Dictatorship 101: When it falls, it falls fast—just ask the last guy
The Banality of Evil
Humans are capable of capable of profound acts of kindness, heroism but also unimaginable cruelty. I know, I am not saying something new. This duality, human capacity for both creation and destruction, has been the subject of philosophical, psychological, and sociological inquiry for centuries. Hannah Arendt’ s concept of the "banality of evil" offers a chilling insight into how ordinary people can commit atrocities simply by conforming to systems that encourage or demand cruelty.
Still, watching photos and videos from the Sednaya prison, locally known as “the human slaughterhouse”, a vast underground torture complex of the Assad’s government, I can’t stop wondering -once more - of the depths to which humanity can sink.
Can we, as a species, truly move toward a future where compassion outweighs violence? And if not, do we even deserve to survive?
In Syria, the Assad regime is over. Bashar al-Assad and his family have relocated to Moscow, a favoUred haven for exiled dictators, apparently.
The Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the final push against Assad’s forces, is now the dominant force in Syria. Founded in 2011 as Jabhat al-Nusra, an Al Qaeda affiliate, HTS broke away in 2016 under the leadership of Abu Mohammedal-Julani—born Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a. Al-Julani comes from a wealthy family and briefly pursued medical studies – like Assad - before stepping onto a very different path.
Al-Julani ‘s, whose real name is Ahmed Hussein al-Shar'a,comes from a wealthy family in Damascus but was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He did some studies in medicine, like his adversary Bashar al-Assad who, has specialised in ophthalmology"because he couldn't stand the sight of blood." Yet, he led one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history. Ironic, isn’t?
What will happen know in Syria? Nobody really knows. As Haaretz journalist Zvi Bar’el succinctly puts it in his analysis in Haaretz: "In the Rubble Left Behind by Assad, Anyone With Weapons Will Try to Decide Syria's Future.” In Syria, almost everyone holds a gun.
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