to us at no risk to themselves. It’s all a game to them, a fun board game with our lives as the pieces.

Who are they exactly? Know your enemy

The Lebanese Ruling Class is a wider network than most people think. It’s made up of:

• Traditional sectarian politicians and traditional political families, obviously.
• Politically-affiliated large business owners and companies acting as a front for the politicians
• The vast majority of traditional media (TV, newspapers and radios)
• Lebanese bank owners and top managers, the financiers of the Ruling Class, with the Central Bank at the top
• Media personalities affiliated to sectarian leaders or ‘who sympathize’ with LRC parties (effectively acting as propaganda agents)
• So-called ‘political analysts’, in reality fully affiliated and taking orders from a politician or party, who specialize in long and complicated talks on TV and somehow always arrive to the same conclusion as to who is ‘good’ and who is ‘bad’ (thus, also propaganda agents)
• Religious leaders: enablers of the politicians, giving them legitimacy and perpetuating the myth of the ‘leader under attack = sect under attack’.
• Heads of most main state institutions that have a monopoly (electricity, the ports, Social Security fund, etc..) and that are ma7soubeen (affiliated to) a sectarian leader
• High or medium-ranking administration officials affiliated to a leader
• Key position holders in public education, the Justice System, public healthcare, in syndicates and ministries

A nice little rotten group, together forming the LRC and staunchly watching each other’s back.
Why do you think there hasn’t been a single arrest and imprisonment by court order for corruption (arrests by political decision don’t count, they increase corruption) even for the smallest of crimes? It’s because they know that if we citizens get a taste of just one of them going to prison, they will all fall.
Thieves protect other thieves, and they know they’re all in it together. They may fight from time to time over who gets a bit more of the Lebanese cake, but they’ll always unite fully against any new independent group.

Continue reading in next post or download full PDF for free at https://linktr.ee/IntisarLB