Now that the election is a year old and over, and the protests have proven to have been nothing more than an accidental flicker, all but off now, we can all finally relax and revel in it’s gloriously pre-determined result. And maybe it’s still too soon to be writing this, but I’ve been waiting a whole year to write this, chomping at the bit to get to this piece, since I was one of those crying for people in Iran NOT to vote, and didn’t have any faith or emotional investment in either result. Seeing as it was never an honest true reflection of a free people.
To clarify as clear as drawn butter, personally, I never saw the big difference between a full-time professional coward, and former Prime Minister who presided over more than 4,000 executions, versus Khamenei’s former valet and chauffeur who brags he was directly involved in over 2,000 executions himself.
For the life of me, after seeing almost all of Quentin Tarantino’s films, I cannot imagine what 6,000 Iranians could possibly do, or could have done, to deserve to be executed. But I am also against the death penalty.
Now, when I follow this up quickly and tell you that I happen to support a constitutional monarchy as the very next step in the evolution of Iran towards a full/real state of the art democracy, I am sure that this statement, will unfortunately be taken as heresy, by many who are merely infected with the unreasonable knee-jerk almost reflex reaction that leads them to automatically reject any hint of mention of any topic that has the world “Pahlavi” in it.
I will posit, that a king and democracy are not in fact mutually exclusive. There is simply too much ample evidence of how well it can work. It especially works well in those instances where the cultural tradition of monarchy is prevalent. Hint! Hint! Hint!
There is no greater example of the well-steeped tradition of monarchy than Iran. Going as far back as the entirety of the enigmatic Persian Empire we all so greedily brag about at every cocktail party or Starbucks ordering line. Everyone whether pro-monarchy or agin’ it can and does agree that Persia is the key elemental ingredient in that genetic makeup of Iran, and every single Iranian on this planet. Even and especially so, today.
There can be no dispute of this historical fact. (watch the disputes fly in now, just from this one baiting statement!)
If you could wave a magic wand though, and set up a governance system that at once honors all the standard modern-day rights and freedoms of the individual, while at the same time honors a country’s history and tradition of a monarchy, I think you should do it. If for nothing more than to protect and preserve your heritage, which in the end is your distinctive identity. In spite of CNN, you do not actually want to become merely a common beige “citizen in the global economy”.
Simply put, Iranians are known and famous, because they are Persians and connected to the Persian Empire. A relevant and important monarchy that has forever changed the world. Largely for the better.
Back to modern day examples:
For example, the biggest hindrance to France’s normally dominant culture is the distinct absence of any evidence of their once great monarchy. This has left an inarguable and obviously noticeable void in France’s current psyche. It seems today, that France is only half of the whole it used to be. Blame the Jacobins.
Today, Iran’s Jacobins, are the mollahs and their associated ilk that apologize for them with feigned pragmatic islamic modernism. Educated and powerful enough to be utterly destructive, they are dangerously slowly and purposefully erasing the last vestiges of Iran’s heritage and identity. Tracing over it with the thick black strokes of eslam’s brave new age.
The subtle and not so subtle attempts to Islamify Iran become apparent when an attempt to touch or alter or damage or destroy anything Persian is made. Then we all seem to rise up in defiant outrage, calling for the halt to whatever might harm the slightest hair on the head of the proverbial “Persian Boy”.
Proof of our inability to accept our history and fate and merely run with that, is that we haven’t been able to put in play anything better, that we feel comfortable with. We aren’t ever it seems, comfortable as we are. We have certainly been uncomfortable under the Shah, and especially now with this latest edition of the boundless bunglers, we’re no better off. Without democracy to protect us from the tendency of dictators to brutalize us, we are like fish in a barrel, there for the taking. Or all to often, the shooting.
One possible happy medium though, might be to have a Constitutional Monarchy with Democracy. I’d say, just like England now, but mentioning England in any article on Iran evokes long held conspiracies from the statement. But yeah, just like England. Or Japan, or the Netherlands, or Sweden, or Spain, or Denmark.
However you want Iran to be, there is no denying that an Iran without a King is certainly not Persia.
So if you look in any High School history book, and don’t see a single mention of Persia, but see a whole section on Khomeini and the hostage crisis, don’t be surprised, or proud.
