When Tom Barrack hurled insults at Lebanese journalists, he exposed a bitter truth: that one can sit at the helm of global power and yet remain utterly ignorant of history, culture, and even the most basic meaning of civilization. His words were not merely an insult; they were evidence of the chronic illiteracy of those who present themselves as “architects of the future.” Civilization is not built by shouting or by humiliation. It cannot be found in bank vaults, nor in military arsenals. Civilization is the history of thought, the suffering of generations, the reverence for truth. Had Barrack possessed the slightest familiarity with history, he would have known that the very language and alphabet he uses to spit insults were a gift from the Phoenicians—the same lands he so carelessly demeans. The bitter irony of history is this: the heirs of civilization are ridiculed by those whose every word and tool derives from that very heritage. The problem is not just a vulgar sentence. The problem is that such hollow minds occupy positions of decision-making in the world today. The consequences are obvious: Palestine buried under bombardment, Lebanon trapped in endless crisis, Afghanistan consumed by despair. And a world that, instead of advancing, slips further backward each day—because its fate is dictated by those who mistake power for wisdom, and insult for civilization. It must be said plainly: Power built on ignorance, and a tongue that knows only contempt, are not marks of civilization but of decline. And history, sooner or later, will record that decline in the names of those who chose destruction over creation, and insult over respect. #TomBarrack #civilization #history #politics #justice #activism #SocialJustice