The region’s entire value system – a political culture forged by autocracy – is being transformed. Arab men and women have shed the sense of humiliation and inferiority that despotism imposed on them – and that fostered desperation, anger, violence, and insularity.
开始崩溃的旧秩序并不局限于从前的政治体制。该地区的整个价值体系——由独裁体制所造就的政治文化——正在发生转型。阿拉伯人身上流淌着一种专制强加给他们的自卑和软弱，正是这种自卑和软弱造成了绝望、愤怒、暴力和偏狭。