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 Democracy my foot We have yet to learn to pass the surface and reach the substance May 1, 2002 The Iranian No mater what our opinion is towards the shape of the future government for our beloved land, whether we are republicans, royalist or undecided, we all have one thing in common, and that is, we all want democracy. The problem is that, unfortunately, we do not know what democracy is! Or at least we do not behave democratic. And above all what comes with it? Democracy without responsibility, duty, tolerance towards others, dose not mean anything. That's anarchy. We have proven time and time again that we have yet a long way to feel fit for democracy. Iranian.com is a good example of our lack of democratic thinking, practice, our intolerance, bad manners and behavior. Have a good look at the letters people send in. Some percentages of these feedback letters are just foul language, full of four-letter words (F..K). One of them went so far as to repeat the same word almost ten times in a three-line letter! Amazing, is not it? Some of the letter writers are so haste in their judgment that they do not grasp the substance of what the article is all about. They do not touch, or refer to what is written. They are so obsessed that the moment they see certain names or references, they see red, and like a Spanish bull, they charge. No matter what one writes about Mossadegh, the Shah, Shaban Jafari, the hejab, adult subjects or the like, these letter writers go as far as using obscene words and even attacking the personality of the writer of the article -- and worse still, his family! Most of them believe they are the elected spokespersons of the entire Iranian nation, and therefore have the exclusive right to come out with foul language towards anything or anybody that does not fit in their own narrow, shallow mind. Somebody attacks a writer for writing a book about Shaban Jafari [Shaban]. The other one attacks another writer for having interviewed Dr. Madjidi [No regrets] and adds "WHY ARE YOU INTERVIEWING THE MOST HATED PEOPLE!" The list is endless. None of them writes what was wrong with the article. What was there that was not true? Where was the lie or fabrication? Who has the right to make a list of the most hated people? And who are these most hated people? To the mind of some feedbackers, whoever lived between 1924 and 1979, was a traitor one way or the other and no matter what his/her occupation, strengthened the pillars of the Pahlavi Dynasty! If someone worked as a mason, baker, goldsmith, taxi driver, shopkeeper, merchant, doctor, surgeon, teacher, university professor, engineer, functionary, even a peasant -- all and all without exception are condemned, as collaborators of the ex-regime. If mollas and the so-called revolutionaries want to think that way, it is to safeguard their usurped advantage, but what about the Diaspora? Do we have to suffer from that kind of thinking, which is inhuman and totally unjust? After living so long in the West, we have yet to learn, to tolerate one another. Forget about respecting another person's point of view -- that is asking the impossible.  We have yet to learn to pass the surface and reach the
substance. We have yet to learn being polite. We have yet to learn that abusive language
does not take us anywhere save to make unnecessary enemies. We have yet to learn
not to abuse the facility of expression bestowed to us free of charge by Iranian.com.
We have yet to learn to observe the integrity of our compatriots if we disagree with their point of view. We have yet to learn not to attack the personality of the writers and their family. How long does it take for us to overcome our wild emotions and adhere to reason and logic, be polite with one another and stop using foul language? Until then, democracy for us, Persians, is just a mirage. Probably there is a good remedy for those who use abusive language, and that is, simply to ignore them. One should not indulge on a shooting match that is self-degrading. Let the abusers think that they have won the match.
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