A Litany Of No's

Syrians never accepted dictatorship as destiny, but what did they explicitly reject when they rose up against the Assad regime? In Part 2 of Rebuilding Syria, we examine the litany of no’s articulated by the Syrian people, which ultimately led to the regime's demise. The no’s include:

1. No to an all-powerful strongman

2. No to a cult of personality

3. No to a one-party state

4. No to torture and rape as tools of statecraft

5. No to killing protestors, criminalizing dissent, imprisoning opposition, policing speech, controlling thought, and censoring art

6. No to a surveillance state where even the walls have ears

7. No to a particularly vicious police state

8. No to a state led by and for a mafioso family

9. No to state propaganda and disinformation posing as journalism

10. No to the politics of deflection, distraction, and projection

11. No to stoking ethnic and religious tensions as a means to divide, conquer, and rule.

12. No to an army of informants and spies that normalized distrust and institutionalized insecurity.

And there's more,

1. No to a thoroughly corrupt kleptocracy

2. No to a regime elite who pillage, plunder, and barter away national assets, resources, and wealth

3. No to an economic system where the rich get richer and everyone else gets poorer (not just a Syrian problem)

4. No to the humiliation and collective punishment of electricity cuts, water cuts, food shortages, environmental neglect, and bans on foreign currency transactions.

Today, in this period of transition, the chorus of voices is only expanding, adding to the litany of no’s:

1. No to a sectarian state

2. No an Islamist state

3. No to a state that offers anything less than full citizenship and full equality to all Syrians, regardless of ethnicity and religion, within collectively agreed upon constitutional and legal frameworks.

4. No to any government scenario that fails to honor the enormous pain, trauma, and loss, endured over 50 years of dictatorship

5. No to a state that doesn’t prioritize and serve the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of the Syrian people.

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Polycultural Institute is the Think-and-Create Tank of Chicago’s Silk Road Cultural Center. We generate art and ideas that promote polyculturalism and connect people, cultures, and communities.

Polyculturalism is the theory that cultures continuously evolve and transform through dynamic interchange. It assumes that cultures are fluid and flexible, not static and fixed, and that as cultures interact, they redefine themselves.

Silk Road Cultural Center is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary arts organization rooted in the modern communities of the historic Silk Roads, including our diaspora communities. We embrace the arts as a catalyst for connecting people, places, histories, and futures.