These days Iranians are in a perplexingly funny situation. On the one hand we want, rather strongly, Saddam Hussein to go to “hell” — at least I do — given what he did to Iran. On the other hand, we also know that those who want to cast the proverbial “laser-guided smart” stones to remove the Iraqi segment of the “axis of evil” have a few sins of their own.
So, here are some of my thoughts on this subject, followed by two of my related poems.
I shared these thoughts recently in an on-line discussion among a group of Iranian-American civil rights and peace activists. The topic of the debate was what are we to do, now, given that a lot of us are unhappy with much of the policies of Iraqi, Iranian, AND American rulers.
As is the case with every other country on our fragile blue globe, so far as I can see, Iran's INDEPENDENCE and SURVIVAL, regardless of which “unelected tyrants” rule her today, is of paramount importance, if for no other reason than the historical fact that Iran's civilizations are among the oldest on earth–and thus, she shares in the responsibility to preserve cultural and biological life and consciousness in this small yet precious corner of OUR awe-full cosmos.
Like almost all other nations, Iran has been ruled by all kinds of “thugs” throughout her tortured history. I believe one should separate one's anger at today's “unelected rulers” of Iran from the kind of danger that would undermine the country's very independence and survival in the centuries and millennia to come.
Let me repeat so as to prevent misunderstanding: As hopefully all of you know, I would LOVE to see the “evil” Saddam Hussein of Iraq GONE — to “hell,” hopefully.
However, his removal seems to be a pretext, part of the “total subjugation — not 'pre-emption' — doctrine” that the right wingers in the US (as well as in Israel and elsewhere) have “pent up” for long in their chests, as the former U.S. President, Mr. Jimmy Carter recently put it.
The way I see it, there are 4 major actors, in conscious or implied alliance, in this dangerous threat to our planet:
1- The “military-industrial-media” complex, which wants un-hindered PERMANENT profits, regardless of consequence. They need “evil” enemies and continuous war for this. Therefore, they certainly see to it that conflicts and wars are both created and prolonged. This is why the U.N. is purposefully kept weak.
2- The “Sharonites” in Israel want to RULE the Middle East, which they want to destabilize, in order to re-build their “Greater Israel” including their “3rd temple” in the middle of the ensuing chaos. They also need enemies and wars for all this. So, they have no qualms about instigating anti-Semitism (and its twin anti-Islamism)–in fact they encourage it, because they are fed by it.
3- The So called “Christian” fundamentalists in the US who want to instigate an “Armageddon” war mainly between Moslems and Jews, centered in Jerusalem (using neutron bombs which “destroy infidel flesh” but leave buildings intact) so as to help the “second coming” of the Kingdom of Zion. In other words they “know” that they are “saved,” so they want to go “paradise” as soon as possible. They simply do not care about the “left-behind non-believers.”
To help their “God” reach their “loving” aims, these “evangelicals” purposefully instigate religious and ethnic hatred, racism, and war–anything to instigate and fester conflict. Of course, they believe that their “loving King of Kings” will see to it that everything else “worthy of saving” is taken care of.
In this “holy prophecy” they are joined, in moronic compounded doubly-blind ignorance, by fundamentalists of almost all other tribalistic religions and cults, including the not-so-secretive-anymore “Hojjatieh” crowd in Iran, the ones who purposefully try to make things so bad as to “force” the PERMANENT appearance of the blessed Mahdi, who is so loving that he cannot tolerate too much injustice, so he will be “forced” to “save” humanity, due to his immense mercy. This same “hope for the ultimate salvation” exists, in a superficially different unfolding process, even among fundamentalist Hindus, and among all other tribalistic ideological “religions”.
In the same way that the so-called “defenders of Israel” openly instigate conflict and anti-Semitism, the above-referenced fundamentalist “Christians,” “Moslems,” “Hindus,” etc… do their best to do things in order to encourage “anti-Christ,” “anti-Islam,” “anti-Hindu,” etc… action and hatred, in order to gain “legitimacy” and in order to push things toward becoming “intolerably” bad, so that the real “candidates for salvation” (real “friends” of their respective “savior”) can be distinguished from “hell-bound non-believers and hypocrites.”
4- The regional unelected rulers, who need the “Satanic” U.S., Israel, etc… in order to justify their repressive rule and continued power and plunder.
However, the “shelf-life” for these tyrants (per Kissinger doctrine, the parent of the above-referenced “wolfpack” doctrine of today) has elapsed, so they need to be replaced with new “democracy-loving” puppet dictators.
These rulers, therefore, also need to fan the fires of conflict or to make superficial “democratic” gestures, to please their masters. For example, look at the recent “democratic” developments and the creation of a “parliament” in Bahrain–predictably cheered on by that famous defender of “democracy” in the Middle East, the “objective” champion of Zionist-prescribed “human rights”, Mr. Thomas Friedman.
Now, given all this, it does not matter what tribalistic posture some Arabs have adopted toward Iran in the past (among other ignorant ill motives), fueled by the U.S. orchestrated Iraqi war against Iran, which included, as we know now for sure, the U.S. GOVERNMENT giving chemical and biological weapons to Saddam Hussein to use against Iran and the Iraqi Kurds–pleasing to Turkey's pro-West “democratic” dictators.
Ultimately, what matters, then, is Iran's independence and survival, no matter who are her today's “unelected” rulers.
Let us not forget that Iran owes, in part, its continued existence (as the only nation in her region of the world which maintained its “independence” continuously throughout history–at least nominally) to one of the most “mentally disturbed” vicious rulers she ever witnessed. His name was Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar–no relations to yours truly, but a distant relative to the ancestors of the beloved tennis champion, Andre Aggasi.
Let us then distinguish Iran's needs of today for better governance from her need for dignified independence and survival as a country and culture in the centuries to come, which is intimately connected to the SURVIVAL of OUR fragile Earth.
Long live life and the continued evolution of consciousness!
As promised above, below is two of my latest poems in relation to what came above. I hope you enjoy them.
Monday, September 30, 2002
(Completed Tuesday, October 1, 2002)
Tucson, Arizona
MOTHER OF ALL PLANETS
By Moji Agha
I am a “terrorist-looking” walking poet.
My “Axis of Evil”
deep deep within
fills my “Satanic Verses”
with blinding rage
and slams them
unconsciously
into towers of indifference and arrogance
in suicidal desperate attempts
to reduce suffering.
My “remotely-controlled” verses
before slamming into
the twin “trading” towers of
wake up–PLEASE
become stones
cast by those “good” verses
who “think” they have no sins.
My “stoned” verses
all 1000 of them
are axe-loving philosophers
who feel desperately sorry
for these “good” verses
who are killing
while sleep walking
our blue-skinned
and brown-eyed
mother-of-all-planets.
Don't worry though
soon my “walking” verses
will kick their ass!
———————————–
Friday, October 11, 2002
(Completed Tuesday, October 15, 2002)
Tucson, Arizona
By: Moji Agha
THE EVOLUTION OF EVEN-HANDED POETRY
I am an even-handed poet
a commanding verse-master.
I command my verses
my “benevolent” predators
to redefine civilization
to decisively explore
to “pre-emptively” dominate
to velvet-fully subjugate
to softly rape
words
meanings
harmonies
histories
wisdoms
as they advance
to the farthest frontiers
of the “civilization”
of despair
of paralyzing doubt
to the convenient and unconscious zone
in which the simmering
the festering
the decaying
of decency
is celebrated as “civilization”
as the vacuum of preciousness
the absence of care
the hegemonic re-birth of
newly-rehearsed determinations
to be the cruelest
ever ever ever
is “proudly” conquered
for ever ever ever
and shame
is repressed
into the invisible caves
of victor-drafted history
deep deep deep.
I tell my verses
to get drunk
with the wine of blinding power
and never never never again
be paralyzed
with the agony
of needing to wonder
painfully painfully painfully
if power-infested intentions
and actions
are just.
Oh NO!
I have resolved
before the “Congress”
of selfish perversity
from now on
and for ever ever ever
to be a definitely decisive “civilized” poet
determined never never never again
to allow my pointing index fingers
to explore
in the depth of digital soul-sky
its own index of “evil”
deep deep deep
within the sinful caverns
of this shadow bazaar
where the hottest commodities
are smiling unaware scapegoats
in the grandest ever sale
of conscience.
This carefully indexed
“good vs. evil” bazaar
this “us vs. other” market
of deceptive mirrors
has of late been witnessing
wild and unpredictable fluctuations
in the high volume rush liquidations
of decency
where the most profitable bids
belong to those fingers
who are past being
merely manipulative digits
and have now evolved
to become average indexes
of average indexes
of average indexes
of average indexes,
so that no individual finger
no lonely digit
can ever ever ever
have the desire
or even the ability
to become aware
of its own individually custom-tailored
perversity
deep deep deep
within prideful destruction.
This robotically indexed bazaar
of “satanic verses”
is where smooth laser-guided
genocide of love
has been digitized
with cruel sleep-walking precision
totally even-handedly.
Long ago
the agonized “holy” eyes
of square-headed
frustrated human beings
who called themselves “Muslims”
interpreted verses of love
to mean
the chopping off
of self-unaware digits
of average-loving indexes
in order to create
even-handed commanding poets.
This is how
the mother-of-all-dastardly-acts
of bazaar-pleasing poetry
has been able to find refuge,
pre-emptively
pre-ventively
pre-consciously
submerged in the ocean
of cruel ignorance
deep deep deep
far far far
in the remotest caves
of even the most perverse
e-motions.
This is how I became
such a fabulously even-handed verse-master
commanding
absolutely nothing precious.
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