❊ A Nation of Lose-Lose Madness

There are many negotiation situations in life in which one party possesses a very powerful weapon. That weapon is so devastating and destructive that the threat of deploying it should be enough for progress to happen in the talks. Nuclear weapons are the classic example of that.

Deciding to use the “nuclear option” is rare because it also hurts the party using it. It means that one side has completely given up and has decided that “everybody loses” is better than “we lose alone”. In Lebanon, however, it is starting to become a norm in political and industrial negotiations.

Last week alone witnessed two high stakes industrial-relation negotiations that resulted in a grounding of MEA flights for several days and a severe loss in electrical current production for Lebanon. By using their nuclear options of grounding planes and shutting down electricity factories, the pilots and the workers have lost the sympathies of many Lebanese.

Using the nuclear option is common in Lebanese politics too. The March 8 guys in particular revel in using their nuclear options of quitting cabinets, occupying city centers and releasing their armed men onto the streets of Beirut. The question is: Why do we so frequently employ the nuclear option in Lebanon?

I think Lama was on to something in her post on the MEA strike. This is how she describes the Actions of Mohammad Al Hout, MEA’s boss:

Al-Hout believes he is well-supported by politics and for some reason believes that he is the king of the MEA […]. His reactions, on an institutional level, seem exactly the same as those of any of the dictatorships we’ve been gaping at for the last year. Except instead of shooting at the protestors, he is threatening to fire them

Lebanon, on a micro Level, seems plagued by the same kind of inflexibility and intransigence that is now haunting Arab dictators. You would think that a bit more flexibility from those responsible would solve deadlocks, but even that is not guaranteed in a region where concessions are looked at as signs of weakness that should be followed by even more demands.

I really don’t know how we can solve this, as it seems we’re having an impasse with the system itself. Too bad we as citizens don’t have any nuclear option of our own.