Albert Einstein: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting results to be different….
Dear all,
I wish to share the following documentary (which is in Persian with English subtitles) with you which I think is quite relevant in explaining the roots of the current crisis that our country is facing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7t3mgf3Pco
It is called “The Night After the Revolution”.
It is a documentary set in the context of the history of Iranian political censorship from 200 years ago to date.
The documentary goes through the history of execution of various writers and “degar andishan” such as Souresrafil, Farokh Yazdi, Dr Fatemi (foreign minister under Mossadegh), Ahmad Kasravi, Khosrow Golsorkhi, Keramat Daneshian, Eghdami, Soltanpor, etc in the hands of various regimes including both the Pahlavi regime and the Islamic regime.
There is also an interview with Salman Rushdie in which he says “the idea that people should die in a protest about a book which obviously almost none of them have read is really horrifying for many reasons”.
I think this quote and the history behind it is quite relevant in explaining the dilemma that our country is currently facing and has been facing for hundreds of years.
If what we desire to see is a permanent change in our country, we have to start gradually, step by step and at the grass-root level by first eliminating ego, “khorafat” (i.e. superstitious beliefs) and “ta-assob (ie. ultra-conservatism, extremism and fundamentalism) from our own mentality and that of our fellow Iranians.
Secondly, we have to remember that sometime, as ex-patriots we are part of the problem, as opposed to the solution. In particular our ego, lack of tolerance for those who think differently to us, and our inability to let go of our own political and ideological beliefs in favour of the “common good” are quite problematic. Therefore, rather than demanding an over-night “revolution”, we have to start fixing the problem from the within and from ourselves. [I have explained the reason in more details below. In particular, please watch this video depicting various fights breaking out between Iranians in Los Angeles over Iran’s flag whereby towards the end an American policeman has to intervene and break out the fight. This is indeed very embarrassing and concerning. Unfortunately as we all know these are common scenes in ex-pats gathering and “protests” and these are a clear demonstration of our lack of “education” (and by that I do not mean a university degree; I mean understanding, tolerance and letting go of one’s own beliefs in favour of the “common good” which seems to be absent in most of us)]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri7XwUzIueo
Back to the topic of the documentary mentioned earlier, it touches on very serious issues like how “degar-andishan” (ie those intellectuals who think differently to the mainstream) have never been tolerated in Iran and how they have always been executed in hands of various governments, including both the Pahlavi and the Islamic regime and how foreign countries such as the UK and the US have always exploited us by using this weakness of ours and our lack of tolerance for “degar andishan” against us.
As we all know throughout the history Britain and Russia (and more recently the US) have held strong alliances with the clerics. So the minute someone comes into power that these big powers do not approve of (because it wouldn’t be in their interest) or they think is going to be a danger to them and their greed for power, all they have to do is to convince the clerics to issue a “fawah” against this person, and sooner or later, that person will be eliminated. (Clear example of this is how in 1953 MI6 helped the CIA mount a coup against Mossadegh).
This formula also works in the reverse (ie brining someone into power by getting the tick of approval and an endorsement from the clerics).
In words of Salman Rushdie, this is indeed “horrifying for many reasons”.
Religion is a beautiful thing but it also has the potential of being used as a very powerful tool to exploit the masses. If used correctly and appropriately it can be used to build and to grow, and if exploited, it can be used to destroy. (I cannot think of a more sinful crime than those who exploit people’s minds and kill and destroy in the name of a religion).
However, as ego, superstitious and “ta-assob” are deeply embedded into our culture and history, they cannot be eliminated overnight and therefore, if we yearn for any permanent change, it will have to come from the within and has to be a gradual oneby first raising awareness in everyday people in eliminating these deeply held mentalities.
Otherwise, the vicious cycle will continue, ie a government will come into power, then a “revolution” will bring about a regime change, then another regime will come and another one will go….
As for the second issue regarding us ex-pats being part of the problem, let us not forget that Iran is not a homogeneous country.
Whether we like it or not, it is made up of various political, ideological and ethnical groups.
If we want a truly and permanent “democratic”, “free” and “liberal” Iran we have to firstly look at ourselves, our history and our people and yearn for a truly democratic government, one which will encompass the interests of all Iranians and not only a particular category of people. Furthermore, we all have to be willing to let go of our own political and ideological beliefs in favour of the “common good” and we will have to let go of the mentality that “my way” is the “only way” and most importantly as ex-pats, we will need to grow along side the people inside Iran, rather than hanging on to our own political and ideological views and trying to impose it on others or trying to jeopardize and criticize the work of those who hold different ideologies to the one that we hold.
Otherwise, overnight, Eastern European styles of revolutions are not only a band-aid and temporary solutions, they are indeed very destructive. (One only has to look at the fate of Yugoslavia and how after a massive civil-war, it is now divided into many small countries whereby one would need the assistance of a microscope to locate these small countries on the map. Is this the fate that we want for our country? Surely not.)
Suppose that the current regime were to collapse tomorrow. As Iran is not a homogeneous society, the minute there is a vacuum of power, all of these various ideological, political and ethnical groups will try to come into power and as they think their way of thinking is the only way, they will fight with tooth and nail to come and stay in power. And they will want to do so at the expense of other political, ideological and ethnical groups.
Inevitably, history will be repeated again, ie we will have a repeat of what took place 30 years ago whereby mass murders of “degar-andishan” in hands of the current regime took place, and thousands of people were savagely killed and “disappeared” just because they thought differently. (or partially because they wanted to impose their own beliefs on others and to come into power and to eliminate the group in power).
And history will be repeated.
As Einstein says: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting results to be different….
If we want to prevent the history from repeating itself, as ex-pat Iranians, the least we can do to assist Iran in achieving a true “democracy” is by start fixing the problem from the within and at the grass-root level, by first starting from ourselves, by putting our own ego aside and by developing a tolerance for those who think differently from us.
Ego plays a big part in the personality of most Iranians. In particular, if we belong to a particular ideological and political group, we try to defend our beliefs at all costs and to impose our own beliefs on other people. The idea of letting go of one’s own personal belief in favour of the “common good” seems to be non-existent in our minds. (This happens more so in ex-pats who have lived here for the past 30-20 years or so and still hang on to their own old way of beliefs and thoughts. So despite the fact that people in Iran have progressed quite dramatically and view things differently, the ex-pats wholeheartedly hang on to their old mentality and their old way of thinking and will try to impose it on other people without bearing the “common good” in mind).
One only has to look at the recent protests that were supposed to be “in solidarity” with people of Iran to comprehend this self-centered and ego-oriented mentality.
Please watch this video which was mentioned earlier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri7XwUzIueo
Any permanent change will have to be gradual and come from the within.
Otherwise, we will indeed be betraying our country and will indeed be the key players in foreign countries’ plan for our country’s fate. However, quite frankly we cannot blame them that much. Other countries cannot exploit us if we do not allow them.
That’s why if we want to prevent the history from repeating itself, it is very important that we do not give in to our desire for an over-night revolution (in particular the current “green revolution propaganda”) and to start fixing the problem from ourselves and from the roots rather than encouraging our fellow Iranians to sacrifice their lives and their pure intentions in order to pave the way for someone else’s greed for power.
As the “yare dabestani“ song goes “ki mitoneh joz man o to, dard e maro chareh koneh”… the answer is: no one……… we have to fix the problem ourselves…. Please see the following link to listen to this beautiful and poignant song in case you are interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtLjjjGsS88
So let’s start fixing the problem ourselves rather than contributing to the repetition of the history of our country…… if we start gradually, the problem might not be fixed today, it might not be fixed tomorrow, it might not even be fixed in our life time, it might even take two or three generations to be fixed, but once it is fixed, it will be permanent…………..
Whilst the events leading up to the current crisis are very complex and multi-dimensional resulting from the internal struggle of power between the key power holders within the regime and backing of these power-holders by various foreign countries, let us not forget that other countries will not invest in promoting “democracy” in Iran, unless they are expecting very high returns in monetary terms, kind of like investing one’s money to buy shares and expecting a very high monetary sum in return.
Accordingly, any permanent and lasting solution would have to come from us and us only.
You might be interested in the following links re foreign countries’ efforts to “save” us, most notably, their involvement in the “green revolution” propaganda as well as two links explaining the internal struggle between the key clerics within the regime:
• Khamenei rides a storm in a tea cup:
• Clerics May Be Key to Outcome of Unrest: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/world/middleeast…
• Foundation for Democracy in Iran (noting that it was founded in 1995 by Kenneth R. Timmerman, Peter W. Rodman, Joshua
Muravchik and Iranian opposition expatriates advocating regime change in Iran.): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_for_Democr…
• 2006 US Congress House of Representative Report: Under the heading of “Department of State: Democracy Fund: For an additional amount for “Democracy Fund”, $22,500,000 of which $20,000,000 shall be made available for programs and activities promoting democracy in Iran: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi…
• Who Put the ‘green’ in the Green Revolution?
Most notably, as stated above Timmerman was one of the founders of the FDI, and surprise surprise, one day before the election, he stated that “there’s the talk of a ‘green revolution’ in Tehran.” One cannot help but wonder as to where that “talk” was coming from. Here is the link to his article written before the election: State Department Backs ‘Reformists’ in Wild Iranian Election:
• Are the Iranian Election Protests Another US Orchestrated ‘Color Revolution’? http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22…
• Only 6 months prior to the election, In January 2009, BBC Persian Television was launched, with the annual budget of £15 million. Surely, at time of economic crisis and GFC, funding a Persian TV program should be the last thing on Britain’s mind. Coincidence? I think not: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_a…
• 2007 CIA black/covert operation as exposed by US ABC News: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRwUZ-u6KFo
