But the upper classes of Damascus, the secular men and women who enjoy Western music and films, some of them members of the Christian and Alawite religious minorities, will have a hard time surviving once Assad is gone. Baathism was dictatorial and oppressive – often brutally so – but it protected minorities and the secular elites.
比方说，人们很容易同情叙利亚反对巴沙尔·阿萨德独裁统治的反政府武装。但大马士革的上层阶级、喜爱西方音乐电影的世俗男女、其中某些人还是基督教徒和阿列维宗教少数派的成员，在阿萨德倒台后恐怕很难继续生存。复兴主义的确独裁压制，而且往往手段都非常残酷——但少数族裔和世俗精英却处在它的保护之中。