Father Lazarus Abboud
The Syrian government added a kilo of “onions” to the smart card, then when it saw the people’s turnout it rewarded them with a second kilo. The purpose is surely not to secure a foodstuff for the people; the people’s sustenance does not concern it, unfortunately, and we have experienced that a thousand times. But how can we read these utterly illogical and ridicule-provoking acts? While we see the other governments securing salaries, houses, healthcare, and aid for their families.
*. In the year 1474, the Swiss city of “Basel” witnessed a strange incident, when a small rooster was brought to trial because it did a supernatural thing, namely that it “laid an egg.” The people of the city saw that as blasphemy, and so the rooster faced accusations of atheism, and the court decided to burn it alive. The people of the city gathered to watch the execution of the sentence upon the “atheist rooster.”
And in Italy in 1519, the Church brought the rats of the city of Stelvio to trial because they spoiled the barley crop in one of the fields, and the court sentenced the rats to exile. But because the clergymen in the Church were rational, they ordered that the rats be guarded to protect them from the cats while they were being expelled from the city, and that the pregnant or nursing rat might wait two weeks before the execution of the sentence. And in France in 1750, a female donkey was brought to trial on the charge of committing lewdness with a farmer, but the witnesses testified to the donkey’s chastity, so she was released, and the farmer was sentenced to death. And in Saudi Arabia, a judge sentenced an accused to death because of the testimony of twelve jinn against him for dealing with them, where the accused was convicted of sorcery on the basis of the testimony of the “jinn.”
*. In our countries we see wonders through illogical statements and decisions; for example:
A decision to paint the gas cylinder navy blue during a crisis of the gas not being available in the first place; appointing a veterinarian as minister of education; and, not the last of them, adding a kilo of onions to the smart card and creating queues of humiliation for the sake of a kilo of onions.
In depth:
*. The Church in Italy was affirming its authority over all creatures, humans and animals, and the court in Saudi Arabia was declaring its great ability to reach the world of the jinn by law, not by sorcery, and that it subjects them to its law.
These trials or statements never mean that the government is mad or stupid; rather it fully knows what it is doing and intends it. The intent is precisely to drive the people mad, to make them lose confidence in themselves, and to make them lose the ability for balanced logical thinking about the events that take place. Thinking becomes muddled and unable to absorb what is happening, not because of its difficulty, but because the one who sees an illogical and absurd act or decision that a child would not accept, and then it is issued and executed, is stricken with despair and despondency because of how such a decision was passed and issued.
The aim is that man accepts madness entirely so that he stops grumbling, and accepts reality as it is, so that man becomes an easy dough ready to accept everything, even humiliation, as being logic itself, and that what happens is for our good, so that it becomes easier to control man more, and so that he becomes, as Dostoevsky says, “they will lay their freedom at our feet and cry out: make us your slaves but feed us.”
What then? So beware first, and do not believe, and overcome them.
Beware and do not believe: Jesus cried out before the temptation of hunger “not by bread alone does man live,” as though He knew how man is humiliated and degraded through his bowels; therefore He said “not by bread,” as though He was saying to man: reject the choice between humiliation and hunger. For satiety is not by food; man lives by dignity and a precious life. So there came one who made queues for (a bunch of onions), as though we were in prisons, each one to take his share and return to his cell.
O man, you are more precious than food and more valuable than bread; you are the most precious thing in existence. If what is happening is a temptation, why do you accept to place yourself in such a thing? Not by bread does man live, but by freedom and dignity. Al-Mutanabbi says ” Live honorably or die while you are noble…and seek glory in the flames, and leave disgrace even if in the gardens of eternity”.
If the question is: we cannot change reality — exactly as Christ did not change the temptation but answered it “not by bread does man live..but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” — because we cannot change the decisions and the laws, then the real change in our countries is the change of what is in our souls and the way of approaching all matters and answering them.
Overcome them: we can, no, we must take a personal stance, and reject this humiliation, and say: we do not want. Here I do not call for shouting and commotion but for silence and refusal, lest we create enmities and disturbances for ourselves; simply through not buying this kilo of onions and the like of it, and not accepting to stand in these queues. We must not accept these acts personally, not only for our sake but for the sake of our children, that we teach them to refuse “the scarcity of dignity.” Teach them pride and self-esteem, even at the cost of their going hungry; for what is the value of man without his dignity? Antun Saadeh says “all of life is but a stance of honor; we build ourselves as life and truth.”