Iran, What A Waste

One can probably thank international corporate interests for the mess that is today's Iran, them and some of the naturally avaricious native to that country. (If you're wondering why this, I'm getting Iranian hits - I like a balanced output-so, Tehran you won't like this one) One can only look at the history of that nation and shake one's head. Persia. The name resonates through history, conquerors, artists, scientists - and now?

The Shah of Iran, once America's "Friend," and militaristic oppressor of a nation, perhaps one of the modern disasters in the Middle East. What sort of government he ran at the time was it's own bad outcome, but worse was the reaction. A nation of intelligent forward thinking people turned "religious," and decided that it needed an enemy, a unifying force, a nice big enemy, and one obligingly stupid enough to ignore what the Shah was - the United States. There is no minimizing what the US got up to in Iran, but it also was scarcely "The Great Satan," but it was a handy scapegoat and a tool of fear and anger to cement a population under a theocracy that was entirely foreign many's natural inclination. Never misunderstand the depths of religious devotion common in that nation, the children of the Shah's elite prayed at the proper times and observed proper diet, but managed to avoid mania. But the Shah had to go and the truly organized resistance was theocratic, so that's how that went.

Iran devolved from a civil nation into a theocratic barbarism, finally pitting it's theocratic dictatorship against Saddam's secular dictatorship. Millions died. The US took satisfaction in aiding Saddam against the captors of its Embassy personnel, at least partly in the hope that an avowed foe's government would implode under the pressure, not looking for any nation to be winner, pleased by their mutually weakened states. As always, oil figured large. An outcome of that war was the destruction of most of a generation of Iranians, the creation of a huge sociological hole in the national fabric. Children raised by the Ayatollahs, fed on a diet of "The Great Satan," and religious fervor - that potent mixture of hate and fear and godliness. (hate is generally a fear induced state)

Fear and religion, feeding some of the most basic human emotions, used as a governing principle is incredibly effective in the short run, but in the long term doomed to failure. Fundamentalist religion is stifling of independent thought, and doubly so when backed by force of government. Questioning of orthodoxy becomes dangerous or fatal, and creativity is always questioning of the status quo, that is its definition. Fear wears thin, and when the threat is unrealized over time, that fear engendered anger remains and needs a target, a closer and more realizable target. Anger has become a nationally sanctioned emotional state, it is the supposed norm. It finds targets, the uncovered woman, the unreligious book, or, the repressor. It must begin to feed within, unless provided fresh targets. This is the stupidity of US threats, it simply provides fresh targets, a distraction from what ails the country.

Think on this, the per-capita income of Iran is abysmal, in an oil rich and resource rich nation, with a history of education and striving, the place is poor. So poor that it rations gasoline, so poor that much of the population lives a centuries old life style. There are no heathen nations raping Iran's resources, where are they going? Why is it necessary for a civilized ordered "religious" nation to have censorship, vigilantes, and other repressions? This "religious" people must be repressed to keep order, how is that needed? Would they not freely out of religious duty be good citizens? Evidently their government doesn't believe so. Evidently something is out of joint in Iran.

What happened to proud Persia? Reduced to meddling in other's misery, unable to raise their own citizenry's lifestyles into the modern world, so fearful of their own citizenry that not even a police force will suffice, extra-legal forces must be employed, so constipated in their out look that free thinking and speech are punishable offenses, pretty pathetic. A great nation brought so low, by its own.

Ahmadinejad and Bush should be pals, their world views are congruent and their puppet masters care little to nothing for the health and well-being of the common citizenry and finally their versions of gods prefer enemies to friends, fear to affection, and power to service. But, their vision of the world demands that they be foes, by definition of their idea of politics. Stupidity reigns...