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Leadership

It's come down to this
We need a leader deegeh!

Kevyan
September 3, 2004
iranian.com

In response to Pesare Gol's comment, "Ahura Who?"

I must say that your way of thinking does not take into account the enormous cynicism of Iranians all over the world. You are very much mistaken in shunning Yazdi's supporters. The fact is that everyone knows this man is crazy. Of course hell get killed, or become a laughing stock or what not. Of course he will fail on all accounts. Of course this is could just be for publicity or ego. However, think about where our morale for a revolution is today as Iranians.

At the 1999 student protests, the rebirth of Iranian revolutionary-ism emerged. Over the next few years, morale was high. We felt the jolts of governmental instability. Still, over the years, nothing happened, no revolution. The student protests grew smaller and smaller over time. Morale weakened. Eventually when the reformists were cleared out of power, morale was almost completely destroyed.

Most people either gave up hope, or just turned attention away thinking that EVENTUALLY Iran will change. Given enough time, Iran will change internally. This view is very simplistic and does not take into account the various factors that need to be in place in order for a revolution. Including the fact that the Iranian students that we cherish so highly, as the pawns of this next revolution, mostly don't care to get out on the streets and risk their lives.  Rather, many are too busy wasting time and energy at Iran's infamous underground parties, getting stoned, getting drunk or being jendehs.

At the same time, the mullahs are growing stronger every day. Oil prices are up, the economy is growing, and their ties to Europe and international view as a legitimate form of government are increasing.

SO WHERE is this grand revolution going to come from? What is to get Iranians morale up, and mobilized?

For this to happen we need the support of powerful influential individuals who can create a mobilized revolutionary following. So let's look to see who has stepped up to the plate.

Some, (mostly westerners) believe that Khatami is the answer, but by now we all know that he was just a puppet by the Islamic Republic set to quell our revolutionary tensions. So, he's out.

Now we can look at the scholars and student leaders inside Iran, like Aghajari and what not. As we have seen, the Islamic Republic will knock out or imprison anyone who stands an outspoken threat against them. So that's out too.

We must look outside Iran to the West. Who, coming from the richest most influential nations in the world are coming to the aid of Iranian revolutionary-ism?

First we have these Iranian satellite TV commentators. Iranians generally don't care for this. The students inside Iran aren't the ones watching this. Rather, its middle-aged Iranian-American males like my dad who are glued to their TV's watching these guys, eating up their big words like gospel yet not doing a thing to help the political situation themselves.

Inside Iran they are switching the channel to "Iran TV" where they just play videos and do other stupid random low-budget shit, never talking about politics. While they provide some support, they aren't making a big impact, so they are out too.

Now we have the guy, who people reading this either love or hate with a passion. Reza Pahlavi. This is they guy we can't seem to collectively make up our minds about. On one hand we classify him as inherently evil after his father; a spoiled brat who just wants to reclaim his families thrown. But on the other hand, we seem him on TV, think, eh he looks pretty harmless, and maybe we can somehow use all his stolen Iranian money and political connections to destabilize the Islamic Republic, and underneath it all he is doing more to help the political situation on a global scale than anyone else.

Regardless, most Iranians hate Reza and won't budge. Yet, he is still capable of generating a huge loyal following, even inside Iran where he hasn't layed foot in 25 years. PLEASE DON'T SENT ME LETTERS telling me how much you hate him or how he is evil. I already know all that you have to say. All I am saying is that he still has money and connections and in today's political world that can take you anywhere.

So, on some level we could say that Reza is out, but we completely. In the eyes of most Iranians, he's powerless, but to a sizable percentage he has a lot of influence. So, he's an active player to some degree. (ONCE AGAIN, I WANT NO LETTERS ON REZA PAHLAVI, NONE!)

So where are we now? We have mullahs rapidly growing stronger, a revolutionary/reform morale that is going down the tubes, no one inside or outside Iran doing anything truly impactful to help the pro-democratic hopes.

Here emerges our cynicism. Most Iranians know all of this, and they are beyond frustrated. We are just sitting here, going to Iranian.com, watching the satellite channels, hoping some day something could happen, some grand catalyst to jump start an effective pro-democracy movement.

This is why people are supporting Yazdi [See ]. Crazy, a genius, a braveheart? Regardless of anything, he's all we have right now. The fact is that it's not that anyone truly has faith in him, it's just that "we might as well" have faith in him.

Somewhere deep inside everyone is thinking, hmm what if he's not crazy, what if he has 5th column militant sleeper cells in Iran waiting his arrival. Or, what if him rallying Iranians like this is enough to get another student protest going. Or, what if this goes as far as to remind Europe and the ROW that Iranians do not want the Islamic Republic recognized as a legitimate form of government, and they should be doing everything they can to smother the regime.

Some ideas are far fetched and no one really believes this, but it's the only shred of hope we have right now. It's not that Iranians are naive as they were 25 years ago, it's that where has all our questioning everyone's intentions and being cynical about everything taken us, NO WHERE!

In my opinion, we need MORE Yazdis [See: Ahura Who?]. We need insane crazy Iranians to go out there and demonstrate. To all the male Iranian students out there, put down that bong, finish your line of coke, pick up a rock and throw it in the window of a government building. To all the female Iranian students out there, get your head out of the toilet, take your morning after pill, march in front of parliament and burn your chador in public protest. (ok, not ALL Iranian youth are like this, I'm just talking about the polar extreme we all know about,..once again, no letters...)

It's not enough to just say, "Oh... Iran will change on its own," if everyone said that than no one will do anything. It can't just magically happen. You're not going to wake up one morning and see the CNN ticker headline that's the answer to your prayers.  Think about it this way. If you hate Pahlavi, and he somehow gets back into power, than it's your fault because you just sat by letting it happen.  

The pro-Pahlavi people are actively supporting him, so who are you supporting. And don't say something stupid and simple minded like "Oh, I support the Iranian students" WELL DUH! That's obvious we all do, but what the hell does that mean when they can't get anything done. It's that lazy, turn the other cheek mentality I'm talking about that keeps anything from actually getting done, and lets the mullahs get stronger.

The last revolution was lead by a guy who ended up being remembered as one of the most influential human beings in the history of the world. We need pro-democracy individuals who will rise to the occasion. In this case we have exactly ONE, Yazdi, and that's because he's got a screw loose in his head. So yeah, that's what it's come to. I say support him, support him because he's pro-democracy and can inspire rational non crazy people. Even if nothing else comes out of this, it's healthy for us.

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