I just came across a thought I wrote more than 10 years ago during the events of the second civil war in Benghazi... sharing it as is, unedited and untranslated. Has anything changed since then?

"The Libyan society is in crisis. The forces that kept it together for centuries are now ripping it apart. As a conservative society with deep distrust of the novel and foreign, Libyans fear change and loath non-conformity. Their polity is based on patriarchy, tribal loyalty and centuries-old practices for self-governance, property protection and conflict-resolution, all done within a framework of a sedate version of Islam and “traditional Arabic values.” Life might be short and brutish, but their version of Islam provides assurances of eternal afterlife amidst rivers of wine and honey, and their version of the Arab history supplies a sense of superiority and an unquestionable belief in the inevitability of triumph. There is no strong drive to change the status quo or to waste time trying to understand its causes and consequences. Debate is seen as pointless because change is not desirable. Life may not be ideal, but the alternatives are worse. Libyans are equally opposed to radical Islamic orthodoxy and to Liberal modernism, exactly for the same reason: both seem foreign and risky."