Hani Shaker is not dead!
A comforting sentence… but it's incomplete!
More precisely:
It's not the voice that died…
It's the human capable of hearing it!
A singer didn't leave!
An entire class left!
The middle class…
which possessed a rare luxury:
To mourn elegantly!
This class was not just listening to the song!
It was living it!
Using it as a balancing device…
as a bandage…
as a last resort before collapse!
In homes with clean curtains… weary walls…
the voice operated silently!
It was not about enjoyment…
but an internal maintenance of the soul!
The cassette tape?
It was not a commodity!
It was a ritual!
A cut from the essential…
to purchase what seems unnecessary…
but saves what's left of the human!
The middle class was poor… yes!
But it owned what's more dangerous than money:
Time that isn't counted…
a call that isn't counted…
a pause at a crossroads with no purpose…
and an unexplained silence…
and a cigarette after dinner!
Yes… the cigarette!
It was not a pleasure!
It was a truce!
I still own a minute… nothing chases me in it!
And there were two trips:
Winter to Petra…
and summer to Aqaba!
They were not tourism…
but a proof that life had not yet turned into a punishment!
Then the collapse began!
Not all at once…
but a gradual suffocation!
First:
Time became money!
Then:
Feeling became a cost!
Then:
Stopping became a charge!
Then the satiated appear on their forum balconies!
Not to offer a solution…
but to issue their orders:
Austerity!
Lessen!
Endure!
Shorten!
Then the equation evolves:
Advice…
then a condition…
then humiliation!
Live less…
feel less…
demand less…
Then the result:
Be less human… to survive!
Here Fyodor Dostoyevsky understood early on!
When a person is humiliated economically…
they don't lose money first!
They lose:
Dreams…
then songs…
then themselves!
And what Karl Marx said:
When a person turns into a tool…
they detach from themselves!
And what Max Weber saw:
The modern world is an iron cage…
organized… precise…
but soulless!
And the cry of Friedrich Nietzsche:
When meaning disappears…
humans search for any consolation… even if it's a song!
And the observation of Ibn Khaldun:
When the structure becomes disordered…
souls become disordered!
Bread is no longer just food!
It has become a dictator!
Swallowing:
time…
love…
taste…
and tears!
The person who chases after bread…
doesn't have the luxury to love…
or mourn…
or even listen to a song to the end!
And here is the catastrophe:
The singing wasn't banned!
But the listener was shattered!
The middle class disappeared…
and with it disappeared:
elegant sorrow…
beautiful waiting…
clean tears…
and the song that is played to its very end!
Hani Shaker did not fall!
It was the class that needed him that fell!
Taste did not decline!
The ability to feel declined!
The song didn't disappear!
The space that allows its birth disappeared!
The prince within each of us has broken!
That prince…
who stood at a crossroads with no purpose…
smoked…
made calls from his new phone he bought on installment…
listened…
felt…
and did not apologize!
Today?
Even sadness needs permission!
And stopping needs justification!
And singing…
has become an unwanted surplus!
Ask the real question!
Not: Why did the singer leave?
But:
How did we reach a moment…
