We observed that, after several repetitions of the combined stimulation, the sounds of the metronome had acquired the property of stimulating salivary secretion – Ivan Pavlov

What did Pavlov do? He brought a dog , and rang the bell each time he gave it food. Eventually, the dog salivated when you rang the bell, even if there wasn’t food. That’s exactly what happening today in Lebanon; A conditioned response: An automatic response established by training to an ordinarily neutral stimulus.

ما طار طير وارتفع الا كما طار وقع (What goes up must come down in the same way it initially went up)

Army members take down a Sheikh in Akkar. Demonstrations break in Akkar. It doesn’t really matter if the judicial system was actually influenced by the demonstrators or not, but the army members are taken to law court. Demonstrations and tire burning end. Some time later, the soldiers are liberated. Demonstration break again in Akkar. The soldiers are held again. Apparently, this time, the system is influenced by some protestors demonstrating on a Sectarian basis. So how to liberate them again? Demonstrations on a sectarian basis. Another one though, this time. Aounists go to the streets and block roads, in the same way the Sunni demonstrators did in Akkar. Theoretically, if the system has a weakness, if the system is vulnerable to some demonstrations, if  a man is found guilty or not after counting the men on the streets, something is fishy. The weakness can be used by all, if one uses it. Like Panurge’s sheep. Even better. Here the Panurge sheeps come with another feature. They can under some circumstances suddenly get armed and start shooting.

EDL day workers close Lebanon’s electricity company and deny its access to other employees. Things get even worse as electrical shortages get more unbearable. As a reward, they get promoted and get full-time jobs. suddenly, equality appears. And again, judging from the fact that we are all Panurge sheeps, expect all the Lebanese day-workers to close the state’s institutions.

Tomorrow, some Lebanese entity will burn tires and ask for a million dollar. Wait. Actually the events in Tripoli had a reward: 100 Million Dollars. So Ahmad Assir gets the motivation he wants to close Saida down with his demonstrations.

And that is the problem. When you reward people because they are doing something bad, when, you keep rewarding them every time they do something bad, don’t expect them to do it the right way.

And I think that MTV’s move is good, but it will do nothing. Other TVs will cover the story, so what MTV’s actually doing isn’t more than an ostrich hiding its head in the sand instead of facing the problems.

If only Pavlov was alive to see this.