I would suggest that one of our problems as a race (humanity) and also as a nation is our tendency to look for leaders, saviours, messiahs, mahdis, prophets, stars, priests, imams, rabbis, marja-e taqlid, miracles and God.
This tendency is an admission of personal failure and an inexcusable delegation of moral duty. It makes the quest for democracy or human rights rather more difficult to achieve than it would be otherwise.
It was a main reason why the revolution failed so miserably: a blind following of Khomeini when we hardly knew him and there were so many more important things to be doing.
Instead of demanding that we hold office holders to account in themidst of a revolt against tyranny, we went as far as inserting a ‘Supreme Leader’ right in the heart of our national Constitution.
The Shah and Khomeini both relied on this human tendency for their success. Perhaps they would both have served better as ‘servants’ of the people rather than their leaders.
Autocracies, religions, dictatorships and even Hollywood or representative democracies are somehow similar in this regard.
We tend to worship personalities more than we do our shared values when it comes to politics, religion, music, films and organised sports.
So I don’t really see the point in knocking any particular religion. Question is: what alternative are we going for instead of religion?
Also: why do we as a people look so hard for ‘God’ in everything that we do?
