Five years have passed since the 2011 events that profoundly have impacted Libya’s political developments, triggering the demise of the Jamahiriyya and the death of its leader, Mu’ammar Qadhdhafi. Yet, the country remains trapped in a spiral of violence and lawlessness that erupted in 2011.Drawing from an extensive collection of oral histories (more than 60) that were carried out during doctoral dissertation fieldwork, this paper analyses the diverse, and at times opposing, constructions of meaning that Libyans attribute to the events of 2011, ranging from maskhara (bullshit) to thwara (revolution). Inspired by the work of political anthropologists (Hammoudi, 1997; Hertzfeld, 1992; Navaro Yashin, 2002; Portelli, 1981, 1997; Weeden, 1999), the paper offers a multifaceted picture of the ‘revolution’ and challenges the mainstream Western notion of ‘Arab Spring’ in Libya. At the same time, by navigating through those narratives—ranging from conspiracy theories to rejection and hope, the paper also sheds light on ‘fantasies of the good life’ (Berlant, 2011; Povinelli, 2011) that emerged during these extensive interviews. In other words, it unpacks the ways Libyans imagined their country would be before the events in 2011. It provides challenging interpretations among Libyans in relation to what happened during 2011 and how they imagine what could happen, i.e., what they aspire as their country’s political future. These oral histories also offer an important lens for understanding Libyan perceptions of how the NATO military intervention disrupted the existing conditions of power, and they help us to comprehend how the elaboration of both the past and future serves to provide meaning for the present situation in the country. The whole paper relies heavily on an analysis of recurrent collective narratives that blur the lines of rumour, gossip (Stewart & Strathern, 2004), political jokes (Mbembe, 1991; Scott, 1990) and everyday experiences in terms of how Libyans process their recent history (Al-Ali, 2007;; Los, 1995; Olick 1997, 2011).