Iran’s ‘Generation Normal’
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They visit Tehran and a few other big cities. Live in best parts of those towns and hang out with people who are educated and pro western and quite exposed to other cultures.
Iranian middle class (and specially the younger generation which are the majority) are pro western, quite progressive and modern.
But they don't represent the whole population of Iran.
Unfortunately this echo chamber sometimes even blinds ourselves as well.
Source: Iranian living in Tehran.
For them the only prospect is to ingratiate themselves through the basij and other similar organizations so they can then gain employment with the government or with the many bonyads which overwhelmingly control the Iranian economy.
Employment with the government or bonyads is not based on merit but through a test of loyalty to the Islamic revolutionary ideas. If you can distinguish yourself through zealous service and unquestioning devotion, then you stand a chance of gaining a foothold.
By the by, the Basij were the ones on the front lines in the 2009 protests brutally suppressing the street marchers.
That's the only possible avenue of advancement for the vast majority of Iran's youth who do not come from a 'connected family' and/or do not have a wealthy family that will give them a leg up.
Thomas Erdbrink's recent video reports for the NYT which carefully skirt any sensitive issues and avoids any hints of criticism is another example. Not that I blame him or any other journalists! Just like Jason Rezaian, Thomas has a Persian wife and I understand that his first thought is for his own and his family's safety.
It just means that as a consumer you have to be intelligent and discerning so as to not mistake the type and manner of reporting done in Iran with that done inside a free Western style liberal democracy.
Source: Iranian living outside Iran (vali hanooz bache tehrooni :)
The answer I'd like for you to read is not the one with 4.7k upvotes. It's the one below it with just 62.
The most popular answer implies, very nicely and agreeably, that all cultures are equal, and that any problems are the result of poor governance and or some faceless structure/entity. The one right below it states that, while it's true that environment plays a large role in oppression, fundamentally it is the people who perpetuate such an environment.
It is very comfortable to rest at one extreme or the other (as the OP's article goes to show). I, for one, think it is better to follow what the man who wrote the 62-upvote post says, despite the mental discomfort it causes:
"A lot of work has to be done to cleanse one's mind from years of propaganda and brain washing against the "Western World, Israel, and India". But it's not going to happen by pretending that everything is okay."
American reporters in America are in an echo chamber. They overwhelmingly live in weird cloisters and associate only with fellow outliers.
Theocracies have the same problem. The Ayatollah's and Erdogan's voting base are the non-bourgeois.
In any event, as an American, I had a minder, as this is required for US toursits (you cannot simply walk around by yourself, you get caught by the police and it is a hassle). A cool dude, very educated finishing his doctorate work in German lit, and decided to pick up English and wing the tourism to have spending money. Unlike the kids in this article, he is like them in sentiment and style but from Nothern Iran (think Beverly Hills for the SV folks and Americans here), but he showed me the struggle their for kids like him was awful.
But there is a side of Iran that is not hipster and trendy like these dudes (I say this from the pictures, not the content of their opinions, but the opinions do it just the same for me). I will say the hipster kids are the ones I bonded with, and this is true of my time in Egypt, because their rebellion clued me into their personal politics, and that they were cynics like me. In Iran and Egypt, I saw much of the same. You as foreigner cling them to, and they to you, even though you hate the attraction. It says a lot about yourself, and them the same. These jouranlists amaze me when this goes unnoitced by them.
This to say, listen to this dude emil. Even Iran has hipsters. And it also has Republicans, just with cooler beards and weird congruences in politics with the American ones! I mean this as a joke, but is scary how minor the changes seem in the diverse insanity of human variation, to see in the Douglas Adams sense the universe is increasingly vast in the same shallow craziness.
Oh, and I recommend every American go there: you can see the receivng end of our foreign policy in all its splendor with the rabid terrorists!
But we found from all walks of life, from people in the cities, villages people were friendly, aware of the issues, had a sense of progressive thinking. I wouldn't say "pro western" as such on the whole, the higher middle / upper classes yes, but that is true for all countries. But definitely not anti-western and definitely a desire to live without western interference.
One question we were asked over and over again, "why do the west governments not like Iran", "we they say we are evil"..... it was hard to sum up politely "well your country stopped doing as it waws told for the "interests" of foreign governments and unfortunately for you, your country sits atop vast quantities of natural resources that were wanted..."
Keep up your good work!
That. Same with media cherry-picking some favorable tweeters from a country (usually upper middle class younger people aligning with its biases) and promoting them as "the voice of their people" or some bogus "new generation" that's about to bring change.
It's even worse in places with strategic interest, where e.g the government puts obstacles to foreign corporations to grab resources on the cheap or prevents foreign diplomatic influence in the region, in which case there are lots of media, "NGO"s and such sponsored by foreign powers (a modern-day "radio free europe" affair), and the foreign media gets their "facts" and opinions from them and pretend they reflect the country at question, its interests and what the majority of the population believes. A lot of times some opposition party is sponsored too, and played big, even if it's supported only by a small minority.
Nothing wrong with it, but why not avoid the negative aspects of it? Why not fostering your own culture?
P. S. Mine failed me either so I know what I'm talking about.
"You should not blame the west, you should become the west".
The persians held onto their obsession with religious leaders and sharia courts well after the vast majority of the middle east moved on. Even during Ottoman muslim rule where sharia and strictly religious leaders were semi-tolerated there was very little compromise in Iran.
I'm not saying America was right, I'm against intervention, but Iran was hardly on-course to anything except a repeat of their despots that ruled for thousands of years. Their one western-friendly leader was just a minor short-lived detour in their very long history of authoritarianism.
http://www.amazon.com/Islam-Without-Allah-Religious-External...
This "Iran has been this way" bullshit is the same nonsense I called out in a previous article about how Hezbollah is some Iranian cleric + Syrian Asad backdoor meeting became a movement BS.
Iran's history is more complex than that.
TL;DR Iran was not Shi'a, it became Shi'a, for political and politicized reasons, and was racheted up and down over the last few centuries and the authoritarian isolationism is a product of that now.
So maybe I am wrong, but what do you base this on?
(There are many books on this topic, not just this one, I just know even this one was translated to Arabic by a reputable publisher; more factual academic works exist and this is the modern Western analysis of Iran coming from when I was in school 5-10 years back in these BS Arab/regional courses, and Iran is lumped in.)
There were moments of greatness in Persian history no doubt, and even Afghanistan became a Persian cultural center. But the later history, post middle ages set a pretty strong pattern that hasnt seemed to have changed.
I'm planning to read more on the subject, particularily a book about the history of Shia [2]. I'm not calling myself a total expert on the subject. I'm open to be convinced otherwise...
[1] http://www.amazon.com/History-Middle-East-Fourth/dp/01431219...
[2] http://www.amazon.com/Shia-Revival-Conflicts-within-Future-e...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vali_Nasr
I am never quite sure if I like him, because of his seemingly packaged for Western consumption views of Iran in his books.
But then again, I am hardly an expert, and hardly Iranian. I just think Iran transitioned in and out of phases, and its interaction culturally with the Abbasid Empire at one point and wars fought in the region makes me see them differently. My interpretation is probably just biased.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat...
The great tragedy of modern society.
You'll effectively ruin your life, next gen life, probably more. You survived but you died inside, like a zombie apocalypse.
Play with the graphs a bit here. The inflation rate peak at ~45% in summer 2013. Assuming 20% inflation rate, over just 5 years you lose ~60% of your buying power. Your $10 turns into ~$4. That is why they have to be concerned with economics, just eating and having a heater costs to much. Look at history, almost every revolution starts with a famine or food crisis. Why? Well, when the only thing you have to bet is your life (and that looses value quickly) then you will only make large bets, like toppling the kings.
Here's my take from interacting with Iranians(ones that grew up in Iran or maybe didn't go to college in the US): they have a chip on their shoulder about western influence and a scarily misogynistic stance( note though, they are, by and large, not religious). Sure, they dress like westerner/hipsters but they still have a weird mix of superiority/inferiority complex.
Am I saying Iranian people are bad/evil? No. I am saying that being brainwashed from a young age, being taught to think and act a certain way doesn't change overnight or even a generation. This generation is, if they are anything more than acting out the normal teenager rebelliousness, going to be the same as the last in all aspects that matter.
And, acting like this isn't the case isn't going to make the problem go away.
Also, since when is being westernized normal?
You are either western or you are "mumbo-jumbo" aboriginal wildling. There is no third way.
"Westernized" is denigrating btw. What you should be is 'civilized'. We've got only one civilization worth its name today.
Now, being civilized is different than being westernized.
Why? Because roots are important and the melting pot of globalization needs to melt more than one direction and in more facets than just cuisine :)
Oh yeah, what "is the one civilization worth its name today"?
Regardless, enlightenment is not a function of downvotes or upvotes[0]. It's definitely not thinking everyone is equal/good/civilized/uncivilized/whatever: that's political correctness.
[0] I bet most of the downvoters haven't interacted in any way with cultures other than their own. They've maybe met a few american-iranian kids and decided that's a close enough approximation of actual Iranians. It's not.
By the way I think that not having family/children is an ultimate way to bring vengeance to their parents who failed them. They want grandchildren but they're not getting any. Too bad.
If you don't eagerly feel that you are bringing children to a good healthy society: don't.