Sunday
14Jun2009
Tehran: It is NOT a Revolution!
Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 12:28AM
But try to say that to the Western journalists and some of the easily-fooled scum of the Egyptian blogosphere. The secret to guaranteeing "good coverage" in the West and seduce social media activists in other countries is simple: Launch a Twitter account! Then it doesn't matter what your policies are, there are tons of stupid journalists who will be obsessed with this "Politics 2.0", no matter what the content of this politics is. Just get a Twitter account..! Nothing then maters. It doesn't matter that your followers are rich, comfortable businessmen and affluent students.. It doesn't matter if you are willing to compromise with the US... Just get a Twitter account!
What is happening today in Tehran is NOT a 1979 revolution....
As far as international media coverage is concerned, it seems that wishful thinking got the better of credible reporting. It is true that Mousavi supporters jammed Tehran traffic for hours every night over the last week, though it was rarely mentioned that they did so only in the northern well-to-do neighborhoods of the capital. Women did relax their head covers and young men did dance in the street.
Perhaps from the start Mousavi was destined to fail as he hoped to combine the articulate energies of the liberal upper class with the business interests of the bazaar merchants. The Facebook campaigns and text-messaging were perfectly irrelevant for the rural and working classes who struggle to make a day's ends meet, much less have the time to review the week's blogs in an internet cafe. Although Mousavi tried to appeal to such classes by addressing the problems of inflation and poverty, they voted otherwise.
What is happening today in Tehran is NOT a 1979 revolution....
Reader Comments (5)
Hoss, I don't feel I have a personal stake in the outcome of the Iranian elections, and I certainly don't know if there was enough fraud to make the difference (though there are definitely some fishy results).
And you know I hear you about this silly talk of "politics 2.0" or "iRevolution" or whatever. And I agree that many Western journalists were either tripping of shilling ahead of this vote.
But before you dis the people who feel like they just had an election stolen from them, have a look at this scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lnrkkHBE_I
familiar?
And I know you're too smart to confuse Ahmedinejad's populist nationalism and the support that gets him from some poor people for genuine socialism, or to confuse the current Iranian regime with the guys from the markets who ousted the Shah....
Where did u read he was a socialist? I never said that. In the same way I support Taliban against Nato. Are the Taliban socialists? Well, actually if I was living in the 1960s I'd have supported the Vietcongs. Were they socialists? (Someone like me thinks not) But to claim that the Upper/middle class IRanian reformists r simply more progressive than him coz they are on twitter and "better educated" is delusional. The workers who are suffering under Nejad, will suffer even more under Musavi. And when I find Israel and US weeping over the results of the elections, then my belief about the uselessness of Musavi is even asserted more.
Mashy.Like I said, I don't really have strong feelings on this. This is a fight for Iranians. All I'm saying is that I think it's a little early and insensitive to completely dismiss the Iranians (kuss umm the Disneys) who feel like the government just stole an election.
Watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0MkATcn04M
police shit-kicking:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osq4WTU822Y
Basically, I think the important thing is not who America and Israel are against, but who the Iranian people are for. If most of them are for Ahmedinejad, ok. They've spoken.
But if Nejad did just rig an election...
And I have to say I think this notion that anyone who says he's against imperialism - even if he's a Talib, extorting money from farmers, killing Afghan truck drivers, and shutting down schools for girls - has gotta be OK is just ludicrous. I think a lot of times, there aren't good guys and bad guys. There are just bad guys.
And from the little I understand, Mousavi says he doesn't plan on changing Iranian policy much. He's against Amrika and the Entity, just like Ahmedinejad (which makes me wonder why some American journos are creaming over him). But I'm sure he's every bit as Iranian as Ahmedinejad.
Question for you, though: So Mousavi was prime minister when the government sent hundreds of thousands of teenagers to their deaths in a war that accomplished nothing but mass murder. How much did he personally have to do with that? I don't know. But I'd like to.
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Comrade, what do you think of the interpretation of the results that suggests that this was the result that Israel and Egypt and the other client-states in the region wanted.
If Obama engaged more with a "moderate" in Iran, wouldn't it comparatively make US support for its client-states less important in the absence of the "threat" of Iran in the region to US hegemony?