Misc

Agenda

aisfahani,

This guy's agenda is to help get rid of dictatorships and ending violence and military intervention. He's got thoughts and ideas. You can accept or reject them.

JJ

JJ, I did not say its not homegrown. Im just saying Im dissapointed in you liking this guy. Thats all. These guys have an agenda, we must distance ourselves from them. And such movements can be masterminded, dont think they cant. They were in Ukraine, Georgia, and other places. They just cant do it in Iran, because it doesnt have such an active civil society as those places did.

Only a dream

A good part of Mr. Sharp’s argument makes a lot of sense and is very much politically correct. I totally agree and respect his notion of thinking before acting, but in my opinion his recipe for effective resistance is only worth the paper that’s written on when it is applied to theocratic rule. In a nation with strong religious belief where majority of population (other than a few urban centers and intellectia) is kept isolated from the advancement in growth of humanity and kept in the darkness of ancient ages and holy books, it will be extremely improbable to affect any real change without resorting to violence.

Even if you follow Mr. Sharp’s advice it would be impossible to succeed if at least some part of IRI’s oppression apparatus (i.e. Sepah & Basij) does not step out of darkness to see the light.

The question then becomes: How do you (as a believer of non-violence) enlighten a brainwashed soul to what democracy means and why religion has no place in government?.

How long can you maintain your non-violent philosophy when the enemy of your ideals continues masterfully propagating his evil and brainwashing a vulnerable nation, the way Khamenei did today. There is no peaceful and non-violent transformation of these evils.

Let’s just hope our youth take at least one of Mr Sharp’s advices and think before taking actions to avoid or minimize loss of brave lives. I hope they put a good portion of their efforts to educate the Basij and counter the brainwashing they have received from IRI.

Let’s not fool ourselves with the dream of non-violence if we dream of democracy in Iran.     

Thank you for introducing me to Gene Sharp

Sharp indeed. (I'll have to read a bit more....)

Reality

aisfahani,

What's going on in Iran is 100% homegrown -- as genuine and real as you can get. No one in Washington, London, Tel Aviv could mastermind such a mass movement.

Blaming the uprising on foreign powers is the same conspiracy theory the shah believed in. The Islamic Republic has become as detached from the general public as the monarchy.

The fact that the West is happy about what's going on Iran should not cloud our judgment. The dispute between the West and the Islamic Republic is separate from the one between the people of Iran and the Islamic Republic.

People have poured into the streets and fought and died not because they got their orders from abroad. It's because they have had it with this theocracy. They are tired of the lies and brutalities in the name of religion.

JJ,I am dissapointed in

JJ,I am dissapointed in you:

 //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_revolution

Soros foundation and U.S. influence

Opponents of the colour revolutions often accuse the Soros Foundation and/or the United States government of supporting and even planning the revolutions in order to serve western interests. It is noteworthy that after the Orange Revolution several Central Asian nations took action against the Open Society Institute of George Soros with various means -- Uzbekistan, for example, forced the shutting down of the OSI regional offices, while Tajik state-controlled media have accused OSI-Tajikistan of corruption and nepotism. [6]

Evidence suggesting U.S. government involvement includes the USAID (and UNDP) supported Internet structures called Freenet, which are known to comprise a major part of the Internet structure in at least one of the countries - Kyrgyzstan - in which one of the colour revolutions occurred.

The Guardian[7]h claimed that USAID, National Endowment for Democracy, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and Freedom House are directly involved; the Washington Post and the New York Times also reported substantial Western involvement in some of these events.[8][9]

Activists from Otpor in Serbia and Pora in Ukraine have said that publications and training they received from the US based Albert Einstein Institution staff have been instrumental in the formation of their strategies.[10][11]

(the Gene Sharp handbook is this one)

Wha I want to hear

First time I've heard of this man. I like what he's saying. Mass non-violent action is the best option. And it is making the brutal Islamic Republic look very very fragile.