SEATTLE — A pervading sense of awe seems to be engulfing Arab societies. What is under way in the Arab world is greater than simply revolution in a political or economic sense. It is, in fact, shifting the very self-definition of what it means to be Arab, both individually and collectively.

Hollywood has long caricatured and humiliated Arabs. U.S. foreign policy in the Mideast has been aided by simplistic and, at times, racist depictions of Arabs in the mass media. A whole generation of pseudo-intellectuals have built their careers on the notion that they have a key understanding of Arabs and the seemingly predictable pattern of their behavior.

Now we see Libya — a society that had nothing by way of a civil society and which was under a protracted stage of siege — literally making history. The collective strength displayed by Libyan society is awe-inspiring to say the least.