Stuff Too Big for Twitter

Tonight I watched a Channel 4 documentary on the Syrian uprising. The reporter and crew were witness to the terrible cruelty of the Syrian regime. Naturally I re-tweeted the video, which you can find here.

Then the thought occurred to me, what use is it? Does this really have any more utility than sharing a lolcatz image? I hoped so, and after considering it, I think so. This is why:

Why We Should Care About Syria

It is a good question to ask. It is natural to think that we possess no power to aleviate the plight of those suffering the cruelties of a fascist state. A mere individual many thousand of kilometres away can barely provide useless ‘moral support’ to protesters. But let me enhearten you.

Human societies have always harboured injustice and cruelty, yet things can improve. Things have improved. Things do not improve because the powerful impose more just rules on those they conquer. They do not improve through coercion, and they rarely improve through academic debate. They improve because societies — masses of people — change their expectations of life, and the standards they hold their rulers to. Sometimes this is top-down, sometimes it is bottom-up, often it is both. 

Growing public opinion in your country against the Syrian government gives your government the political capital it requires to pressure Assad’s regime. Public opinion empowers international governments to sever trade relations and cut Assad’s income. Public opinion is an intangible force, yes, but it is certainly powerful. 

What the military calls ‘morale’ and we call domestically ‘public opinion’ is known globally as the zeitgeist, or the spirit of the times. Your capacity to promote ideas is your most powerful weapon. Use it. Knowing of what is occurring in Syria, and forming an opinion, cannot fail to contribute to this cause. Your opinion affects the aggregate opinion. Analogous to adding one drop to a bucket, this is what great change looks like on the ground level. This is the process that ended the slave trade. This is the process that gave women the vote. This is the process that has formed international laws that normalise human rights. It was partially the outrage of global civil society after the Rwandan genocide that inspired the formulation of the UN’s Responsibility to Protect doctrine in 2005, recently invoked in Libya.

In Syria the force of the zeitgeist weakens the resolve of soldiers to carry out the regime’s murderous orders. The knowledge that others outside the country value freedom first inspired, and now sustains the beleagured opposition.

So don’t be overwhelmed. Things do change. The best thing you can do to help Syrians is to care, and then to help others care. The process works, and the pages of history stand testament to it.