Into the Rabbit Hole
As I collect and chronicle my thoughts and impressions on the volatility inside Iran, I have to keep in mind the one truth that carries so much weight in times of crisis and it is a quote by Mark Twain: "Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform."
I have no doubts that the men and women in Iran aspiring for freedom are patriots. They are gentle but deeply serious souls, but I can't wish them the best of luck, not in these circumstances. Wild energies are moving the course of history in Iran, some are inborn and from the culture itself, and some are sparked by foreign intrusion and malevolence. Wide-eyed theories inspired not by facts but by sentiments cannot explain the crisis in Iran.
The German historian Oswald Spengler wrote that “the mark of the great crisis is its innumerable passionate questionings and probings." Even before the advent of mass propaganda utilized by state and corporate resources, there was the oppression of the Press. After the middle of the century, television has become the engine that shapes and forms reality, leaving people dumbfounded about the true reality of politics, the world, and themselves.
All this propaganda has created a state of consternation in people, and out of desperation they have sunk into paranoia. And this is true, most of all, to mainstream society and 'serious' journalists are not immune to groundless speculation either. But their theorizing, unlike ours, is already done for them. For example, Saddam harboring WMDs was a conspiracy theory, and so was the 9/11 front story.
Doubting any official narrative that is not set out by oppressive media marks you out as an outcast and part of the unstable fringe. It is an unspoken truth that thinkers and philosophers of my age are called conspiracy theorists. When the former child-president, as HST called him, said "let us not tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories," what he essentially meant was "let us not tolerate philosophy," for theorizing and doubting is the very essence of philosophy. Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset in the last century remarked that "in attendance at the birth and rebirth of philosophy there is always only one Good Fairy, and she is the ugliest of all: Doubt." So in the tradition of the great philosophers of the West, from Descartes down to Gasset, let us doubt!
Deeper Into the Rabbit Hole
In the Asia Times in July 2005, Trish Schuh in an article called, The American hand in Iran, reported on the activities of the CIA and its regime-change program throughout the evil-laden places of the world. She laid out some of the CIA's history of such practices and their intentions for regime change in Iran:
In a May 5 Financial Times article, "US offers grants to help oppose clerics", Guy Dinmore reported that lawmakers demanded a bill aimed at overthrowing the Iranian government be increased to $50 million. This did not include the millions of dollars provided by the State Department's Middle East Partnership Initiative. "We have turned opposition into a profession," commented Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations. "This money is going to go up."In a later passage she pulled no punches:
Such "soft power" opposition activities are escalating. The May 29 New York Times quoted Nicholas Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, as saying the Bush team was "taking a page from the playbook" of colored revolutions where US-funded pro-democracy NGOs helped nonviolently overthrow noncompliant governments.
America is pulling strings, with Israeli assistance. The former head of Mossad's foreign intelligence division, Uzi Arad, told Worldnetdaily.com: "Support of Iranian opposition by the international community could be an effective way to handle the current regime" and that "its stability can be greatly reduced by the people themselves." Pro-Israel lobbyist Michael Ledeen wrote for the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute, "Mr Bush is correct that we should actively help the brave Iranians who are leading demonstrations against the regime ..."I am hesitant to believe that the coordinated actions of the CIA-Israel tag team explains everything about the unfolding crisis in Iran. I am well aware, having visited family in the Kurdish provinces of Iran last summer, of the underlining discontent in the society and people's sheer contempt for the Islamic regime. We experienced rolling blackouts all summer, shopkeepers were pissed, and people were generally not at ease. My aunt informed me about the growing Basiji forces terrorizing the people into submission. I do not for one minute doubt this reality. But I also remember reading Stephen Kinzer's book, All the Shah's Men, when I was fifteen, and knew how much blood Amerika had on its hands. That haunting past is still with us. Amerikans can make excuses about the communist threat and the cloak of national security all they want, but if they had acted on their true principles, freedom and democracy, and allowed Mossadegh to stay in power then the recent history of the two countries wouldn't be so tragic. And more tragedy will be written; the blood is hardly off the emperor's hands, who until recently never acknowledged it's role in the bloody history of Amerikan-Iranian relations.
Moreover, we can not be totally moved by current events, however emotional they are, if we are too remain true journalists. Without keeping the past in mind we'll imprint our fate onto a hollow ground and we will forever relive tragedy. Oscar Wilde wrote that "for he to whom the present is the only thing that is present, knows nothing of the age in which he lives."
Why Theorizing Matters
I don't espouse conspiracy theories because I love to be in doubt. I've been cast into doubt, ever since I was born because that is what life entails, especially in our times but its true for all human beings in all of history. The reason why theorizing matters is because we live in an age of universal deceit, forewarned by Orwell, the most important prophet of our times. If we do not embrace doubt and philosophy then we will always be a culture led by childish thoughts. I never wholeheartedly believe any theory. It is just a way, and a vehicle to ask questions. There is no point in demanding answers, questioning is enough. "A theory is not something we believe or do not believe," Gasset said, "it is instead a question of whether or not certain ideas fit together, and whether they match the facts."
Tuning into the Western media coverage of the electoral havoc in Iran, one is left with a deep feeling of camaraderie with the Iranian people and a disdain for its careless government. But this is not objective reporting, it is a full frontal assault on the public mind; similar to the maneuvers of an impatient tiger with a kill finally in his sight.
We need to back-step and recollect our thoughts on a new terrain as the march of events continue in Iran, and follow Gasset's wisdom that "philosophy is always marching to the rear, always in retreat." Trusting the constructed opinions of the day, whether it originates in the media or in the public, is delusion. A false consensus has once again emerged, and for a day, I believed the big lie, so I am not immune to propaganda as much as I like to believe. For instance, I wasn't enlightened about the poll conducted prior to the election. Andrew Beatty writes:
Ken Ballen, president of the Washington-based Terror Free Future think tank, three weeks ago conducted a rare country-wide poll by phone of 1,001 people to gauge Iranians' voting intentions.However much I disdain the CIA and their Israeli counterparts, I know they are not all-powerful and that the forces they have set into motion are not entirely in their control. In my eyes there are so far three historical actors in this horrible first act; they are the Iranian regime, the Iranian people, and the foreign intruders. The Iranian regime is protecting its national interests but it is also very aggressive in its surrounding region. It recognizes the humanity of the Palestinian people but disregards its own people's desires. Whether their outreach in the Arab lands is political or a genuine attachment to Palestinian suffering is irrelevant to the American empire and Israel, and to a significant population of Iran. Unlike Iraq or Pakistan, Iran has formed its identity as the antithesis to America's thesis. According to the Mullahs, Babylon will fall again in the Persian sands, as it did over two millenniums ago. True or not, a cause against empire is more revolutionary and romantic than a cause against an unpopular government.
According to Mr. Ballen it is not obvious from that poll that the results of the election were rigged. "At that time Mr. Ahmadinejad was ahead by two to one. Is it plausible that he won the election? Yes."
Henry Kissinger in a recent interview on BBC Newsnight, highlighted that the purpose of regime change is to transform Iran into a nation that only serves its interests and pays little attention to its anti-empire identity. Here is an extensive passage from that interview.
"I am sure that Americans would favour the emergence from the present situation of a truly popularly based government and it is very appropriate for the president to make clear that that is what he favours. Now if it turns out that it is not possible for a government to emerge in Iran that can deal with itself as a nation rather than as a cause then we have a different situation, then we may conclude that we must work for regime change in Iran from the outside but if I understand the president correctly he does not want to do this as a visible intervention in the current crisis."Also, take heed of we must work for regime change in Iran form the outside, in other words, bombs over Tehran.
The second historical actor, the Iranian people, are deeply poetic and their persistent bravery in the face of indiscriminate brutality makes me proud. Many of the rebels who participated in the contests on the streets of Tehran in the past week have described it as kind of a dream. If it is a dream, a part of me wishes they never wake up so that they always feel the way they do now, but another part of me graciously ask that they snap out of it immediately. Regardless of today's events, their assertiveness in these past few days is a cause for celebration and their expression of joy in the face of the body-snatchers took on a religious dimension that trumps any Friday prayer. But to be in a perpetual state of cosmic significance is dangerous, we must remember to descend once again to the concrete level of living because that is where the facts reside, where realistic considerations of the path ahead can be made. The 'contests' later today may get bloody, and I call them contests because it has become a battlefield, not a mere protest. These are no longer little children kicking and screaming like Americans, they are facing down the authorities like men, and women.
I am not writing this post just to prophesize doom in my country of origin but to help raise consciousness and keep all dedicated fighters for freedom alert of the manipulative powers in their midst. I know the people mean well, and their inspiring acts are viewed in North America through what seems like a metaphysical scope. By resisting tyranny, regardless of the larger forces at work, they are living authentic lives. Some have called a million people puppets, but how do you explain their blood?
Ancient poetic melodies of the soul are alive within them, but I still must ask, whose chorus are their hearts singing? The country is pregnant with revolution but the conception was not natural, artificial methods were used. And the father will either ditch the day of birth or turn abusive when it rears its head. If I have one message to my compatriots it is this: don't allow your destiny to be written by foreign hands who have laid out their traps at every step on your trail of tears towards freedom. The dead poets are watching above you, and I will continue to watch from here. I will keep you in my hearts because you are going against a government that tramples on your every wish, a government that imprisoned my father and is keeping him from visiting his family. But I must be honest with you as well, and if I am not forever curious, and forever asking the uneasy questions then I am not doing my task.
Moreover, the third historical actor is the regime-change dynasty, and their attempts will prove futile in the end and not worth all they trouble they will cause. The ever vigilant Paul Craig Roberts asks:
What is the point of the destabilization of the Iranian government? After the stolen elections of the Karl Rove/Bush era, why does the US think it must overthrow the Iranian government because of allegations that Ahmadinejad stole an election?The danger Iran poses is bogus but only up to a point, after all, Iran has taken a strong line against America's desires for dominance in the Middle East. Obviously, the Kissingers of the world are not in a frenzy to squash Iran for no reason whatsoever. But they are overstretching themselves and acting way too arrogantly. Dark, menacing mullahs can be reasoned with, unlike stateless religious fanatics. The Amerikan regime must learn to use its powers more constructively or risk losing it forever. "Like clinical paranoia," William Blum says, "the threat from Iran is impervious to correction by rational argument."
If the answer is that these wars and interventions serve the interest of US hegemony, the obvious reply is that US hegemony is more likely to be lost from the massive red ink in the government’s budget that is likely to be monetized, thus destroying the dollar as reserve currency, the main source of US hegemony.
Final Remarks
Ortega Y Gasset said that life "is essentially, magnificently, disquietude!" Reading him in these dark times helps greatly, it has kept me on the look out. I need to visit his grave sometime. I lack the intellectual clarity he has but I hope to make up for that in my honest rendering of the world as I live it. It is almost 4 am est time, high noon in Iran, and we're either on the verge of revolution, early shootings of an advancing civil war, or maybe even the shaky beginnings of world war three. Or I could just be crazy. Anyways, it is famously said that war is the parent of all things, to which I add, civil war is a single mother on life support and revolution her only child. And although I loathe religious governments that feed on the spirituality of their people and pounces on their sexuality like the Iranian regime has, I also realize the Iranian's state potential to stem the growing influence of the American empire in the Middle East.
The Persians have an opportunity to slice off the head of the Babylonian dragon and leave it forever bleeding in the sands. These demonstrations might serve at the very least a distraction to these efforts. I am not against the people marching in the streets, but it is still important to be mindful of the larger darker financial powers who seek to advance world politics in their own direction. Now, the one million dollar question is can overthrowing an unpopular government and an unpopular empire happen both at once, in one historical moment? Not unless the American people are inspired by the Iranian people's strength and join the fight against tyranny on their own streets. The American people are the fourth and most important historical actors in this grand tragedy. My message: Take the stage.
Update:
Chris Floyd, another writer exercising caution in this whole bloody affair, writes this:
As I noted the other day, no one knows how the current turmoil will turn out -- or how the various power-players, including the many elite factions inside Iran and the many vultures circling outside, will attempt to mold the chaotic reality to their own advantage. But it seems to me that the circumstances in Iran cannot be forced into any simplistic template. For while it is true that the American imperium does indeed seek to exert its influence everywhere and always, it does not and cannot engender and control every event on earth. We risk partaking of the courtiers' own hubris -- and their mythology of American exceptionalism -- if we make that automatic assumption.
