 Why I'm not a monarchist
We cannot turn back history
By Amil Imani
October 29, 2003
The Iranian
While I was contemplating unveiling my interior
motive of writing an article about why I am not a monarchist,
I recalled the words of Sophocles. He said, "Man is only
a trivial shadow", and the words of Calderon that life is
only a dream. If this is indeed true, any active-minded human
being should ask himself why a man must obey another man for
life in that dream?
When ordinary circumstances dwell within
the secret depths of our being, we must start questioning and
coming up with the right answers as to why a man should unconditionally
worship and praise another man or woman in the most disgusting
and insulting fashion? History is replete with many tales
of despotic kings and tyrant queens and a variety of little despotic
princes
and princesses. Since the beginning of time, the egomaniacal
tyrants wrecked havoc on humanity and have steadily tended to
efface those who stood up and faced this monster, this serpent
who calls himself the shadow of God, the light of the Almighty
and the Lord of his servants.
In the words of Samuel Rutherford, "that
since all men are born free, there is no reason in nature why
one man
should
be king and lord
over another." Rutherford went on to assert that "no
man bringeth out of the womb with him a Sceptre and a crown on
his head." Therefore. said D.H. Lawrence, it is the "public,
which is feebleminded... will never be able to preserve its individual
reactions from
the tricks
of the exploiter. The public is and always will be exploited."
As we march through life, we all are followed
by an invisible and ever present recording device that registers
everything we
do and all that we have done and accomplished. This is called
history. In the era of the Internet and information, no sovereign,
no dictators can hide in their palaces and ignite their torture
chambers, without someone else on the other side of world hearing
about it.
John C. Calhoun said, "The very essence
of a few governments consist in considering offices as public
trustees, bestowed for
good of the country, and not for the benefit of an individual
or party." And followed by Billy Mitchell, "The best
guarantee of a just, equitable and pluralist society lies in
a system of representative democracy where all power is vested
in, and derived from, the common people. It is imperative that
government is not only composed of representatives of the people
but that it is accountable to them at all times."
Our own Persia has also gone through her share
of many kings. Some good kings and some bad kings. It is like
good cops, bad cops. This is part of our history and it cannot
be changed. The secular press of the day and secular historians
would consider
Cyrus the Great, who established the first human rights
charter some twenty-five hundred years ago, a good king.
However, we have also had our share of terrible kings who were
brutal, merciless, and ruled with iron fists. We do not need
to go too deeply into the history books to find such men who
ruled Iran.
My question to my compatriots is this: is it fair
to a nation, which lost hundreds of thousands of people to end
this dogmatic,
absolute, despotic in nature serpent, to resurrect and revive
the rule of crowned boots? Should we make the same mistake we
have made before, simply because our country is in worse shape
than
it
was before becoming Islamic?
Allow me to answer this with
a sweet Parsi axiom, "Nish-e aghrab nah az rah-e kin ast,
eghtezaa-e tabiatash in ast." (The scorpion doesn't bite
because it is mean, but because it in its nature.) Monarchy, by its
nature, is a corrupt system. It is a system that totally contradicts
human progress towards
enlightenment.
As for the future of monarchy in Iran, I
am happy to leave that decision to the will of the people. But,
I believe it is the responsibility of our intellectuals to enlighten
people, who at this point, may even choose the devil
himself because of their hatred of the Islamic butchers in Iran.
We
all know that over-zealousness is a human flaw; we need to
use our brain, not to be overcome by emotions. This is how the
Islamic Republic came to power. People stopped
thinking and now they are paying for it. But our new generation
does not have to be as inept as the older generation and
make the same mistake. We cannot turn back history. We cannot
bring the venomous serpent back, just because another poisonous
snake is eating people alive.
In The Republic, Plato wrote, "The
people always have some champion whom they set over themselves
and nurse into greatness. This is the root from
which tyrants spring; at first as a protector."
Let us think free, read
free, breath free the God given oxygen and choose our
own elected representatives
freely and intelligently. * Send
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Why I'm not a monarchist