"Weakest Link" Addendum

I decided to put that article on the non-aligned groups here, rather than try to find some interested American magazine, for a couple of reasons. First, speed: it's massively obnoxious to be finished with an article and then spend the next week or two finding it a home. Second, audience: the people who read this blog have a better sense of Lebanese politics than the average reader of an American political magazine. And, insofar as the current situation is an internal Lebanese problem (if such a thing exists), you people are more important. Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?

If I had known when I started writing that I was going to post the article here, I would have cut down on the background of Lebanon's problems. That's another problem about writing for an American audience -- you have to basically slip in a review of Lebanese history, from 1975 to present. It's massively annoying. I would have much rather talked about the psychological impact of the civil war on these non-aligned protesters, but there simply wasn't room if I wanted to write a concise article. Instead, I had to explain the confessional system. Yes, I know it's boring. I apologize.

Honestly, I think the article is mediocre. The problem was that I wanted to write about a huge issue -- the scattering of liberals across the political spectrum -- but my ostensible topic was one segment of Lebanon's liberals. I didn't talk to liberal-minded people in the FPM, or Future, or who had abandoned the political process entirely. The piece felt schizophrenic, constantly switching between flogging the non-aligned protests and explaining the larger Lebanese political scene.

Oh well. That's enough self-criticism for one day. Expect vicious, ad hominem attacks on some unsuspecting organization as a way to balance the books.